Family Bliss on the Go to Costa Rica

Our Costa Rica trip was timed for February 2025 to escape our cold Pittsburgh winter. We went for a total of one week, and it was my husband and I, our two sons (then 9yo and 6yo), my husband's oldest son (then 21yo) and his wife and son (then 2yo). My husband and I had gone years prior for our honeymoon, but it was a very different experiences travelling with our big group including 3 kids. Costa Rica is an AMAZING destination, and I strongly strongly recommend it for families. I don't think most people know about it or think about it, but it's beautiful and adventurous and a must-do if your kids love wildlife and animals.

We started out by driving down to DC because we've learned over the years that sometimes international travel can be less expensive if we leave from NYC or DC rather than Pittsburgh. This is worth considering for your trips and pricing out- sometimes it's not a huge savings and not worth the hassle, but sometimes it's been HUGE for us. When we arrived in Costa Rica, we got our rental car and started the drive toward Monteverde. I will say that Costa Rica driving can be tough....first of all, what was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive was more than 5 hours because of traffic and one-lane roads. Second of all, a lot of the roads are gravel or windy or on the side of cliffs. It's not for the faint of heart, but I'm a bit of a passenger princess, so I enjoy the rides! We drove to Monteverde, took in some beautifiul views, ate yummy casados (a standard Costa Rican meal with beans, rice, plantains, a salad or veggies, and a choice of protein), and checked into our AirBNB to relax and play some card games together before bed.

Our first full day included a Natural History Tour at Curi Cancha Reserve for the beginning of the day. We enjoyed a free coffee while we waited for the guide and saw coatis (kind of like raccoons) and agouti (small rodents). Most of the morning hike was bird watching, including the emerald toucanet, great curassow, golden browed chlorophonias, hummingbirds, woodcreepers, and the majestic resplendent quetzal. The guide had a spotting scope so we could see the birds even closer and take beautiful pictures.

Afterwards, we had lunch in a restaurant in a treehuse.

In the evening, we went to the Wildlife Refuge Monteverde for a private night hike. Our first sighting was a pale billed woodpecker right in front of us near the entrance. Then we came across a path of leaf cutter ants- by the end of this journey, the kids were VERY knowledgeable about these amazing little creatures! Our guide spotted a baby side stripe palm pit viper before seeing the larger green viper. We also saw a glass frog, a bunch of bugs, and a sleepy keel-billed toucan. The kids really enjoyed doing the night hike- it felt very adventurous to be out late and searching for animals in the dark with headlights!

Our next day, we left the cloud forests of Monteverde and drove 3.5 hours down the coast to Quepos. Fortunately, we didn't have the same experience with traffic as the first day! We spotted crocodiles from our van, so we had an impromptu pull-over to walk across a bridge and look. I'm a very controlled and planning person, as I'm sure you can tell, but vacations are also about embracing spontaneity a bit. So, when you see crocodiles, you gotta stop! Once we checked into our bungalow, we headed to Manuel Antonio National Park for some beach time. Pro tip: you cannot take ANY food or drinks or anything in to the park with you, so don't try or you'll have to toss them! In all fairness, it's for good reason. If you have food, the monkeys will basically attack you to steal it, and it's not healthy for them! There's a food place in the park where you can buy food, although the wait was really long and they were out of half of the options when we went. Perhaps try to eat right before going to the park if you can!

Along the trail from the entrance to the beach, we spotted several red land crabs, a black spiny-tailed iguana, and a whiptail lizard. From the beach, we saw several white-faced capuchin monkeys, another iguana, more crabs, and a 3-toed sloth with her baby. On the way back, several squirrel monkeys scurried along the trees above our heads. Right as we were leaving the park, we bought pipa fria (fresh coconut water- straw put right into a coconut) from a vendor. Yum!

Now for the interesting part of the trip...when we got back to the bungalow to unpack, I found a scorpion crawling out of my bookbag! I screamed, and my husband ran out to usher it outside for me. We shook out every other bag to be certain, researched online and found it wasn't venemous, and tried to calm down a bit! I may have had a near heart attack, but it's still one of my son's favorite stories to tell people almost two years later! That night, we had a sunset dinner at El Avion, which is an airplane restaurant that was on the site of our place (Hotel Costa Verde).

Day 3: At breakfast at the Hotel Costa Verde, you can watch mischievous capuchins steal food off of some of the patrons plates. The kids got a huge kick out of this! We cooled off midday with a dip in the pool there, while a large iguana sunbathed nearby. We spied a massive sloth seriously within touching reach (not that we did- please always respect wildlife!), then headed off for an adventure ziplining with our two boys. My youngest son (then 6yo) was scared and wanted to stop after the first one, but after forcing himself to do a couple more, he was a pro and loved it by the end! The tour company was nice because they had someone go along with the boys on some lines and until they were more comfortable. There were also several hanging bridges along the way, and we finished with rappelling down.

Day 4: We climbed over a mile up an extremely steep mountain with a guide from Pacific Journeys. Along the way, we saw a laughing falcon, two black mandible toucans, another sloth, and two miserable children! Seriously, this was an intense work out and our kids were pooped! But when we reached the top of the mountain where we were going to be camping for the night- just us and our one guide on top of the mountain all by ourselves!- the moods completely shifted. We hiked a bit more to the Diamante Waterfall, ate meals made for us by the guide in the makeshift campsite kitchen, and settled into our tents. It was an absolutely unexplainable and amazing feeling to be up there all alone, and the sights were gorgeous.

Day 5: After a delicious breakfast cooked by our guide on the mountain, we hiked back down the mountain- much easier than the way up that's for sure! Then we joined back up with the other part of the family (the two 21yos and their 2yo son...they couldn't do the mountain with the kiddo obviously), then headed to our final place to stay- Las Vueltas Lodge with the Seeyle family. This is a homestay/farmstay, where we stayed in a separate cabin/house on the same property as the rest of the family. The family is fascinating and shared a lot of their family stories, such as what brought them to Costa Rica from the US many years ago. We then had a farm tour, helped complete some morning chores (such as milking cows and picking eggs from the chicken coop), and the kids learned a lot about sustainable and eco-friendly farming. After chores were done, we ate a delicious breakfast feast and then took part in a cooking class, where our kids learned how to make three types of bread (regular loaves, cheese and herb rolls, and cinnamon rolls).

On our last day in Costa Rica, we started it off with another delicious breakfast from the family. We then trekked through the forest with one of the family members and his sons, who were excellent tour guides. Our boys enjoyed climbing trees with the children who were close to their age and learning about their lives in Costa Rica. As we left, almost the entire large family was standing on the porch waving goodbye to us. I strongly recommend staying with them if possible! Our kids learned a lot, saw how it is to live a different type of life or in a different culture, and it was also a relaxing and slow-paced end to our vacation.