Two Week Honeymoon Itinerary for Costa Rica
This Two Week Honeymoon Itinerary for Costa Rica provides an overview of the best things to do and explore while in Costa Rica. It also includes how to get there, when to visit, where to stay, and how to get around.
I just got back from Costa Rica with my husband, Jason! We went to Costa Rica on a last-minute trip for our honeymoon. Planning a wedding and honeymoon during COVID-19 can be very stressful (as many of you know). However, Jason and I got very lucky to be able to have our wedding and celebrate with our closest friends and family. Then, we headed out on our honeymoon for some great relaxation and exploring. We were so excited to enjoy the Arenal hot springs, remote beaches, and misty cloud forest in Monteverde. Read below to see details about our trip and my tips for visiting Costa Rica.
Overview
How to Get There:
There are 2 main international airports in Costa Rica. The main one is in the capital city, San Jose. The other is the growing city of Liberia (located in the Guanacaste Region). Depending on what part of Costa Rica you’re visiting and where you’re traveling from, you will want to choose which airport is best for you. For Jason and I, we decided Liberia was best since we were visiting the Guanacaste region (the northwest part) of Costa Rica.
When to Visit:
Costa Rica has 2 seasons – the rainy season and the dry season. We did not plan our trip based on the best timing of the seasons but instead planned to go here since it was one of the few open countries for travel without any restrictions during COVID during September 2021. September is during the rainy season and there are pros and cons to visiting then.
Pros: everything is so green and luscious!!, areas are typically less crowded, on most days it’s sunny up until about 2 pm which is when it POURS, and of course dancing in the rain.
Cons: beach days are less desirable since it’s cloudy/rainy, there is an increased chance of roads getting flooded, and you will need to use your raincoat. After talking to some of the locals during our trip, we learned October is the worst month to visit of the rainy season. The best months are December – February. I must say, September was pretty great for us!!
Where to Stay:
I always recommend checking out the best Airbnb’s in the area you’re staying. We got very lucky and booked a few AMAZING Airbnb last minute. We also stayed at a couple of resorts, including my favorite resort I’ve ever stayed at (the first place listed below). Here were our favorite places:
- Tabacon Resort and hot springs near the Arenal Volcano
- Nalu Nosara Airbnb with a private pool villa and has a dreamy boho modern design!
- Refugio Verde Airbnb in Monteverde, which has an indoor jacuzzi
How to Get Around:
I recommend booking a larger 4WD rental car through Adobe Rental Cars. Many of the roads in Costa Rica are unpaved with deep potholes. We didn’t know before we went and rented a 2WD car. It was doable, but we were jealous of all the 4WD cars as we drove through the potholes. Having a larger 4WD car is nice to give you the ability to get through the roads and also make these drives more bearable. Adobe Rental Cars were very easy to book online and had no hidden insurance fees (or any other hidden fees), which can be a concern when renting a car in Costa Rica. The Blog, TwoWeeksInCostaRica provides a discount link that we found super helpful. This blog also helped us learn which routes to take when driving from place to place. I recommend researching your route in advance! Jason and I had to drive 3 extra hours because of a flooded river on our drive from Tamarindo to Nosara…and a LOT of that time was NOT paved.
Two Week Honeymoon Itinerary for Costa Rica Overview
Liberia (1 night)
Arenal (3 nights)
Playa Conchal (2 nights)
Tamarindo (3 nights)
Nosara (2 nights)
Monteverde (3 nights)
Liberia (1 night)
Liberia (1 night)
Jason and I booked a last-minute trip a last-minute honeymoon to Costa Rica. We were supposed to fly to French Polynesia when we realized a week out that French Polynesia was increasing its restrictions for Covid. This is our second time attempting to go to French Polynesia. The first time was right before Covid started in the country completely shut its borders. We wanted to go there when the country’s open and it’s in full operation…so we decided to cancel our trip and postpone until our first anniversary (not a bad thing to look forward to, right?!).
With that and Jason‘s back injury, we wanted to make sure he was OK to fly so we waited until after our wedding to book our honeymoon. So two days before our scheduled departure date (for when originally planned to leave for our honeymoon), we decided to book flights to Costa Rica.
With some help from our close friends who had recently been to Costa Rica, we went ahead and booked flights round-trip from LAX into Liberia. We had 16 days there and decided to book our first few days of our vacation Tabacon resort, then a few more at the Westin in Playa Conchal. That covered our first week but other than that we didn’t book anything else for a trip (besides our rental car). We filled out the forms required to enter Costa Rica.
We were super happy to be able to go on a honeymoon because we were worried that with Jason’s back injury and with Covid increasing with the Delta variant that we weren’t gonna be able to go anywhere. So with our flights booked, we were super stoked and before we knew it, we hopped on our direct flight and headed south!
We landed in Liberia got all settled and we decided to stay the night at the Hilton right there at the Liberia Airport. The next morning, we scheduled Adobe Rental cars to drop the rental car at our hotel (I highly recommend doing this!). Once we got settled in our car, we hit the road for Arenal!
Arenal (3 nights)
Along the drive from Liberia to Arenal, we stopped a couple of times along the way to see some waterfalls. The first waterfall we went to was Catarata llanos de Cortez. This waterfall was a quick hike down through the jungle to the water. You can swim here or just hang out on the beach. The second waterfall, Rio Celeste, was a longer hike and you can’t swim but it had gorgeous blue water. For both, I’d recommend going early to avoid the crowds. We went early and it was very uncrowded and a beautiful experience.
After that, we grabbed lunch at Rio Celeste. I had the famous Costa Rican dish, Casado, with chicken, beans, and rice. it was delicious. Since it was the rainy season, it did happen to torrential downpour during our lunch. Luckily we were protected under a roof. It was such a refreshing thing to experience and was perfect timing. As we finished our lunch, the rain stopped and we headed along the road to our final stop for the day Tabacon resort.
We got to Tabacon and immediately fell into a much-needed relaxation mode. We booked a package called the passion package where we stayed for three nights and four days. This package included a 7-course private dinner, an excursion of your choice private, an 80-minute couples massage, breakfast in bed one morning, and unlimited access to the Hot Springs.
We cannot recommend this resort enough! It is the best resort we’ve ever stayed at and is the epitome of luxury.
For our excursion, we ended up doing the sloth and birds tour. While we would normally go for the tour that has the biggest adrenaline rush, we wanted to make sure we protected Jason’s back. We were also super excited to see the wildlife so this was the best one for us this time. We had a blast with our tour guide, Mario, and learned about all the rainforest life (fungi, frogs, sloths, monkeys, and birds). It opened our eyes to how much life there is in the rainforest.
Playa Conchal (2 nights)
We booked the all-inclusive Westin on points to see the famous beach of Playa Conchal and continue our luxury portion of our honeymoon. Here we stayed in a very spacious room, enjoyed the sunsets on the beach, relaxed in the pools, played foosball, and treated ourselves to another couple’s massage! We also saw SO MANY coatimundis running around the resort together.
Tamarindo (3 nights)
Tamarindo was a town we wanted to check out after reading ‘To Shake The Sleeping Self’ by Jedidiah Jenkins. It was a relaxed and casual town and people all over the world came here to enjoy the surf. I rented a board to try and catch some waves one day. We also went out on a boat tour with our Airbnb host to fish and snorkel (unfortunately the wave swell got the best of me this day). Then we explored the beach and enjoyed our pool! Here are some of our favorite places to eat in Tamarindo:
- NOI Bistro
- Mandarina Tropical Juice Bar
- Falafel Bar
- Nogui’s Restaurant for lunch on the beach
Nosara (2 nights)
We had quite a journey driving from Tamarindo to Nosara. It was a 2-hour drive (mostly on unpaved bumpy roads) that turned into a 5-hour drive. This happened after a heavy rain the night before and roads flooding. We, unfortunately, didn’t know the road was flooded until we had gone down a dead-end route for over an hour. Also, our first Airbnb canceled on us the day we were supposed to check in since the heavy rains damaged their roof. Luckily, we found Nalu on Airbnb as our backup and it did not disappoint! Nosara was a much smaller town than Tamarindo was. No paved roads. Everyone in bathing suits and yoga clothes and either surfing or wandering around town. We were excited to explore it and also to relax at our Airbnb. Here are some of our favorite places to eat in Nosara:
- LuvBurger – the BEST vegan burger I have ever had!!
- El Jadin – amazing avo toast and Nutella toast
- Mini Super Delicias del Mundo – a great grocery store
- Nogui’s Restaurant for lunch on the beach
Monteverde (3 nights)
We learned the hard way to check which route we took and we made sure to do our research before driving to Monteverde. Our drive was 4 hours, but it went quickly since it was all new to us. In Monteverde, we did a few different tours/excursions:
- Night Walk Tour where we saw beetles, spiders (even Hernardo the tarantula!), frogs, insects, squirrels, and kinkajous
- Don Juan Coffee, Cacao, and Sugar Cane Tour where we learned about the growing process and got to make each from scratch!
- Selvatura Adventure Park where we walked across suspension bridges high in the cloud forest and went to the sloth sanctuary
- Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve where we had a guided tour through the forest to learn about its history and the animals
I hope this Two Week Honeymoon Itinerary for Costa Rica helps plan your trip! Leave a message below or reach out on my Contact page if you have any questions!
Sounds like a great honeymoon