In Costa Rica you’ll hear the saying Pura Vida a lot – whilst its literal meaning is ‘pure life’, Costa Ricans use it in a variety of ways in everyday conversation to mean “you’re welcome”, “no problem”, “cool” or “thanks”. We preferred the literal translation and set off in search of a slice of ‘pure life’ on our travels – before I disclose whether we found it, here are some insights about planning a family road trip around Costa Rica.
The post covers practical advice on timing (dry vs. rainy/green season), eco-friendly travel, booking flights/car/accommodations/activities in advance, packing tips, driving strategies with short daily segments, and embracing Pura Vida, while noting that basing in one area is also viable but a road trip provides the best overview of the country’s biodiversity.
Several decades ago, we were lucky enough to be invited on a cruise (long story!) which included a day stop in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. With only a few hours on shore, our experiences were limited, but we saw enough to agree that Costa Rica was somewhere we would like to return to in the future.
Fast forward 17 years and it came up as a suggestion for a big ‘post-exam’ family holiday due to its abundant wildlife and fun activity offerings. So, the planning commenced for a family road trip in Costa Rica for Mum, Dad and 2 teenagers (16 and 18 years).
At that point I did not know anyone else who had been and so pretty much started from scratch with my research.
Costa Rica is a country located in Central America, spanning the width of the landmass (isthmus) touching both the Pacific Ocean to the west and Caribbean Sea to the east. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south.
Here at Love Travel Planning, we like to apply our Platinum Planning Roadmap to every trip we go on. It simply allows you to create the best trip possible, based on the people you are bringing with you – instead of being based around the destination.
Costa Rica makes a great country to visit on a family road trip with older children who can amuse themselves in the car as you move around from overnight stop to overnight stop.
The wildlife spotting opportunities are a big pull for all the family.
Costa Rica offers plenty of outdoor activities which suit older children, such as: zip-lining, surfing, canyoning, boat trips.
Having read about what Costa Rica has to offer in the guidebooks and using internet searches, there were multiple areas of the country which sounded different and appealing. We were therefore attracted to the idea of a road trip which would allow us to see a variety of areas, rather than basing ourselves in one area. This helped us gain a really good overview of this beautiful country, its different regions and biodiversity.
It turns out that there is a fairly well travelled route around the county and so our Costa Rica road trip plan was nothing new. We met many people on our travels who were visiting the same places as us, but not necessarily in the same order. We chose to undertake our Costa Rica road-trip in a clockwise direction, but most road-trippers seemed to be travelling anticlockwise, which I never got to the bottom of. Maybe it doesn’t matter?
If you prefer a different kind of family holiday to Costa Rica, then you can base yourself in one area without missing out on too much. Most areas seem to offer a good cross section of what’s available, such as: a national park for wildlife spotting, access to a beautiful beach, waterfalls, zip lining, sloths and/or turtles. Whichever way you decide to visit, I am sure you will not be disappointed.
If you’re travelling to Costa Rica on a family road trip then it’s likely that you’ll be tied to school holidays.
If you have a three week window in the UK Christmas holidays then December/January would make a good time for the family road trip around Costa Rica, although it is peak season and with prices at their highest.
Similarly, the UK Easter holidays in March/April can also work well (assuming your youngsters don’t have exams following the holidays).
December to April is regarded as Dry Season in Costa Rica, so best for beach life and wildlife spotting. It also offers a chance to spot Northern Humpbacks off the Pacific coast.
We however decided to visit Costa Rica in the UK Summer school holidays which is typically during the rainy or Green Season. Find out why we took this strategic move, and how we got on in my blog, Is Costa Rica Worth Visiting During The Rainy Season?
The most likely time to spot Antarctic Humpback Whales is between August and October if you are whale fanatics!
To some extent, this depends how your family like to spend their time – on the beaches? doing high adrenalin activities? or wildlife spotting?
If beach time is your focus, then be aware that the Pacific side of Costa Rica is generally best during the dry season between December and April. The Caribbean side is more tropical with no dry season per se.
However, if it’s your first time to Costa Rica, then you might want to see a bit of everything which is why the following itinerary suggestion is perfect for your family road trip!
Costa Rica’s Green credentials are excellent. The government set up a Sustainable Tourism Programme in 1997 which offered training, grants and certification to help businesses set up in the most eco-friendly ways, and understand why they needed to. This resulted in Costa Rica setting a Gold Standard for sustainable travel and conservation.
This helps to protect the delicate eco-systems in Costa Rica which holds an estimated 5% of the Earth’s bio-diversity (land-based) and 3.5% of marine life. A third of the country’s landscape is now protected land.
With this in mind, when choosing your activities in Costa Rica, make sure that you tour the National Parks with local guides, follow Park rules and choose activities with green credentials. In terms of accommodation, there are plenty of eco-lodges and eco-friendly accommodation options to choose from throughout Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is featured in the Wanderlust Magazine, 2023 Travel Green List, Issue 226, with advice on how to book the perfect green holiday here.
We settled on 6 destinations for our family road trip in Costa Rica to give us the overview of the country, and variety, that we wanted.
We scheduled no more than half a day’s driving at any point (between 2.5 and 4 hours). On days with a longer drive, we made pit-stops where we could get out of the car, stretch our legs, get refreshments if needed and also see something along the way.
We had a Costa Rica music playlist to listen to in the car and generally just enjoyed taking in the sights and sounds along the way.
Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to visit the Nicoya or Osa Peninsulas – that’s for next time…
At the time of writing, a direct British Airways flight operates seasonally from London Gatwick Airport to San José between October and March (High Season).
If you’re travelling to Costa Rica from the UK in the Summer School holidays (Low Season) then there are no direct flights at this time of year.
However, when there is no direct flight available, you can fly from the UK to Costa Rica via a European hub airport, such as Schipol, Paris or Madrid. Alternatively, you can fly via an American hub airport, such as Miami or Houston.
If you have Avios Points and a BA AMEX Companion Voucher, then you can use these to fly from the UK to Houston, USA, with British Airways.
Then book flights with United Airlines from Houston, USA, to San Jose, Costa Rica (4 hour flight).
Doing this, meant that our family of 4, flew the majority of the journey for the cost of two tickets – tick!
Planning the journey with a 36 hour stop-over in Houston, USA, allowed us to start acclimatising to our new time zone, before completing our journey to San José on a United Airlines flight from Houston. It also allowed us to visit a new US city, although it did extend our holiday time by a couple of days.
We had paid for a 4WD (4 wheel drive) car which was strongly advised for our Costa Rica road trip, but were given a brand new Audi Q7 – nice, but totally unsuitable for what was to come. We tried to insist on a 4WD but, with no availability, we were pretty snookered. What could possibly go wrong?
We used AVIS car hire for our Costa Rica road trip with mixed results and reinforcing our mantra about car hire companies that “you never get the car that you’ve booked”!
AVIS is also on the Avios portal, which means you can gain points while travelling across Costa Rica.
Having settled on your route around Costa Rica, you can start researching accommodation.
I looked at the accommodation suggestions in the guide books I was using, on the AirBnB website, Booking.com and blogs by others who’d made road trips around Costa Rica. Travel brochures can also be useful, to see which hotels they were recommending.
We settled on a mixture of hotels and AirBnBs depending on what looked good in our price range. Our favourite accommodation of the holiday was an amazing Treehouse AirBnB in Manuel Antonio (see photo below) where the monkeys came to visit us every day.
In short, there is plenty of choice at all the key locations on this road trip, so you will easily be able to find something which suits your budget and room requirements. AirBnBs can work better for families requiring more than 2 bedrooms.
Once the skeleton of your trip is in place (flights, car hire and accommodation), then look at the activities that were available.
As there is so much on offer in Costa Rica, you might need to manage your ‘fear of missing out’ and take care not to over-schedule activities. In fact, some of the most enjoyable moments were just chilling on the balcony of the AirBnB in Manuel Antonio listening to the distinctive call of the Howler Monkeys in the trees or watching the cute Spider Monkeys swinging by.
That said, you do need to book some activities in advance to ensure that you don’t miss out, such as:
If you’re planning to visit Costa Rica during its dry season, then you can enjoy the benefits of light packing as swimwear, linens, shorts and t-shirts will be your uniform for the holiday. Don’t forget your suncream and sun hat!
However, if you’re visiting during the Green (or rainy) Season, then things get a bit more complicated. Refer to the section of my blog, Is Costa Rica Worth Visiting During The Rainy Season? for more information.
The other thing to bear in mind when packing for a family road trip to Costa Rica, is whether you are visiting a malaria area in Costa Rica (see Health section below). If so, you might want to make sure you have long sleeves and trousers for dawn and dusk.
Overall, Costa Rica is a very casual place so relaxed clothing is the way forward.
Beaches, rainforest and long scenic drives. Versatile, fast-drying kit keeps things light, so you just show up and fall in love with the journey.
For younger kids, pack a child carrier (pushchairs struggle on trails), spare changes of clothes, favourite comfort items and kid-friendly snacks.
Bring a few laundry items or plan a mid-trip wash to keep bulk down and reuse your favourite quick-dry pieces.
There are a few things to consider whilst planning a trip to Costa Rica, just to make sure that you are well prepared for all eventualities.
It’s always good to start by checking the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advice, or the advice of the equivalent body in your country of residence. This will tell you if there’s anything you need to be aware of in the planning phase.
Sign up to receive FCDO email alerts relating to Costa Rica in case of any updates to risk factors.
When I checked the FCDO advice for Costa Rica, it highlighted some level of risk for petty crimes and theft in some urban areas. We therefore took sensible steps:
Not driving at night.
Sticking to main roads.
Not leaving any valuables unattended in our hire car.
Not leaving valuables on the beach whilst going swimming.
On our family road trip around Costa Rica, we did not feel threatened or in danger at any point. We were reassured by the precautions that we took – be aware but not concerned!
Information below at the time of writing – check for updates before you travel.
Your full British passport must have an ‘expiry date’ at least 1 day after the day you plan to leave Costa Rica.
You can visit Costa Rica without a visa for up to 180 days under a tourist visa waiver. The exact period is at the discretion of the immigration officer on arrival, and the visa period can change from time to time.
Check the visa requirements for Costa Rica from your country of origin.
Obvious, but remember to take your current UK driving licence (or country of origin licence) with you on your trip, which is the driving documentation required.
Driving is on the right-hand side of the road.
Check that your travel insurance covers you for everything that you are thinking of doing in this very activity-based country – zip-lining, white water rafting, cycling, hiking volcanos etc.
AVIS advised us to use navigation app WAZE (rather than Google Maps) as it is more up-to-date with roadworks and local road hazards – indeed, when the Sat Nav announced “item in the road”, within minutes there was usually some form of animal remains or other debris in the road, so it was very accurate.
Overall, we were very impressed with WAZE apart from one small malfunction, when it sent us off through the narrow lanes of a banana plantation on the way to catch the ferry for Tortuguero – luckily, we had some time in hand, otherwise we would have missed the boat.
I had packed a driving map of Costa Rica, for areas with no reception, but only used it once. Good to have in case of emergencies.
On our Costa Rica road-trip we found the motorways out of San Jose to be well maintained, most likely funded by the toll road charges.
However, once we got off the beaten track, or into the higher elevations around Monteverde, then the state of the roads worsened and a 4×4 was definitely required.
In fact, all our car warning lights had come on by the time we reached the elevated village of Santa Elena in Monteverde. The car hire company didn’t seem too bothered though when we called them, “Hey, it’s okay. Just turn it off and back on again and the car will reset itself”. Which it did – Pura Vida!
Along with all the usual hazards of driving (tiredness, other drivers), keep your eyes peeled for free-roaming dogs which might run out into the road.
After heavy rain, some of the non-motorway roads can be affected by mudslides which is good to be aware of in case a Plan B is required.
Check the recommended travel vaccinations for your holiday to Costa Rica a couple of months before you are due to travel.
We visited a Travel Clinic linked to our local doctors’ practice who advised us about whether we needed any booster or additional vaccinations ahead of our travels. Please be guided by the experts in assessing what you need.
Again, check with your Travel Clinic to see if you need to take any precautions before your travels.
Some areas of Costa Rica (such as the Limón Province) are low-risk malaria areas. As we were visiting this area then our Travel Clinic directed us to the Travel Health Pro website for information on bite avoidance strategies (mosquito repellent sprays, when to wear long-sleeved clothing etc). They did not prescribe anti-malaria tablets.
Check the advice about the potential to contract Zika Virus if you are pregnant.
Hurricane season in Costa Rica runs from June to November and so you can check the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office(FCDO) travel advice on Gov.uk and/or the US National Hurricane Centre. I checked this once in the week before we travelled but not again.
Costa Rica has approximately 205 volcanos – 200 extinct/dormant and 5 active (at the time of writing) volcanos, some of which have erupted relatively recently.
Again, check the status of the active volcanos before booking, just to make sure you are informed. For interest only – you can check volcano activity at the Smithsonian USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report on-line, which tracks global volcanic activity. Again, I did this once in the week before we travelled but not again.
The national language of Costa Rica is Spanish and, although this is Costa Rican Spanish, a few words of Spanish are very much appreciated by the locals. I can’t recall having had a language barrier with anyone we met as most people in the main tourist areas spoke good English.
Take some national currency with you, which is the Costa Rica Colón. We mainly used Colóns for the motorway road tolls (coins and smaller notes).
Whilst Costa Rican Colóns are preferred, US dollars are widely accepted and small amounts of US dollars are useful for tipping (less than $20 notes).
Yes – we really loved our Costa Rica road trip experience and would certainly recommend it for a family holiday to Costa Rica, particularly with teenagers due to the nature of activities on offer.
The Costa Rican people we met were super friendly, the wildlife spotting was incredible, the scenery stunning, all with manageable driving distance making it perfect for a family road trip.
And yes, with many memories made and moments of ‘pure life’ on our trip, we definitely found Pura Vida in bucketloads!
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