Traveling to Costa Rica With Kids

Costa Rica! What an adventure. Before traveling there we did not know what to expect. We did some research and started to plan out our trip and boy was it worth it.

After hours and hours of layovers we finally made it to San José. From the airport we went directly to rent a car. The process was painless and were very happy that they did have car seats for both our kids (a 5 and 1 year old). We spent the night in San José since it was late and woke up early to drive to Arenal Volcano, around 90 km northwest of San José, in the province of Alajuela. We stayed at Arenal Kioro which had an amazing view of the Arenal Volcano. The hotel besides having an incredible view it had private thermal water pools, kid friendly pools and amazing and spacious rooms. The kids had so much fun in the pools and just walking around and seeing all the different animals and plants.

While we where there we were told that there was a national park close by called Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park so we went and wow, it was beautiful, we were able to walk through the beauty of the natural forest sanctuary. The hanging bridges were beyond amazing, my son still talks about it til’ this day. We saw waterfalls, animals, and insects. We truly enjoyed this. It was around a 2 hour walk, we took our time to stop, take pictures, etc… There are other natural attractions there that we didn’t get to do because of the weather, but we would totally recommend.

The next day we headed to Playa Herradura in Jaco, a 2 hour drive that ended up being a 5 hour drive, there was heavy rain and with the one lane roads, yikes! that was rough but the kids slept for the most part so yay Anyways, we stayed at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort ,the hotel was great, full of activities for the kids. They had pancake and cookie decoration stations, a kids club house, a kids playground and pool, nightly movie watching from the pool and a kids golf course. Not the mention the beach. We were very pleased with this hotel, everyone was very nice and friendly.

On our last day we drove to Manuel Antonio National Park. This place surpassed our expectations. Not only was it beautiful but it was extremely clean. The beaches were pristine. The monkeys almost stole my son’s hat and a raccoon tried to take my bag while we were laying on the beach so BEWARE! haha. We also saw crabs, sloths hanging from the trees, birds, and a deer! yes a deer!! who knew deers lived in the jungle too?

To sum up this entire trip was great. The roads are easy to drive in, the food is good, everyone is very nice and friendly and we all had an amazing time. We would definitely recommend going there with kids! #PuraVida

If you have any questions feel free to comment down below.