Baldi Hot Springs, San Carlos, Costa Rica

Costa Rica is such a fun place to visit because you get plenty of adventure in the rainforest, but then you also get the perks of a relaxing vacation on the beach. It’s a beautiful country with a rich culture. One of my favorite sayings they all say there is “Pura Vida” meaning peace and positivity or joyful life. It is used a lot like “Aloha” in Hawaii or “Shalom” in Israel. You can use it as a greeting, in thanks or when you are wishing someone well.

I came to see the Pura Vida life as one of patience, kindness and having gratitude in the moment. I absolutely love this part of the Costa Rican culture. I can’t wait to show you more about what you can expect when you go to visit!

What you can expect from this post: travel itineraries for both the rain forest and the pacific beach side of the country, typical cuisine you will find there, as well as general information about the culture or things you can expect when you go. Get ready- this is a BIG travel post!! I didn’t want you to miss anything!!

This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for sharing at no cost to you.

Let’s start out with travel itineraries for both an adventurous experience and a relaxing vacation. Costa Rica has lots to offer in both areas! We flew into Liberia, rented a car and drove first to La Fortuna which is right next to Volcan Arenal in the rain forest.

Just a side note: We felt safe driving in Costa Rica. The traffic didn’t feel overly congested or hectic like some other countries we have been to. Do plan some extra travel time for getting around. We found that there were many times we’d get behind a very slow moving vehicle, or there would be large pot holes and speed bumps in the road you’d need to slow down for, or even at times some animals crossing the road. You will find when people are held up on the road waiting for someone or something, they often turn on their emergency flashers.

La Fortuna, Rain Forest - Sample Itinerary:

Day 1:

Pastries at Jauuri’s Panaderia for breakfast
Whenever we travel to other countries, we love to visit their bakeries. Whether it is a tortilleria in Mexico or a boulangerie in France, their fresh baked goods are always amazing to try. We especially loved the dulce de leche pastries at Jauuri’s. It was about a minute away from our AirBNB and we went there everyday!!

Hike La Fortuna Waterfall
This hike was pretty much steep stairs the entire way. It was approximately 550 steps down and then the same steps coming back up. There are little signs along the way with pictures of sloths encouraging you in your climb, which I thought was fun.
If you don’t feel up to the stairs, there is a lookout at the top of the hike that is stroller and wheelchair accessible just past the entrance. Even though it was a little tough with my bad knee, it was totally worth to me to go all the way down the stairs to see the amazing waterfall upclose.
All of the hikes we did in Costa Rica we had to pay for. This one had an entrance fee of $20 per person. Even if you are just doing the lookout, you still have to pay the fee to enter.
Some people wore water shoes for swimming at the bottom. Our group wore a mix of crocs and tennis shoes.
Hike: Arenal Volcano National Park
This hike took us up on the Volcan de Arenal (Arenal Volcano). We walked and climbed on the lava trails. It was pretty amazing. The entrance fee for this park was $17/per person. The only bathrooms in the park are in the lower parking lot, so make sure you stop there on your way up. On the left side of the restroom building is also a water spigot where you can wash the mud off your shoes after, if you need it.
There are several different hikes and trails you can go on. We went on the Las Heliconias trail (3) that merged into the Las Coladas trail (4). That took us to a lookout point where you can see a lot of the old lava flow, as well as the top of the volcano.
Sadly, the day we went was so rainy, the clouds covered the top of the volcano. We were actually staying right by the volcano for 4 days and never saw the top of it because of the clouds. Apparently, this is pretty common.
If you just go up trails 3 and 4 and come back, it is about 5 km or 3 miles round trip. There is another trail that we took on the way back that hooked into Las Coladas trail (4) called El Celbo (trail 5). It added on an additional 3 km. It takes you by a very large, old tree.
It was raining the day we went and the El Celbo trail was very muddy and slippery. I fell a couple times because the mud is so thick and sloshes around. So just be prepared for that if you do on a rainy day (which is most of the time in the rain forest).
For footwear: our group was split into tennis shoes and crocs. The tennis shoes may have been a little better for foot support, but I was very grateful to be in my crocs at the end of the hike so I could wash them off in the water spigot at the restrooms. We saw lots of people in hiking boots as well.
Baldi Hot Springs
After a full morning of hiking, it was really nice to go hang out in the hot springs for the afternoon. There are many different hot springs resorts in the La Fortuna area. We purchased day passes at Baldi Hot Springs which included lunch.
Baldi has 25 different thermal water pools of varying temperatures. The landscaping is gorgeous and there are so many different things you can do there such as soaking in the pools, sitting in the natural saunas, riding waterslides (it’s so crazy to have a warm waterslide! The slides are super fast: 27mph), playing in the kiddie area, and there are also swim up bars in the hot springs.
You have to put down a $10 refundable deposit for the towels. Lockers were $20 each. (Next time I would just keep my belongings in the trunk of our car). Each pool has lots of seating, so we often just kept our things in a little bag on the chairs and brought them along with us from pool to pool.
It was such a fun and relaxing place to visit. I would highly recommend it.
Fruit Market - Hnos Lazo in Downtown La Fortuna
Along with visiting bakeries when we travel, we always love to hit the fresh fruit markets, especially when we are in a tropical desitination. Hnos Lazo was a delicious little produce store in downtown La Fortuna. They had delicious pineapples, mangos, papayas, melons, coconuts (called pipas in Costa Rica) and all kinds of other fruits and vegetables.
Dinner at Snapper (quiet and relaxed Atmosphere in downtown La Fortuna)
There are lots of different restaurants in La Fortuna, but we loved this outdoor restaurant (lined with bistro lights) for not only the tasty food, but for the quiet and charming atmosphere at the end of a busy day.
The tuna ceviche appetizer, served with plantain chips, was especially incredible.
Shopping at Artesania Costa Rica
This is a huge souvenir shop in La Fortuna, with every craft and trinket you can imagine. The prices were pretty high, so we didn’t end up purchasing anything here, but it was really entertaining to walk around and see all the different Costa Rican merchandise.

Volcano View Oasis Arenal AirBNB, San Ramon, Costa Rica

Day 2:

Breakfast at Jauuri’s Panaderia - again of course!!
Rainforest Chocolate Tour
This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I had such a blast going to the cacao plantation to learn all about the history of chocolate and how to make chocolate from start to finish. We got to taste the chocolate beans along each part of the process and even got to make our own chocolate. At the end, they let us combine our own chocolate flavors, and eat as many of our creations as we wanted. I loved it!! Plan about 1.5-2 hours.
Pure Trek Waterfall Canyoneering
This was the ultimate adventure- canyoning down waterfalls!! Our guides did such a great job keeping us safe and happy as we explored the rain forest by jumping down waterfalls. We saw a bunch of zip lining tours as well (check out our awesome zipline adventure in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico HERE), but I was so glad we did this tour instead.
Free Hot Springs (near Tabacon)
If you put Tabacon Resort in your GPS, you will be able to find these free hot springs off the side of the road. You will know it by all the cars parked along the road with guys in reflective vests directing traffic. These hot springs don’t cost any money, but the men in the vests will tell you that you need to pay them $10 to park there so they can watch over your car (they don’t actually do any watchin from what we experienced). We bartered with them and got them down to $5.
This area gave us a small hot spring experience. I would recommend water shoes. It was very slippery. The hot springs flow under an over pass covered with graffiti. Just under there are some falls. My boys found a hidden cave behind the falls that they were really excited about. If you don’t want to fork out the big bucks for a day pass at the hot springs, this is a fun option, but it’s definitely more of a limited (and not nearly as safe) experience. We only spent about 30-45 minutes here vs hours at Baldi.
Dinner at Pollo Fortuneno - Vibrant & Trendy
Also referred to as just Fortuneno. This busy restaurant is also in downtown La Fortuneno and is the completely opposite of Snapper. It has a very exciting and stimulating vibe, decorated with colorful flowers and loud music. If you are going during a busy season, you may want to get a reservation.
They are known for their chifrijo appetizer. My son had the most amazing tuna dish. I loved the shrimp ceviche.

Day 3:

Rio Celeste Waterfall Hike - Tenorio Volcano National Park
This hike was about an hour drive from the La Fortuna area. You have to make a reservation - do that at least a day or two in advance (we recommend going as early as you can because it gets really busy later in the day). The cost is $12/per person. The building you pay in is called Sector Rio Celeste. It’s at the head of the trail and they have free restrooms there.
The business across the street (Soda el Parque) where we parked, will tell you there are no restrooms at the park and that you can pay $1 to use their restrooms. We did that and then found the free ones at the entrance. There is also free parking just a little ways down from this place.
This hike also has a lot of stairs, but not as many as the La Fortuna Waterfall. This waterfall is famous for is gorgeous blue pool at the bottom. It’s absolutely gorgeous. You want to follow the hike to the Catarata (waterfall in Spanish). There are several other hikes you can take as well.
This place came up weird in our GPS (and we saw several other lost souls as we were trying to find it). So when you go, here are a couple of things you can pop in your GPS that will take you to the right spot. The entrance of the Rio Celeste Waterfall hike is right by the Rio Celeste Blue Springs Lodge Hotel.
Lake Arenal - Eat at Cafe & Macadamia overlooking the lake
Once you have worked up your appetite, it’s about 45-60 minute drive to Cafe & Macadamia. It’s a restaurant that has a beautiful view of Lake Arenal. The lake has lots of things you can do from kayaking, water rafting nearby, etc. We dined in at this restaurant at sundown and it had the most dreamy view!!
Casado - a classic Costa Rican dish- is their specialty.

What we didn’t have time for and would love to do NEXT Time:

Rope Swing in the Rio Fortuna
It was just a few minutes from our AirBNB - doesn’t cost anything - we just didn’t have time! It looked really fun.
Night Walk
Sloth Walk
Hanging Bridges
Volcan Arenal Peninsula Area Hikes - Miradores, El Tororoi
Kayak in Lake Arenal

I wouldn’t change anything about how we did our trip, but if we had a little more time, the activities above are things we would happily add in.

Guanacaste - Beach Area - Playa Matapalo

We spent most of our time at the Riu Costa Rica Palace in Guanacaste. We’ve stayed in Riu hotels in our Mexico vacations and had really good experiences.

Some of the things we enjoyed at the resort:

waterslides
pools - water basketball and volleyball
beach
wild monkeys at the beach
shopping on the beach - make sure you barter!!
golfing at Tres Volcanes - my son had a YouTube channel: All Sorts of Golf, and loves to golf anywhere he can. (A golf course they really wanted to go to was Papagayo Peninsula but it was really pricey, so they settled for Tres Volcanes)

What we didn’t have time for and would love to do NEXT Time:

Diamante Eco Adventure Park

How our trip differed just a bit from the itinerary:

When we flew in to Libera we hit Cafe & Macadamia overlooking Lake Arenal on our way to La Fortuna. It was absolutely dreamy at sunset. But in this sample itinerary, you will notice it on Day 3. When we took the actual trip, we did the Rio Celeste Hike on our way to Guanacaste.

We stayed one night in Villa Acacia in Guanacaste - would NOT recommend.

Spent the afternoon at Playa Hermosa. Sand was a little more muddy than at Playa Matapalo. We loved the tide pools there and ate on the beach at La Casita Del Marisco. I liked the tropical fish (Filete Tropical Flambeado), and the ceviche.

Sunday we went to church in Filadefia before heading to our all inclusive resort: Riu Costa Rica Palace. I love going to church in different places because you get a chance to interact with the locals and get a different view of what it really is like to live as they live.

Free Hot Springs, La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Costa Rica Cuisine

Casado is a dish you will see everywhere. It’s rice and beans with a salad, usually fried plantains, and a side of meat. There were lots of vegetarian casados that I was able to find. Grab the recipe here!

Gallo Pinto translates as the spotted rooster. It’s a typical breakfast dish in Costa Rica that is beans and rice mixed together, often served with eggs. Essentially, they mix together the beans and rice leftover from the casado they made for dinner, and serve it for breakfast the next morning.

Ceviche is a raw fish dish that is “cooked” by being marinated in different vinegars or fruit juices. I am not a huge ceviche fan in the states, but the fish is so fresh in Costa Rica, it was absolutely delicious! I had it everyday we were in La Fortuna.

Chifrijo is basically a beans and rice bowl with pork belly, often topped with avocado and served with chips.

Plantains are everywhere whether they are fried and crispy or cooked to a softer consistency.

Other Helpful info about Costa Rica in General:

Water is safe to drink out of the tap!! YAY!! Costa Rica is a very eco friendly country, so we didn’t see hardly any disposable water bottles. We took our reusable water bottles and were happy to find water most places we went.
Outlets are the same as USA - this was so nice when it came to charging cell phones and different bathroom appliances like blow dryers and razors.
Soda is written all over different restaurants. It is not talking about carbonated drinks! A Soda in Costa Rica is a family owned/hole in the wall business which generally have really great food prices.
Decent cell phone coverage except for hiking areas. We definitely had pockets without service, but we could text most places. I would download your maps if you are driving far to hikes just in case.
Parking fees & backing in - they love to charge for parking in Costa Rica. It’s generally pretty cheap, but they have people “watching over your car” at different restaurant parking lots, etc. Also, most places they want to you to back your car in instead of pulling in forward.
Air BNB reviews & experience - oh man, this was a big one!!!
When we first arrived in La Fortuna is was just past 8pm. We had an AirBNB with a lock box, so it wouldn’t be trouble getting in if our flight was delayed, etc. When we got to Hormiga’s House (name of the AirBNB), the lockbox code didn’t work. We tried it for quite awhile, and then left messages for the hostess asking for help. We went to the store and came back, and still hadn’t hear anything. We called AirBNB and they said they would try contacting her. No luck.
About 9pm we heard from her and she said we checked in too late, so we couldn’t have the code. It was so bizarre, we called AirBNB again and they wouldn’t give us a refund. We were without a place to stay and out of our money we paid for our lodging. We were pretty frustrated and felt very swindled - not feeling the Pura Vida!!
Thank goodness, we hopped back on AirBNB and I searched to find a “superhost” (that was hopefully more reliable) and were able to find a new place to stay- Volcano View Oasis Arenal, that was even closer to all our activities in La Fortuna, that was available immediately. Our host was amazing and the place was so lovely!!
The next morning we got a text from AirBNB saying they did some detective work and found that the hostess of Hormiga’s House had indeed been dishonest, so they gave us a full refund, a $25 gift card and if Hormiga’s House was a Super Host, they would strip her of that status. I was so grateful because we love staying with AirBNB and had lost faith in them.
We tried writing a negative review. For some reason, at least in Costa Rica, they will only post reviews the hosts approve. You will notice there are no negative reviews on any of the properties there. That makes it pretty hard to feel confident in the place you are staying.
So here are our ground rules for finding a good AirBNB in Costa Rica- look at the number of good reviews. Hormigas House only had a few good reviews, while the Volcano View Oasis Arenal had many.
Airport- this was our other stressful experience!! Leave yourself at least 3 hours from arrival at the airport to get through passport checks and security. Our rental car drop off took us awhile to get us shuttled to the airport and the lines to go through the check points took us 2 hours. Everyone around us was completely stressed out. If our flight hadn’t been delayed, we would have missed it. It’s a small airport with only 9 gates, but it was nuts!!