After three weeks of hiking, snorkeling, walking and swimming, we wanted to relax more than anything else when we reached Costa Rica. We looked at it as a way to chill and as such, we booked three days at Posada El Quijote in Escazu, Costa Rica (right outside of San Jose), and then a week at Barcelo Langosta Beach, an all-inclusive resort in the beach town of Tamarindo.
Above Toucan was taken at the animal refuge zoo and below was the view from our first Costa Rican hotel, with the city of San Jose in the background.
Let’s start with Posada El Quijote — it’s adorable. The hotel is a tiny boutique one nestled in the town of Escazu, which is one of the richer towns in Costa Rica. Our cab driver told us Mel Gibson bought a house here.
The included breakfast was a huge draw for us, the best breakfast we had on our entire trip, as was the view from the backyard, where Chris and I took to having some drinks after sunset every night, watching the twinkling lights of San Jose in the background. Some highlights of Escazu for me (besides the hotel, which I would highly recommend), was eating at both Tiquicia (with its amazing city views as well) and La Casona de Laly , and taking a tour of the city of San Jose.
About San Jose itself, I’d highly recommend not staying directly in the city if you can avoid it, because other than a few good museums and a gorgeous concert hall, the rest of the city is really pretty much chain restaurants and concrete. In our case, staying outside of the city and taking a half day trip into the city itself to check things out was more than enough.
They were having a family day when we took our half-day tour in San Jose, so the main town square was alive with all kinds of activity. How awesome is this tight-rope little lady? You go girl.
We caught this view on one of our walks around our Escazu neighborhood. Gorgeous.
After three relaxing days in Escazu, Chris and I packed up our stuff again and loaded it onto a bus headed for the coast of Tamarindo and the Barcelo Langosta Beach Resort. The bus ride was roughly five hours and once we were off the main highways and driving through the smaller towns, I enjoyed seeing the homes and shops and some of the average Costa Rican way of life.
You’ll find wild parrots throughout Costa Rica.
Below, we tried our hand at ziplining with Pura Adventura while we were in Costa Rica – imagine gliding through the air, feeling completely weightless, watching amazing views unfold before you.
After what felt like weeks not hours, we finally arrived at Barcelo Langosta. If you’ve ever stayed at an all-inclusive before, you won’t be disappointed with this one.
The staff was very friendly, and offered many of those all-inclusive activities most people enjoy (water aerobics, dance classes, live music on certain nights, beach volleyball, etc.), and the buffet was pretty great for all-inclusive food, especially since they switched up their theme every night to keep it fresh. Below, the sunset facing the resort.
They also have one restaurant on the grounds, which if you stay for longer than three nights is included in your price, and that was super tasty. We saw tons of wildlife around the resort, too, like two different kinds of monkeys, green lizards, land iguanas, birds and more.
The beach is public, so it can get a bit crowded, and it’s not the best beach for swimming because the waves tend to be rougher there (which makes it perfect for watching surfers!) and there are a lot of rocks. But the sunsets were some of the most gorgeous ones we saw on our whole trip, and to not have to think at all about what we were going to do about eating during the days made it a lot more laid back for us, as well.
We watched the sunset from the beach every night.
Details:
Posada El Quijote Country Inn
Belo Horizonte, Escazu, Costa Rica
Barcelo Langosta Beach Resort
Calle Playa Langosta, Tamarindo
Guanacaste, Santa Cruz 50309, Costa Rica
Cheryl Lock is a former magazine, newspaper and website editor turned full-time freelance writer. She has worked on staff at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, More and Parents magazines, as well as for Learnvest, the leading women’s financial website. Her work has also appeared in Newsweek, Forbes, Ladies’ Home Journal, the Huffington Post, AOL Travel and more.
Cheryl was born in Nuremberg, Germany and grew up moving around every few years as an Army brat. The urge to travel has been with her her whole life. While she calls New York City home, Cheryl makes it a priority to travel as much as possible throughout the year. Some of her favorite places include Iceland, the Great Barrier Beef, Cabo, Rome, Calabria and Munich, although she hopes to never stop exploring. Cheryl blogs about her travel adventures (and what’s happening in and around New York City) at Weary Wanderer.
