Originally Posted by
marinkitty
We went about six or seven years ago for winter break and are going again for this year's winter break. The first time we rented a VRBO house way down south in Cabo Matapalo on the Osa Penninsula. It was a solar powered, off-grid jungle house set back on a beach front property. As Stanton Hyde said, it was HOT AS BLAZES. We had a super fun trip - did a ton of great activities - hiking, surfing, zip lining, snorkeling, dolphin watching, beaching and saw a ton of wildlife. But if I had to do that trip over again I would not have stayed as rustic as we did. I didn't stop sweating from arrival to departure. It was 90 and humid and the ocean was 87 degrees. There weren't a lot of nearby places to eat or grab a drink. By the end of the week I really just wanted someone to make me a fancy cocktail with a ton of ice in it.
This year, we are going for two full weeks. This time we are going further north on the Nicoya Penninsula. I have an airbnb booked for the first week in the hills with an ocean view but up in the jungle near Santa Teresa. This house has air conditioning, wifi, a pool, and regular electric - way more creative comforts than our last trip. We are using the first week to surf, do yoga and decompress - maybe some exploring nearby waterfalls and ATVing now that the kids are old enough to drive their own. Then the second week we are on the move - staying at a series of boutique resorts - one on an island with glamping style tents, one inland in a canyon area with lots of more adventurous activities and thermal springs (this is more upscale villa type lodging) and another inland near a volcanic park with a river, waterfalls and suspension bridges (similar villa type lodging). We will hike, cayoneer, etc but it looks like you could also just enjoy walks to see wildlife, sitting in the thermal springs or just relax by their pools. We may do a day trip to the Arenal area from our last stop - we will see how much steam we have left at that point.
I just dug around online and found stuff and honestly was a bit subject to what was left as I just booked this all a couple of weeks ago which is kind of late for Christmas/New Year's weeks - there were two places that looked totally amazing that were booked solid that I now have in the back of my mind for a return trip some day if we ever head back down there. It is dry season up north and should be slightly less hot and humid than down south for our first trip.
The kids are excited to be going back - the heat didn't bother them at all on our first trip (plus they were frankly young enough that they don't really remember anything but the highlights).
