Hello fellow wanderers!
Have you been to Costa Rica? If not, are you considering going? We have been twice and will provide you with all of the tips and information necessary for a successful, safe and amazing trip to the beautiful country of CR! Pura Vida!
Please check out our YouTube videos of our CR vacation. Our Channel is Wandered Off or click on the link via our website.
First off, we stayed both times in our timeshare through RCI - 7 nights each stay. Our first stay was in Quepos on the South end of the Pacific Ocean side of Costa Rica back in June of 2012. Our condo was in the middle of nowhere and we tried to rent a car but ended up backing out when we got there. More to come on that later. This location was not all-inclusive but the week we spent in Quepos was amazing (white water rafting, zip lining, trip to Jaco, day in Manuel Antonio National Park) and the local food was excellent. We flew into San Jose and ended up taking a cab down to Quepos.
Second time, we stayed at Villas Sol through RCI in November 2023. This "all-inclusive resort" is located in Playa Hermosa in the Guanacaste Region of Costa Rica. This region is on the Northern Pacific Ocean side of CR and is considered a "dry" tropical forest.
Costa Rica seasons: Wet and Dry. Their wet season is typically June through November and the rest of the year being their dry season. CR is typically less expensive to visit during the wet season. But keep in mind, CR is mostly a rain forest, so you are probably going to get rained on no matter what time of the year it is. It is always warm rain, and you just have to embrace it with the beauty of the country. Our first stay was in the middle of June 2012, and we actually lucked out and didn't have much rain during the day, but it stormed and poured every single night we were there. This last November 2023, we stayed the first week of the month and November is a transition month from wet to dry. Our weather app literally showed rain all day every day for the week we were there. But we only got rained on a few times for a short amount of time. Besides, when you are in the pool, what is a little rain?
Ok, more about our recent stay. Villas Sol is a timeshare community with full time residents and a ton of vacation rentals and hotel rooms. I exchanged my points with RCI for two rooms at Villas Sol and paid $299 for each room. We were required to pay the all-inclusive fee through RCI for our stay. That fee was $525 per adult. Then each room had a $30 cleaning fee for the week. We had a standard hotel type of room that had two beds, bathroom and a small patio and then a one-bedroom condo with a full kitchen, bathroom and large patio overlooking the ocean. Below are pics of the one-bedroom condo and view from that patio. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pics of the rooms, but I do have great video of both of them on YouTube.
More about Villas Sol: Please keep in mind that all-inclusive is used loosely when it comes to a timeshare community. This is not a Sandals or Dreams resort, so level set your expectations now. We had access to a big buffet daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They do close in-between to flip the food so plan according. There is also a snack shack at the main pool with a bar. The snack shack had pizza, nachos, burgers and dogs. Those are your two only options for food and the food can become monotonous even though they try to have a theme for dinner nightly. The buffet is your typical CR provisions. Fruits, rice, beans, plantains and meat. Was it worth the $525, we think so. This also includes drinks.
Tip: Tip your bartender a couple US dollars or drop a $5 in the jar, pretty soon your drinks will be too stiff to sip.
Tip: There is a souvenir shop at Villas Sol where you can by snacks. There is also a market down at the beach with basic groceries, a 10-minute walk or quick shuttle ride.
You cannot beat the views from the buffet. We had monkeys, several birds and baby racoons visit us while eating. It was quite an experience.
Villas Sol has two pools and a hot tub. The main pool has the swim up bar with snack shack and hot tub is below that area accessible by a path or stairs. The other pool is located by the buffet with bar that is all included, however, there is a bar located at this pool area that is not included, you pay for those drinks.
The main pool had all of the entertainment such as disco parties, pool volleyball, crafts for the kids and many more options with a daily list of activities. We played volleyball and did yoga while we were hanging out in the resort. The pools are heated and kept clean daily.
The main pool with bar does not have a view of the ocean but the pool by the buffet does have a great view of the ocean!
Tip: Bug spray. Mosquitoes can be pesky if they like you. Bring bug spray.
Tip: Bring sun lotion. There are some shaded chairs at the main pool but otherwise, there is not much shade at all. A wide brim hat would be good too.
Tip: We never had to worry about getting a chair pool side. The shady ones tend to be claimed early in the day though.
Tip: Villas Sol will issue you a towel card which you need to return when you check out.
Now let's talk about the accessibility of Villas Sol. While we were researching this location prior to booking, the biggest complaint I saw was that this resort sits on a steep hill and is difficult to walk. Now that we have been there, I will agree with those statements if you are not physically capable of walking up and down hills or steps. They do have a shuttle that runs constantly around the resort and to the beach and town which we did use a few times. I have a great video of the shuttle ride around the resort on YouTube that will give you an excellent view of the entire area. Now, we have goals to get steps in daily so for us, the hills did not bother us. Yes, the hills got tiring, but then we would hop onto a shuttle. Plus, we had to burn off all the food and drinks we were consuming. If you are not physically capable of walking up and down hills and steps, make sure you get a room that is close to a shuttle stop. Our room was located down a hill from the shuttle stop and a flight of stairs.
Villas Sol is beautiful. The views are amazing from every angle. The people were fantastic and friendly. Keep in mind, they are still recovering from the pandemic which is why there are only two restaurants, and they are short staffed so be patient. We sometimes had the same server at breakfast and then again at dinner. You are a 5–10-minute walk to the beach or a short shuttle ride. The beach has restaurants all along it and we did eat at two of them. Both were excellent and the sunsets are not to be missed.
Costa Rica tips:
- Cash. We converted $500 to CR Colons for local shopping and dining. We then had US $1 and $5 for tipping servers and tour guides. At the time, $1 was equal to about 500 Colons. Download a currency conversion App.
- WhatsApp. Download it. This is how CR communicates without using data on your phone. You will connect with tour guides and our group of 5 stayed connected via WhatsApp.
- Rent a car. Just do it. Your vacation will be better for it if you plan to get out and explore. More to come below on car rentals in CR.
- Most everyone spoke some English, but we did run into some locals who did not. Download Google Translate App! It was very helpful.
- Restaurants include a 13% tax and a 10% tip on your bill automatically. You are not allowed to add an additional tip onto the bill if you pay by credit card. So have some additional cash to properly tip your server above the 10% they add. We never had bad service in CR.
- Each room comes with a safe. We kept our extra cash and passports in the safe along with jewelry if we didn't wear it.
- If you do not like wildlife, do not go to Costa Rica. Villas Sol had baby racoons in the restaurant which we thought were super cute. Some people complained. We had monkeys in the resort. Cats lived on our patio and wanted in for food and water. We had full size raccoons trying to steel items off of our balcony. Birds would try and dive bomb our plates in the buffet. Raccoons were rummaging the trash cans. You are outside in their home, so if you do not like this type of experience, choose a different country to visit. We love animals and the CR experience being in a jungle.
Now, back to the car rental situation. Do your due diligence. We had booked a car in 2012 and when we got to the car rental company in San Jose, they all of a sudden wanted a $2500 deposit. We walked away in fear of never getting that money back. Then we spent $150 each way for a cab to our condo in Quepos and were stuck taking tours or a cab into town. So, this time around, we did a ton of research. We flew into Liberia for this stay and rented a car from a local company. Keep in mind, just because it says Avis, does not mean it is regulated by Avis. After a ton of research, we came across a local company in Liberia called Nativos Rent a Car. Their website is nativoscar.com and they did exactly as expected. You will want an all-wheel drive car if you plan to explore national parks on your own. CR does not have Jeeps for rent so the best you will get is an all-wheel Nissan XTrail which is what we rented for the week. Our rental rate for 7 nights was $375.84 plus full coverage insurance of $219.16 for a total of $595 for the week. They held a $300 deposit with the full coverage insurance. The less insurance you pay for, the higher your deposit will be and can go up to $2000. They released the deposit within a week of returning the car. They sent the car to pick us up at the Liberia airport and Nativos is located in Liberia proper, so about a 15-minute drive away from the airport. Very nice, small and family owned and we highly recommend them if you are visiting the Liberia area of CR. Their office is located within a hotel and just a small room. Don't worry, they are legit!
Now, let's talk about excursions! Having a car rental allowed us the freedom to do what we wanted, when we wanted and way more freedom to explore. It also saved us money being able to drive to places on our own.
The car fit all 5 of us and our luggage. It was a little tight, but doable. We saved on a shuttle to and from the hotel for each of us since we had a car.
Villas Sol has a tour desk and they emailed us their list of tours prior to our arrival. We tried to talk to someone when we did arrive but couldn't seem to get the timing right. Villas Sol tour company is Swiss Travel Costa Rica. So, we chose to book online as our vacation progressed plus, we had our own transportation. The only tour we booked prior to arrival was a day trip to Nicaragua.
One week CR itinerary:
Saturday: Arrive in Liberia. Picked up car. Stopped at Walmart for bottled water and basic necessities. Spent rest of day in Villas Sol, exploring and hanging by the pool.
Sunday: We slept in and then drove ourselves to Diamante Adventure Eco Park to tackle the Superman Zipline and see the animal sanctuary. Diamante was a 30 minute from Villas Sol and was $118 per adult for all day including Superman and a buffet lunch. I believe the admission would have been closer to $200 if you didn't drive yourself and hired a tour company to take you. Superman was awesome and the food was good. The views were amazing, and the animal Sancturary was beautiful. The photo package from ziplining was $85 and well worth it in our opinion. They got some great shots of us on Superman. They have a gift shop, bar for drinks and yes, we were rained on that afternoon. Thankfully, we had finished ziplining before it started raining. On the way back we drove through Playa del Coco to check out that town and had some fantastic coffee! Check out our video of Diamante on YouTube.
Monday: We slept in a little and then did yoga and hung out by the pool all day long. We probably drank too much once we realized if you add a couple of dollars to the tip jar, they pour way more alcohol into the drinks. We played pool volleyball, made some new friends and just relaxed.
Tuesday: We had booked an adventure hike online via leonawaterfall.com and we booked a Self-Drive Tour which just means we drove ourselves to the guide location at La Leona Waterfall Adventure Hike. We did the Private Tour for $45 each which just meant that we had a private dedicated guide just for our group of 5. This hike requires swimming to get to the La Leona Waterfall. Wear closed toes shoes as you will hike about an hour on a rugged trail with three river crossings and some bouldering and scrambling. You will then have to completely swim so you will get wet head to toe. Wear proper clothing. They provide dry bags for phones etc. and life jackets. They have lockers with a small store and small rooms for changing once you get back. We recommend this hike if you are up for it. It was fun and the falls were gorgeous! Check out our video on YouTube. Don't forget to tip your guide! They are only allowed one tour a day.
Wednesday: Chris and I left the group and went hiking in Rincon de la Vieja National Park to the La Congreja Waterfall. We drove ourselves which took about an hour each way. You have to reserve your spot online via the CR National Park website for the date that you want for a small fee. You will receive a bar code that you will show to the visitor center which is your access to the park. Have some small cash as we also had to pay 800 Colons to drive over private property to get to the park which we did not expect. The park closed at 3:30pm in early November so start your adventures early. This park has mud pools and a large volcano which is currently closed due to activity. So, we hiked 8 miles round trip to the La Congreja Waterfall and we recommend this hike if you are physically capable. The trail was rugged and muddy making for slippery conditions. We had a hard time staying upright. Check out our video on YouTube. We had several monkey encounters and hiked through various eco systems. The falls were stunning and then we got poured on during our hike back. Was a great experience overall and we recommend this hike if you are up for it. Wear good shoes, have a dry bag in case it rains and take lots of water and some snacks. The only restrooms are at the visitor center.
Thursday: Three of us took a day trip to Nicaragua! After tons of research, we could not find enough information for us to decide if we wanted to book a day trip to Nicaragua or not. Is it safe? Most reviews we read just complained about the long day and time spent in a van. But I am here to tell you that we did it and we highly recommend it. It was so much fun, and we saw a ton and learned a lot about Nicaragua being our first time in this country and it was actually very eye opening with how friendly everyone was and how beautiful Nicaragua really is. We booked online via nativeswaycostarica.com and we paid $255 per adult for a private tour, meaning we had the van and guides to ourselves the entire time. The tour package included all transportation, breakfast, lunch, water, entrance to Volcano National Park, a boat ride out into Lake Nicaragua to Monkey Island, and of course the border crossing. You will walk across the border both ways. You will need cash for tips, shopping at the local markets including Bate Bate Chocolate (their system was down, cash only at time) and we paid $15 each for a horse drawn carriage ride through Granada. Nicaragua takes US dollars. We left at 5:30am and returned to hotel at 7:30pm and it was well worth it. Check out our video for the full tour and border crossing experience. Just do it! Don't hesitate like we did.
Below at the border crossing, one foot in Costa Rica, one foot in Nicaragua.
Friday: Was our last official day so we hung pool side and relaxed. Explored the beach in Playa Hermosa and had dinner down there for sunset. The local food was fantastic. The beach and sunsets did not disappoint.
Saturday: Travel home day. We dropped someone at the airport and had a few hours to kill so Chris and I explored Liberia, found a unique and amazing coffee shop, drove around and explored an old fort and cemetery. Then we headed home back to Florida.
Costa Rica is such a beautiful country with so much to offer. And now, we need to plan a trip to Nicaragua to fully explore that country as well. We hope this blog and our videos on YouTube help you in your future planning for some amazing adventures. Please reach out if you have any questions at all. We are happy to help. Pura Vida
Wandered Off
Chris & Brandi
Comments