How to Enjoy Costa Rica with Your family: The Best Family Travel Itinerary!

Costa Rica was my and my family home for 4 years, Guanacaste to be more specific. It is a compact destination with a numerous natural attractions, a broad selection of exciting sights, scenery, and activities.

On a trip you can visit Costa Rica and explore the rainforests, cloud forests, active volcanoes and along miles of unique and amazing beaches.

I had the pleasure to assist a wonderful family from Argentina. I am not going to mention the name for privacy reason. They were mom, dad and 7 children travelling. The itinerary we tailored together took in consideration the fact to move and travel with many children.

The following itinerary is a specific vacation that I arranged combining hotels and villa rentals for a 35 days of Pura Vida Experience. I suggested to rent a car that was an excellent option to easily getting around Costa Rica.

They arrived in San José and stayed overnight in San José at the Ramada Herradura (about 11 miles from the International airport San Juan Santa Maria SJO). They spent three days in San José. They had the opportunity to visit the capital of Costa Rica. The Butterfly garden Spirogyra, the INBio Park, the National Museum, National centre of Art and Culture where among the places they did not miss to visit. Restaurants like the Café Mundo, La Cocina de Lenà are great to taste the Costa Rican local cuisine.

They left San José on the fourth day and went to Tortuguero and they stayed at the Pachira Lodge. They left that rental car at a secure parking lot and took a boat at Siquirres (El Ceibo Restaurant in Guapiles is the place where to leave the car). You will love the Tortuguero National Park, the perfect ground for the Green Sea Turtle, popular for the high rainforests and the spectacular beaches, including the canals where you can spot crocodiles. What makes this place a special and visited one is for sure the diverse monkey, fish and bird species. 

The wildlife here is rich and diverse with unusually large populations of monkeys, birds and fish. There is a nice canopy at La Primera Bòveda that takes from tree to tree very very fascinating. After three nights in Tortuguero they stayed for one night at the Peace Lodge leaving the Tortuguero area.

You can choose to change it but we suggested and arranged a beautiful week stay in the Manuel Antonio area for the next part of their journey. They stayed at Villa Carolina in Quepos, a large villa near the Manuel Antonio amazing beaches. Manuel Antonio has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world and that’s not just our opinion. Playa Espadilla has been so named by countless publications. They of course spent the morning exploring Manuel Antonio National Park, to see the white-faced monkeys, sloths, and other critters in this picturesque park. This park is perfect for families cause it has fairly flat terrain and easy-to-spot wildlife. In the Manuel Antonio area you can choose from all kinds of activities, including ATV, zip-lining, white-water rafting, mangrove, kayaking, parasailing, horseback riding, jet skiing, sport fishing, sunset cruises, whale watching and surfing.

After spending a wonderful week in Manuel Antonio, the next destination was Arenal and there we booked at the Kioro http://www.hotelarenalkioro.com, very unique hotel in that area. The retreat to the mountains and visit Costa Rica’s famous volcano is a great place where to explore the simple Tico lifestyle. Arsenal is one Costa Rica’s five active volcanoes. In its heyday, it spewed bright orange lava on a near daily basis. Since 2010 the activity has slowed…matter of fact the many times I went during my time in Costa Rica I have never seen its activity :(. For the best view you should hit the trails within Arenal National Park. You should not miss La Fortuna Waterfall just outside of town, you’ll find a stunning waterfall that plummets 70 meters into a deep pool, perfect for swimming. http://www.arenal.net/tour/horseback-ride-to-la-fortuna-waterfall/A horseback ride to the La Fortuna waterfall is an exciting morning or afternoon activity. As you enjoy a pleasant ride through both pastures and rainforest, keep your eyes peeled for toucans, monkeys and other creatures. The ride to the falls takes about an hour.

Day 19 Santa Teresa A relaxing Villa week stay right on the beaches of Santa Teresa and Mal Pais. They chose a beautiful villa right on the beach so the children could play and took surfing lessons.

Day 28 We arranged a one week stay at Villa Augustine within Reserva Conchal. Playa Conchal is one of the best beaches in the Guanacaste area and perfect for a family with 7 children. Snorkeling, horseback riding, ATV tours, fishing, tennis, golf and RELAX!

Liberia is 45 minutes drive from Reserva Conchal. There are fantastic one day tour you can do staying at Reserva Conchal like visiting the Zoo Africa in Liberia or exploring the Tenorio or the hiking at the famous Rincon de la Vieja Park. During this time of the year the sun sets perfectly at Playa Flamingo.

After staying a wonderful week in Playa Conchal the beautiful family left on day thirty-five heading San José where they stayed the last night there before leaving for Argentina.

This itinerary was perfect for them. We left the Playa Ballena and the very south part of Costa Rica just because they chose to stay in remote areas but not to remote since they were travelling with seven children. The last couple of years Uvita has become more reachable and considering the fact that is still very remote and natural the roads are much better. Costa Rica is a great place where to bring your children at least once in their life time they get in contact with the essence of life. Couple of things you should consider when travelling in Costa Rica. Try not to drive at night and avoid the Rainy Season if you like to visit the Caribbean side.

You might decide to use part of this itinerary or you can always contact me at info@hauteretreats.com and I will be happy to answer all your questions.

I love to hear from you and you are welcome to drop a comment below!!

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