{"id":5182,"date":"2025-02-22T15:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T20:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=5182"},"modified":"2025-12-29T05:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T10:55:14","slug":"costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We wanted someplace warm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Living on the east coast, first to mind coast was the Caribbean. Visits to AirBnB, VRBO, and Booking led to many hotel-ish \/ resort-ish kinda options – not the experience we were looking for. There were some hits for multi-bedroom places, though those came higher prices – again, not quite fitting what we were looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neighbors talked about their visits to Costa Rica making it sound as if it checked many of the boxes – more low-key, non-resort-ish, off the beaten path with reasonable prices. More visits to AirBnB, VRBO, and Booking, and we found a wonderful place on the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula – Santa Theresa – a small surfing-vibe town, with amazing beaches, some good food choices, and plenty of dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For accommodations, the platforms served up a variety of options, we settled on what can be described as a tree-house on the hill facing westward toward the ocean. Hosted by April, it provided just the right mix of off-the-beaten path, and simplicity for an amazingly low-key, warm-weather experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A simple one-bedroom on the hill facing the miles-long beach, nestled in the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And the beach in Santa Teresa, miles of pristine, flat sand. While it’s known as a surfer’s mecca, for us it was miles of walkable sand, low or high tide. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Perhaps not so surprisingly, by 10-11ish, it was too hot to stay in the sun. Our routine quickly emerged – to the beach early-ish – by 8-8:30ish – for a long walk until it got too hot. We’d head back to our place, shower or dip in the soaking pool:<\/p>\n\n\n

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followed by an afternoon siesta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d then head out late afternoon to check out some of the stores along the main street, which was mainly a dusty road – FILLED with ATVs (ours included!). <\/p>\n\n\n

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Following that, we’d stop in at one of the beach restaurants for an early evening dinner, enjoying some amazing seafood and a beach-side sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n

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And, shortly after sunset – head back to our space and in for the night. It gets very dark, very quickly, with not much for street lighting, so best to be off the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sprinkled into that routine, we took a day trip excursion to Tortuga Island. On the eastern side of the peninsula, it was a favorite day-stenation. Excursion boats, such as ours, visiting both from the peninsula and from the mainland further to the east (San Jose area). We enjoyed a bit of snorkling and just hanging on the beach – enjoying a coconut pena colada \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also took a day trip<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it sounds very modest and somewhat routine, almost boring, it was very, VERY relaxing. The two weeks just flew by!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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daytime view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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evening view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How can you beat that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We wanted someplace warm. Living on the east coast, first to mind coast was the Caribbean. Visits to AirBnB, VRBO, and Booking led to many hotel-ish \/ resort-ish kinda options – not the experience we were looking for. There were some hits for multi-bedroom places, though those came higher prices – again, not quite fitting what we were looking for. Neighbors talked about their visits to Costa Rica making it sound as if it checked many of the boxes –Read More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-costa_rica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5182"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5200,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5182\/revisions\/5200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}