Family Vacation to Costa Rica
A few weeks back we took a magical family vacation to Costa Rica. Kyle and I had been there before, our first trip together, back in 2010. When deciding where to travel this year we knew we wanted to go somewhere warm and affordable. We considered other Central American Countries, Caribbean and Mexico. We had the best time our first trip to Costa Rica and found flights that were too good to pass up, so we booked! We choose Playa Hermosa mostly because the beach reviews on Trip Advisor, as well as the proximity to the airport (LIR).
We stayed at Club Condovac. It too was a great deal and lovely for the money and perfect for our needs. They had three pools, including a kiddie pool, a restaurant on the grounds, located right on the beach. Each room has a kitchen and they also have a little store with a small food section, souvieners, wine and beer.
If you haven't been to Costa Rica, you may not know that they are all about the excursions. They cater to the tourists that want to do all the country has to offer, beaches, rainforest, volcanos and more. Most hotels have on premise tour guides that schedule and even lead day trips to any of these areas. Obviously traveling with a 3 year old limits what we can do, so when I found a river boat tour that offered views of animals and very little walking, I signed us up. We took the 45 minute ride from our hotel to Palo Verde National Park. We hopped on a personal river boat and took a cruise with monkey, crocodile and lots of bird sightings.
Most of our time was spent at the pool, the beach and enjoying the sunsets.
One of my absolute favorite parts of the trip was watching Oliver in the ocean. On the first day he decided that he was afraid of the waves. He refused to even dip his toe in the water. It took two days of sitting on the beach watching before he decided that he wanted to partake in the fun. I watched his little brain conquer his fear. At one point he repeated my affirmations to himself, "I got this," and ran into the water. Eventually he was so brave we had to hold him back. It was such a proud mommy moment and so fun to watch.
The hotel had a photographer that walked around capturing amazing moments that you could purchase later. I thought this was such a brilliant idea and was happy to fork over $30 for ten darling paparazzi images.
My review of the trip was mostly glowing. Our first trip to Costa Rica we stayed a little further south, also on the Pacific coast, in a town called Tamarindo. Club Condovac was a nicer place than we stayed last time, but Playa Hermosa was very sleepy. Obviously we weren't hitting the town traveling with Oliver and all, but we would have liked a few additional resturant options.