Costa Rica baby

Is the travel bug hereditary? If you compared me to my dad, you'd certainly think so. Both obsessive travellers, both obsessive planners, both always wanting to plan trips about a year out. It works out perfectly of course because it means when we go on family trips, everything is planned down to the most minute perfect detail. I take the lead on bars and food spots while we're away, we plan excursions and activities as a pair, and Dad takes the lead on all things hotels and travel plans. He really put together the perfect trip for this year's family holiday, complete with cute little brochures he'd designed and printed for us for when we got to the airport! We tend to do a bigger, long haul family holiday every few years and since this is the year I turn 30, it was only right that we went bigger and better than ever. Which was Costa Rica baby!

We'd all talked about Costa Rica for quite some time and it seemed like the perfect destination that would offer us a bit of everything in one epic place; mountains, beaches, forests, wildlife, culture, activities. We ended up with an itinerary that was essentially 4 holidays in one! Since we planned to tour around, we did look at the possibility of a guided tour type of holiday. But they were mega expensive and Dad has nothing but time and enthusiasm for this sort of thing on his hands. So we went self-guided instead. We booked flights to San Jose (£1,000 per person), hired a car for the duration our trip, and booked all the hotels separately. When I told people we'd done it this way, they questioned if it was safe and if we were fine driving in Costa Rica etc (they thought it might be more like Mexico where it's not really advised for tourists to drive across country). But it was absolutely fine! Costa Rica is actually quite a wealthy country, especially compared to the rest of central and south America, so driving around just feels like driving around at home. The only difference is that the roads are super windy and mountainous so be prepared for a bumpy ride!

After a very long 11 hour flight from Gatwick on day 1, we arrived in San Jose! Costa Rica is 7 hours behind UK time so we were back to it being early evening, but because it's on the equator the sun sets fairly early all year round (around 6pm). When planning the trip, we knew we wouldn't want to be tackling the winding country roads in the dark (especially after an 11 hour flight) but we'd read that San Jose pretty much wasn't worth seeing. So instead of going into the city or getting on the road to our first stop straight away, we had a 1 night stopover at the Double Tree Cariari (an area not far from the airport). Even though we were all pretty tired, we headed out for a bite to eat and to toast to having made it. I was obviously very excited about Costa Rica and its proximity to Mexico; home of my favourite cuisine in the world. Once we'd had a sharer platter of tacos and a spicy margarita, it really felt like the holiday had begun.

The only downside to Dad picking such nice hotels is that when you just have a 1 night stopover, you don't really have any time to enjoy it. That's where the jetlag came in handy. Normally, jet lag is annoying and something to be avoided. But this time, when mine and Ash's eyes pinged open at 7am, we knew we were hotfooting it straight to the pool. The pool was gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous and the iced coffee was gorgeous. An all-round great way to start the day!

Part 1: Adventure central

Then we hit the road! The itinerary had been planned so that no drive was longer than 4 hours (this first one was more like 3) but even the journeys became activities in themselves. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and we found some cute places to stop off along the way like the La Paz waterfall. Even when we stopped at a basic rest stop for water and a toilet break, they had this big raised viewing platform to sit at with the most incredible view below. You certainly don't get that at pit stop breaks on the M1!

Once the volcano was in sight, we'd arrived at our first 'proper' stop; La Fortuna. It's a town known as the adventure capital of the country because it's full of wildlife, rainforest areas, and hot springs, which lends itself to activities like hiking and ziplining. We thought we'd get stuck right in on pretty much all of the above, so we headed to a place called Mistico park to do a hanging bridges walk. We opted to do a guided walk which was amazing because all the guides are communicating on walkie talkies and sharing spots where they've seen animals. It meant we saw SO much more than we would've had we done it independently because naturally, lots of the animals are fabulous at camoflauge! We saw loads of cool birds, teeny tiny frogs, moths, snakes, lizards, leaf cutter ants, and our favourite, the howler monkeys. You can really see where these bad boys get their name from as well because they really howl. The downside to doing the walk guided? The guide must've had the highest fitness levels on the whole planet and assumed we had the same, so marched us round the park at absolute warp speed. I don't think I've ever done 10,000 steps in such a short time frame before.

It's lucky we had the perfect spot to chill out in afterwards isn't it! Because the whole town is centred around the Arenal volcano, La Fortuna is famous for hot spring hotels, where they have loads of different naturally heated pools. We were staying at the Los Lagos and it had 11 different hot springs of varying temperatures and styles; some big with underwater loungers, some tiny little alcove ones to seat maybe 4 people. The first one we were straight to though, was the one with the swim up bar. I've been to lots of amazing happy hour spots in my time, but this one was pretty unbeatable. A few cocktails here was the perfect way to end the day.

We weren't sure what the nightlife would be like in Costa Rica and because we weren't staying right in the town at this stop, the suggestion was floated that we might eat at the hotel each night. Not on my watch! A quick check on Uber showed that they were super cheap and super available and we were only actually a 5-10 minute journey from La Fortuna downtown so it was really easy to get in and out of town each night. For the first one though we actually picked a restaurant called La Naciente in the even closer area of Zeta Trece. The food was incredible and they were so friendly in there. To be honest, every single person we met in Costa Rica was super friendly and lovely. Because the chalkboard told me to, I naturally had to get a guaro sour, and because it's my favourite, I naturally had to order octopus. You'd also think that we had planned our matching outfits somehow but nope, we just telepathically decided we would all wear blue and green this night! Under 48 hours together and it was already like one mind.

The activity I was most excited about was this one; the chocolate and coffee tour! We'd read that some of the tours can be quite gimmicky rather than a proper tour of a working plantation, so Dad did a lot of research to make sure he found the perfect one. And that he did. Even though I was already super excited, it surpassed even my expectations for the day. I thought we'd get a tour and an explanation of how chocolate and coffee are grown, and then be able to taste some of their products. But actually, we got way more than that! Like we got to taste the fresh cocoa bean fruit, we got to try some roasted cocoa beans covered in caramelised sugar, we had the chance to mix our own perfect flavoured chocolate (with additions such as peanuts, coconut, salt and Tajin), we got to try 3 or 4 different coffees to see how the roast affected the flavour. We even got to see a Toucan when it flew right past us as we were walking round the plantation! My favourite part though was how educational it was. Our guide taught us all about the process, as well as the challenges that a lot of plantations and farmers face (like low wages, and the younger generations not wanting to take over the family business). It was about a 3 hour experience in total and they have a shop at the end where you can buy coffee beans, chocolate bars and some other cute souvenirs. Although, it was fun and games trying to make sure our chocolate got all the way home-home safely and didn't melt at any point between this and our flight back to London!

We may have been full of chocolate (some of us were even covered in it *Ash*), but we were hungry for some lunch and obviously I was banging on the Mexican drum again. You'll see it becomes a daily pattern. Chipotle's was a great option for us because Mum and Dad aren't big on Mexican food so there was enough variety for them, and there were plenty of tacos for us 3. I went for the Al Pastor and they were incredible; Aidan said his fish tacos were one of his favourites of the whole holiday.

That afternoon, we headed for a bit more adventure and natural beauty at the La Fortuna waterfall. The 70ish metre drop paired with the fact that the idea is to go and swim in the water at the bottom means that you're facing a 500 step climb down to the bottom! Weirdly I feel like it's harder to climb down that many stairs than it is to climb up, and we all had jelly legs by the time we got down there. It was really beautiful though and we couldn't wait to get in...

This waterfall is a prime example of why parents teach their kids 'you look with your eyes' when they try and touch something they shouldn't. To the eyes? This waterfall was majestic. To swim in? This waterfall was nothing short of a murder attempt. The water was so strong, it was roaring loud, the water was splashing in your face constantly. That photo of Aidan and Dad should tell you everything! Even when we went over to the rock pools on the other side for a less extreme experience, the current was still so strong that we kept getting nearly swept away. It was a fun thing to have done but it certainly wasn't for the weak, and you should go preparing for a full body workout, rather than a scenic swim.

The scenic swim came afterwards, as we were chilling for the rest of the day at our hot springs pools. The hotel felt like it could've been designed a bit better in terms of seating and loungers. Despite there being 11 pools and loads of big grassy areas between them, there were actually only a tiny handful of loungers dotted throughout the resort. I think this is because lots of people come to the hotel just for the hot springs, as it's possible to book it as a spa session type of thing. Where there's a will, there's a way though. And where there's a Jenni in the sun, there's a Jenni sunbathing. I managed to find a few sun loungers at the furthest pool away and that one was natural cool spring water, so people came up to it, dipped their toe into it, and then promptly set off to try one of the other (warmer) ones instead. It meant we pretty much got the area to ourselves! Unfortunately it was the furthest point away from the bar, but luckily the boys just love going to get the round in. So the pina-colada-in-a-pineapple cocktails were coming to us, rather than us needing to go to them.

That night, we travelled the whole 10 minutes to downtown La Fortuna, where there was a big selection of bars and restaurants. We prefer to do drinks then dinner rather than dinner then drinks, so we started at the La Fortuna pub with a side of Jenga, and then went to La Street Bistro for dinner. I love having seafood for virtually every meal when I'm on holiday and this coconut shrimp was incredible. Costa Rica is the perfect destination for seafood since it's such a narrow country. Apparently there are even crabs throughout the whole country because no matter where you are, you're never very far from the sea!

I did tell you that La Fortuna is the adventure capital, and we were certainly helping it live up to its namesake. Because next on the list was white water tubing. We'd looked at white water rafting but some of the experiences were like 8 hours long and we weren't sure we wanted to take up a whole day doing it. We were working to a very tight itinerary afterall! So we landed on this tubing experience, which went down the same white water rapids, but you were in individual donuts, rather than in a bigger shared boat. I loved this experience so much because I always love water-based stuff, and this was the perfect mix of a chilled tour, and an extreme experience. Despite the name of the activity, lots of sections of the river Arenal were very calm and serene. So we were floating down it, spotting wildlife and chatting to our guide about Costa Rica and his life there. Then we'd hit the rapids and have a few minutes of excitement before it was back to chilling. There was extra excitement at one point because Ash flipped over on a rock and came out of his donut, but the near death experience wasn't enough to stop this being one of his favourite activities too.

After breakfast at a Soda near the river (a Soda is a traditional Costa Rican place that sells local dishes), we had a chill around the pool. When people think that Costa Rica is full of wildlife, I don't think they realise just how integrated it is. You don't have to go anywhere to see amazing birds, butterflies and lizards. Even just sitting round the pool, you may have a Great Curassow wander right past you!

I was so excited about this lunch place that it warranted a second trip into town in the middle of the day. Naturally I dragged the boys with me as fellow taco lovers, and we each got a mixed plate. I loved all of the tacos but the fish one won it for me this time!

Not only did our pool have lots of hot springs, but it also had some fun slides. Aidan had accidentally gone on the kids slide the day before and wondered why he'd hit the bottom of the pool when he landed, so this day we all decided to go on the slide actually designed for adults. Although the boys then all regressed to children anyway when they kept wanting to go round again and again and again. Atleast it kept them happy!

I love the names of the bars in La Fortuna. First we had the La Fortuna pub, and then this night we went to Beerland. After some beers and games in there, we went for cocktails at a Cuban bar (cocktails that worked a little too well on Aidan) and then eventually for dinner at Nanku. I got seafood again, of course.

It was nearly time to wave La Fortuna goodbye, so we made the Arenal viewing point our final stop before we left. The views in Costa Rica really are something else!

Part 2: Party beach paradise

4 hours later, we arrived at the beach resort Tamarindo! Lots of people seem to head to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica when picking a coastal destination, for the promise of Caribbean waters and white sands. But we actually opted for the Pacific side because Tamarindo has great nightlife and even better surfing. We figured it'd be a good FUN beach place! It was also a very HOT beach place, with temperatures at 35 degrees the whole time we were there. It's a good job we had our gorgeous pool to cool off in at the Hotel Mar Rey.

After a long journey, there was only one natural next step. Straight to a beach restaurant for beers and (you guessed it) tacos. Nogui's had an amazing selection of different seafood tacos, including lobster and shrimp, and we were even joined at lunch by this cool little guy! The lizard, not Ash.

After watching the beautiful sunset from our balcony, we were ready to go out for the night! Tamarindo had a really cool selection of bars and restaurants, and it's actually also a popular spring break place. Suffice to say, we walked straight in and straight out of one or two spring break bars filled with drunk Americans. The places we did walk in and stay though were Pikata's which had live music, and Jardin Tamarindo which was a cool outdoor foot and drink market. We had a bit of a last minute panic about where to eat because the restaurant we'd chosen said they were already closing (at like 9pm), but alls well that ends well because we had a lovely meal (and more live music) at Chiquita's. We did find that Costa Rica had a bit of an early dinner culture, which is probably fine for most Brits but I am solidly on the Mediterranean eating schedule (dinner no earlier than 9pm) so it threw me a little.

 

 

When Dad and I were planning the trip, we didn't exactly leave many blank slots in the itinerary. So it was really nice to then have a bit more of a chilled day. We spent the morning on the beach and Aidan rented a surfboard to try and up his surfing skills. We grabbed lunch at the food court and I had my arm twisted by Dad into getting a cocktail (I totally wasn't going to, for once). We laid by the pool and introduced Ash to his first game of Littlehales pool-piggy-in-the-middle. For most people, it's a fairly simple game but we play pretty savagely - all dunking and splashing and scrapping allowed. It's barely even a game for us; it's war!

Me and Ash managed to get ready pretty quickly that night so we decided to head out for a drink before we all met up for the evening. I liked the look of a place called Namu but there was a sign outside saying it was closed for a private event, so we went to the one next door instead. Lucky for us, the event wasn't so private, since the two places essentially shared the beach. So we got a free viewing of the fire dancing and acrobatic performance! 

Then we went to meet up with Mum, Dad and Aidan as we were planning to head to the famous Tamarindo moon market. An evening market that takes place every Thursday and sells cute little gifts and crafts and food and stuff. We walked up to where Google was adamant it was and found... nothing. An empty plaza. Very confused and surrounded by a handful of other tourists who looked a bit lost, it was eventually Ash who found their instagram post saying they'd had to cancel that week due to unforeseen challenges. Which was a very 'us' thing to happen! With no market to walk round, we copied our usual schedule of drinks followed by dinner. Drinks this time were at Mariajuana, and we watched the live music while Mum and Dad had fun making videos where they made a shot of beer look like a pint of beer (clearly TikTok stars in the making). Then we finished up with steak at Patagonia, which was fabulous.

The most important meal of the day is breakfast? Or the most important meal of the day is the one you have before spending all day drinking on a boat? Whichever it is, Sol was a pretty amazing place to have it. Their pastry selection was insane but I was swayed in the end by their huevos rancheros.

Boat days are pretty much guaranteed to always be my favourite. This one was no exception. This catamaran tour was around 6 hours long and included unlimited drinks, a lunch, swimming in the ocean, and use of snorkle gear etc. We managed to snag a great spot on the front nets of the boat, and we had a glorious day at sea drinking lots of beer and cocktails. It was definitely more of a booze cruise than anything else to be fair. Yes, you could borrow snorkle gear but there wasn't much marine life to see in the spot we anchored. There was however, plenty of beer cans being chucked to us in the sea by the crew so we didn't even need to get out for another round. We could also jump off the front of the boat, and we had a lovely chilled time floating with pool noodles. It was just a really FUN day. Loads of music, dancing, drinking, watching the sunset, and enjoying the beautiful scenery. What's not to love about a day like that?

The quick turnaround was actually a sight to behold! Especially since we'd had a drunken pool dip when we got back to the hotel as well (and Aidan managed to take a banana-skin-type-of-fall on his way back to his room!). I'd been saving this dress for the last night in Tamarindo and I just absolutely loved wearing it. It's so satisfyingly swishy and feminine. Expect to see it again on plenty of my summer trips this year! And actually, if I was to wear it again with my family, they'd probably think it was their first time seeing it, since it seems that everyone was basically so drunk they forgot this evening completely. For the days after this meal at Tabu, when we were talking about restaurants and dinners and dishes we'd had, this seemed to completely fall out of the collective conscience. That's definitely a sign that everyone had just made the most of the boat's open bar though rather than a comment on the food. Which was actually delicious!

It was nearly time to leave Tamarindo and head on to our next stop. But given that we knew we wouldn't be able to check in at the next place until later and we had nothing particular booked, we opted for a slow morning and some final chill time round the pool. Sol had done its magic on us because their pastries were calling our name. We ended up going and grabbing some treats to enjoy for a late breakfast!

Part 3: Cloud forest serenity

It was then time for another 3 hour drive to Monteverde and we stopped off on the way for lunch at this cute little cafe which only caught my eye while searching because their first image on Google maps is of a red parrot (Scarlet macaw). The cafe isn't a wildlife sanctuary or anything, they just seem to be a local favourite spot for parrots and toucans so we decided to go there because Mum really wanted to see one. We were only there for about 10 minutes before we heard some in the trees and managed to spot a beautiful red parrot! And that was only a taster for the beautiful wildlife that we were set for over the next few days. Monteverde, as the name suggests, was so beautiful and green and luscious. It's famed for being a cloud forest, which means that it gets super misty and has an incredible amount of biodiversity. Apparently it's home to over 2,500 plant species, 400 bird species, 100 mammal species, and nearly 500 butterfly species! That's why I loved where we stayed for this portion of the trip; we were so immersed in nature. I literally had a tiny hummingbird fly right past my face while I was sat on the porch! Where we were staying was called the Hotel El Sol, although it was less a classic hotel and more a collection of lodges, each one unique. It had a shared pool and some beautiful gardens, but otherwise it was like a retreat with loads of your own space. I loved our log cabin so much, with an outdoor hot tub and a perfect view of the mountains!

We had initially pencilled in the idea of a night walk for our first evening in Monteverde - very similar to our first day in Mistico park but where you're searching for nocturnal creatures. However, we got to El Sol later than we'd expected and apparently you have to leave for the night walk at 5:30pm. Pair that with the fact that I wasn't feeling well that day and I honestly couldn't have thought of anything worse. The real nail in the coffin was when I asked the woman what animals we'd see and she answered along the lines of 'you're not guaranteed to see anything but you might see some spiders, you might see some snakes, you might see some scorpions which are pretty cool'. Rushing around and spending 2 hours walking in the dark to MAYBE see some spiders, an animal I would normally actively avoid? It was an absolute no from me. Even though the rest of my family are less outspoken than me, they clearly all felt the same and so we abandoned that idea in favour of some chill time at our lodges. Ash and I had some beers in the hot tub while we watched the sun set and I honestly think I've never been happier with a decision in my life.

 

It was like being back in Wadi Rum in Jordan with this insanely beautiful starry sky! I love being anywhere in the world that makes me feel small (in a good way) and this was definitely one of them. The only time it isn't good to feel like a tiny star in the sky is when it comes to practical things such as... getting into town for dinner. Monteverde was a far cry from La Fortuna in terms of accessibility and connection; no Uber in sight! Dad didn't want to drive at night because he always enjoys a couple of drinks (another hereditary trait you can see), so we banked on the local taxi recommended by the hotel. He ended up not showing and so the poor woman turned up to take us herself, straight from home and still in her slippers! We didn't mind waiting though as we were only planning on a casual dinner. We'd seen somewhere called The Treehouse, which is a restaurant that's literally been built around a giant tree. It was pretty cool but the food was very American and therefore not my favourite. The worst part of the American influence in Costa Rica though (well, non political anyway) was the drinks! All the soft drinks had like 40 grams of sugar in them per 500ml serving which was just insane. I can't see why people moan about the sugar tax in England - sugar free soft drinks as standard is one of the best changes in hospitality over the last decade!

We got this gloriously colourful and tropical breakfast delivered to our room in the morning, which set us up nicely for our next adventure-packed day. Monteverde, like La Fortuna, is a serious hotspot for doing adventurous activities and wildlife spotting. There are plenty of parks you can go to and we had back-to-back bookings at Selvatura park. First up: ziplining! This was so much fun and while I've been ziplining before, I don't think I've ever done it over a view quite like this one. There were 13 ziplines of varying lengths and heights, plus a Tarzan swing and a Superman-style zipline where you fly on your front. The whole thing was so much fun, although my personal highlight might've been when Dad got stuck too far from the finish line on the final Superman cable, and the worker had to go out and rescue him!

This was actually Mother's Day so not only was it important that we have a pit stop for cake, but it also felt right that we do the sloth and butterfly sanctuary. The sloth part wasn't so relevant (although they were very cute and we hadn't seen one yet), but butterflies were my Grandma's thing. She literally kept a lifelong memory box and called it her flutterby box. So not only do I love it when butterflies are near, like when I'm in the garden at home, but it also felt like a nod to her to go see loads of them on Mother's Day. They were so pretty and colourful! Me, Aidan and Ash didn't last long in the conservatory though because it was literally a million degrees in there. I was actually a bit ill this day and the heat wasn't helping, and Aidan doesn't cope with heat at the best of times. There's a famous family story where he's adamant he was having a heart attack after a hot day in Singapore; a heart attack that was swiftly fixed by some paracetamol.

To round off the day, we did another hanging bridges walk through the forest. We were independent on this one - no tour guide. And weirdly we saw considerably fewer animals. Some cool birds but not too much else. There are clearly 2 possible explanations for this. 1) Monteverde has a lot less wildlife than Arenal. 2) We were unequipped to spot animals without a professional eye. I honestly can't think which one it would be... your guess is as good as mine.

Something to know about me and Ash is we always like to make use of a pool when we have one. We even managed to find time to go in the pool in that first airport hotel! So we wanted to make sure we ticked off the pool at El Sol too, and went for a bit of chill time there when we arrived back from our day out. The weather was considerably cooler in Monteverde than it had been in Tamarindo - we went from 35 degrees to 25 degrees. It was still nice obviously but it meant that our natural unheated pool was... well, unheated. It was freezing. Luckily for us, we'd had good training because only 3 weeks before, we'd been in the Arctic fjord in Tromsø. Plus, we had our hot tub to warm us back up when we got back to the lodge, against the backdrop of another glorious sunset.

Going into town the previous night had been a slightly underwhelming experience. With the added faff of working out how to get there and back, we deemed it not worth it for the second night and opted for a night in instead. While our hotel didn't have a restaurant, they did offer these very cutely-named 'sunny meals' which was basically room service to your cabin. We decided to order in to Mum and Dad's room, and had a night in with some drinks and card games which was lovely and made a nice change. This was actually the first time we'd got the cards out so far in the holiday, which after 10 days together I think is a nice indicator of how well we all get on. Or how much we can all gab. One of the two.

Part 4: Glamping with a view

After another pretty breakfast, we left El Sol and Monteverde behind to go to our 4th and final stop. Based near Miramar, the Domos Mirador was exactly what it said on the tin. That's 'domes with a view' for anyone without any Spanish knowledge. We couldn't see our domes at this point because they weren't ready yet, so we decided to loop back into town to find somewhere for lunch.

Miramar was quite small. We didn't pick it for any particular reason, other than that it was a seriously cool accommodation and it helped to break up the journey from Monteverde to San Jose so we didn't have a long journey on travel home day. Basically, if Monteverde had been underwhelming for a night out, we knew it wasn't even worth considering coming into town in Miramar at night. So after a lovely lunch at La Beta de Oro where I finally had some ceviche, we went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies for our glamping night!

Once we returned, our domes were ready! This was actually such an insane place to stay. The views were just incredible and the accommodation was so unique (well unique to most people, for us it was actually very similar to our Martian tent in Jordan hehe). It had a full outdoor kitchen, toilet and shower, a hot tub, and a balcony with the biggest panoramic view ever. It's one of those places that just make you stand back, look at your life, and think 'wow'.

Again, the timer was on to make the most of the pool! We had a nice chilled hour or so, watching as golden hour turned to sunset.

 

This place was kind of one of those instagram versus reality places. By daylight it was beautiful, secluded and surrounded by nature. In the dark? That seclusion and being surrounded by unknown animals feels kinda scary. In fact, we were all pretty jumpy! This was largely due to a funny mix up though which was mostly Mum's fault. When we checked in, the woman at the desk told us it was important we locked everything in the outdoor kitchens because otherwise "the coat-tees" would get in to the food and the bins etc. Mum interpreted this as coyotes. So while I was washing my hair in the outdoor shower, I had to get Ash to come and look for lurking coyotes. When I woke up in the night needing a wee, I woke up Ash to walk me to the outdoor toilet in case of any lurking coyotes. And when a massive stray dog walked past our dome while we were getting ready, I nearly had a heart attack thinking the coyote had come for us. We found out the next morning that the woman had actually said coatis - which is essentially a Costa Rican raccoon. So I spent a large portion of the night wondering if I might be attacked by a coyote when what I was actually fearing was nothing more than a bin-diving oversized rat. Brilliant. That debacle aside, we had a really lovely night! We deemed that the domes weren't going to be a great place for us to congregate because there wasn't really seating in them, so we figured we'd turn the poolside barrels into our own little pub for the night. We'd bought plenty of drinks, we'd grabbed some hot dogs from the supermarket which Mum had cooked up for us, and we had some more card games to go at. Our own little pub night right in the heart of the Costa Rican forest.

The timer was on to make the most of the very last of our time in Costa Rica! We had until about lunchtime before we needed to travel back to San Jose so we spent the time round the pool, soaking up the last of the gorgeous weather and more importantly, that incredible view!

They say that all good things must come to an end, and before we knew it we were on a 10 hour overnight flight back to London. I felt it at the time and even more so writing all this up, but I actually can't believe how much we packed in. We basically had 4 holidays in one, hence writing it in 'parts'. Normally I'd turn this big of a holiday into a mini blog series but I've already left it long enough before writing so I didn't want to delay it any further. I wonder which took more time; the preparation that went into planning the trip, or the writing that went into summarising it? Dad, I'll leave that with you to decide. 

I honestly don't think we could've had a more magical trip if we tried, and it was such an incredible one to tick off (while I'm still 29). I feel so lucky to have these 4 amazing humans; not only do I still love them after being around each other for 12 days solid, but they are also just as wanderlust and organised as me! Well some of them are; some of them it's more like they're just happy to come for the ride. I'm sure you can't guess who is who. Either way, I see lots more happy family holidays in our future.