We stayed at Hotel Pasatiempo, which is located a little off the busy main road but still in walking distance of the beach. The hotel has several bungalows, a lovely pool, it serves à la carte breakfast and, of course, you can burrow surf boards. It was nice to have the pool because Tamarindo is really more of a surf than a tan and swim beach. There are a couple of great restaurants in Tamarindo, one of which you definitely shouldn’t miss: Panga’s Beach Club has a very special atmosphere at night – lampions and campfire included – and the food is amazing. While my boyfriend enjoyed surf and turf (which was grilled on a hot stone on the table) I went for the avocado soup and quinoa salad, and a lemon cheesecake for dessert.

From Tamarindo we drove to Santa Teresa and from there to Montezuma, on the Eastern Nicoya Peninsula. (Just a note on driving to Santa Teresa from Tamarindo: don’t drive across the country, take the long road along the coast. The dusty country road we took had no signs but a lot of rocks and potholes and it took us right through (!) several running rivers. We were relieved we eventually found our destination.)

Compared to Tamarindo, Montezuma is very small and quiet and you can tell that it attracts a very different type of tourist (backpackers and yogis instead of families and groups of surfers). We stayed at Ylang Ylang Beach Resort, which you cannot reach by car because it is located up the beach from Montezuma town. You park your rental car in town and the hotel’s Landrover pickup-service takes you to Ylang Ylang. Our booking including breakfast and dinner, which was great because there were a lot of raw and vegan options on the menu, too (and everything was very good!).

Again the waves were too strong for swimming, but we relaxed on the beach and by the pool, hiked to the Montezuma waterfalls (a very kind dog led the way), we walked to the beautiful, hidden nature reserve along the beach and went on a snorkeling boat trip to Tortuga island (we saw a lot of colourful fish in the ocean, had lunch on the island and we passed a group of dolphins on our way back to Montezuma!). A great way to end our holiday in Costa Rica!

Well, technically speaking, it wasn’t the end of the holiday because we had one more night before flying back. Since we knew that driving from A to B could take a while in Costa Rica (plus we had to take a ferry), we decided to spend our last night in San José, close to the airport. Luckily we chose the right hotel to stay in – the perfect place to relax before the long flight: Hotel Grano de Oro.

It felt a little strange at first to return from beach front bungalows with open air bathrooms, bikinis and kaftans and 24/7 sandy feet to closed rooms and city-dressing. But the hotel seemed like the ideal stopover between beach life and home. Grano de Oro has a beautiful, classic atmosphere with buzzing wooden fans and carpeted floors, very attentive staff, a very fine courtyard restaurant and bar and a rooftop jacuzzi. We washed off the sand, enjoyed a last Costa Rican breakfast and boarded our plane well-rested and happy.

Unfortunately there were no direct flights from Hamburg to San José, Costa Rica, so we took a train to Berlin and flew from there via Madrid. We only had one hour between the flights and actually missed our connecting flight in Madrid because the flight from Berlin was delayed. We couldn’t continue our journey until the next day and spent the evening exploring Madrid. When we eventually got to Costa Rica our plane couldn’t land in San José at first, because of heavy winds, so we had to fly to another airport and wait for the weather to change before we – finally – landed in San José. By the time we got to pick up our rental car it was already dark. (The fact that it got dark around 5:45 pm every day was the only thing that really annoyed me in Costa Rica).

We still had a bit of a journey ahead of us and due to the unforeseen delays we had to drive in the dark – not as planned and I would not recommend this.  Most of the roads in Costa Rica are not easy to drive, either because they are very narrow or steep or rocky or all of this at once. Big potholes are also very common as soon as you leave the concreted roads.

When we made it to our first stop, Manuel Antonio, and had found our hotel, we headed straight to our room and fell into bed dead tired. When I woke up at 5 am (due to jet lag and the loud noises of the howler monkeys) and I opened the curtains to our balcony, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Costa Rica greeted us with the above view onto Manuel Antonio national park. Now that’s a room with a view!

… not just the room, actually. We stayed at Hotel La Mariposa and no matter where you are – in your room, in the restaurant, in the infinity pool, at the pool bar, … – you always have the most amazing view. The hotel has a 360 degree view overlooking the beautiful beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park, the jungle, the Pacific ocean and the coast line. It was stunning! When we watched the picture-perfect tropical sunset while sipping Margaritas I almost could not believe it was real.

After breakfast on our first day we headed straight to the beach – and got sunburned. On our second day we joined a guided tour around the National Park. When I walked around the Manuel Antonio area the first word that sprang to my mind was “lush”. Huge pink blossoms, enormous bright blue butterflies, mangos on the trees, green plants and trees everywhere … And then there were the birds, bats, monkeys, sloths, reptiles, raccoons and all the other animals we got to see in the jungle (with more than a little help from our guide). Well, we saw the first sloth when we were having lunch in a restaurant and the sloth was just chilling in a  nearby tree. But it was great to learn a lot about the animals during the tour around the park. Also, the beaches within the park are incredibly beautiful with the most pristine sand and water. You can only reach them when you pay entrance to the park and you are not allowed to take any packaged food, drinks, etc., which helps to keep them clean.

After three nights we packed our bags and headed to a completely different part of Costa Rica. More about this in my next blog post.