Travel
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you have been to Costa Rica...
Can you please recommend a place to stay, specifically one that is all-inclusive?
Also, anything fun to do there that you can recommend? Thanks so much!
Re: If you have been to Costa Rica...
I traveled to Costa Rica last year with my best friend but we didn't stay at any all-inclusives. Personally, I don't think Costa Rica is best experienced at an all-inclusive resort. If you are planning on going for at least a week, try to stay in two different areas of the country.
I have two entries in my travel blog on the trip:
La Fortuna and Arenal, Costa Rica
Nosara and Nicoya, Costa Rica
We were in Costa Rica for two weeks last summer and stayed at four properties. None of them was all-inclusive in the "lay on the beach with an umbrella drink" sense, but a couple included all of our meals and non-alcoholic drinks.
The two places we loved (that included meals) were El Silencio Lodge and Spa and Lapa Rios. Both of them rank very highly on our list of our most favorite places we've ever stayed.
I have to agree with Jen - CR is best experienced when exploring, doing tons of activities, and getting out and about. We liked that our trip involved two places where we mainly hung around the resort (the two I listed) and two more places where we could get off the property and explore.
dh and i stayed at an AI for a week and had an amazing time and did a few day trips. not for nothing-we didnt want to do adventurous stuff and driver all over the place for the whole time we were there. we wanted relaxation and sight seeing. and we got it.
it was the bavaro soemthing or other. i think the name was changed after we stayed there.
I agree with this completely. We spent very little time at the resorts since there is so much to do in the country. The areas are so distinctly different too that it's worth exploring (cloud forest, beach, volcanos, etc)
I also agree with non-AI route. We went for 8 nights back in november for a belated HM. 4 nights in La Fortuna at Tabacon Hot Springs resort.and 4 on the beach in Montezuma at Ylang Ylang Beach Resort. Tours are readily avail from the hotel desk and on line. I used a combination of recs from TK posts. One mentioned reduced rates avail through Pura Vida Eh? website for the same companies providing the actual service that I wanted. Took a fantastick class 3-4 whitewater rafting trip on Rio Toro (Desafio tour company). Also did combo tour of hanging bridges, la fortuna waterfall, and volcano NP through Anywhere Costa Rica. Used Anywhere Costa rica for our transportation too - some private and some shared. At the beach we scheduled our tours through the hotel - horseback ride to the waterfalls that fall into the ocean - really recommend and a snorkel tour - ok but not that great.
Both hotels had smal refrigerators and we had our private driver stop at the grocery so we could buy snacks and liquior to make our own drinks.
I will also back up the non-AI for Costa Rica. We went for our honeymoon in November and stayed at two resorts. Both resorts had only 20-25 rooms and the atmosphere was amazing. We were within steps of the beach and ocean everywhere we went in the resort, as opposed to the larger AI's down the road that were more spread out and on hills, etc.
And I will also second that we were gone for excursions during the day every day, so we personally wouldn't have got our moneys worth for an AI. Our average travel time for these excursions was around an hour each way, so we were gone for the majority of the day. However, the resorts we stayed at had 5 star food and we were able to charge everything to our room so we only paid one bill at the end.
We stayed at Hotel Playa Hermosa (my favorite) www.hotelplayahermosa.com
And Sugar Beach Hotel www.sugar-beach.com
I will say I actually like the food and view better at Sugar Beach, but it was more secluded than Playa Hermosa and the actual beach was more rocky. Both had private to semi-private beaches. I'm glad we stayed at the two to get a little taste of both.
As far as things to do, I forgot to add that we went on two sunset cruises (which I think you MUST do), went on a river cruise (which was meh), and went snorkeling.
We went on two sunset cruises because we loved the first one so much. The first one was on a smaller boat that held around 10 people. The second was on a larger boat that held around 20-30 and also had snorkeling. Both were nice in their own way, but if you're wanting to do a sunset cruise and snorkel, I would try to find one that does both. The second (larger) cruise was out of Playa Flamingo and The Westin sends all of their customers there.