Costa Rica Road Trip
After spending a month in Avellanas, Costa Rica, we were ready to hit the road and explore more of the Pacific coast. We spent our second month—August—traveling in our 4WD rental around the west side of the country. Our first stop was about two hours away from Playa Avellanas in Playa Guiones, in the very popular area of Nosara.
The waves and walks through the jungle to the beach were quite magical. I can see why so many people love Nosara and have chosen to visit or even move there. It felt crowded to us in August, but I’m glad I got a chance to see what the hype is all about.
We enjoyed breakfast at Rosi’s Soda Tica most mornings.
Our next stop was Santa Teresa, another popular area for yoga and surf travelers to Costa Rica. This ended up being my favorite spot for food—there are a ton of great restaurants for such a small town.
It’s a one (main) road town with trucks, ATVs, and dirt bikes buzzing around, so it felt busy and bustling while we were there. But the place we stayed (Surf Vista Villas) was tucked away into the hills with a very steep driveway and gorgeous views. I highly recommend it if you find yourself in the area.
My favorite breakfast in Santa Teresa were from El Patio Cafe. I’m still dreaming about this smoothie bowl:
From Santa Teresa, we took a little detour north to visit one of Bryan’s favorite spots. We’ve both been to Monteverde before, but since the cloud forests are disappearing, he wants to make it a point to visit every time, and I was happy to oblige. After weeks at the beach, it was a nice change to head into the lush forest and the mountains.
One of the best things we did was visit an organic farm. We had a solo tour of a fully operational family farm (Finca El Paraiso) where we got to meet some of the cows and pigs. We even milked a cow and made homemade cheese and tortillas… and got to sample some delicious Costa Rican coffee.
After Monteverde, it was time to head back to the beach. We landed in Uvita— It’s a small town; easy to walk around and not far from many of the things we wanted to do.
I have somewhat mixed feelings about Uvita because they’ve fenced in their entire beach, and you need to pay a daily fee to access it. At $6/day, it wasn’t too expensive for us, but it definitely wasn’t the free and easy access we were used to. We were also put off because our Airbnb promised a 5 minute walk to the beach, and it turned out not to be walkable at all. Luckily, it was a quick drive in our rental car.
Oh well, the beach fee keeps the area quiet and clean. And we were able to visit Dominical for surfing and Quepos for white water rafting.
I’d say all the places we stopped were the best in their own way, but we really saved the best of the best for last. Matapalo is all the way south on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. It is not easy to get to, but that’s part of what makes it so special. We saw so many birds and animals that I’ve never seen before and may never see anywhere else. It was completely worth any amount of driving on bumpy roads.
We stayed in luxuriously rustic eco tents at the Four Monkeys Eco Lodge. I was hesitant about staying in a tent with a dog in a place with so much wildlife, but it worked out just fine. We saw all four types of monkey (howler, spider, white-faces, and squirrel.) Our hosts were very kind and hospitable. I would definitely recommend it and hope to return someday.
After our time in Matapalo, we drove about 30 minutes north to stay in Puerto Jimenez for a couple of nights. That gave us easier access to visit Corcovado National Park. We saw whales, coatis, agutis, wild boar, more monkeys, anteaters, and two tapirs! Corcovado Hiking Tours led an incredible experience that I won’t soon forget.
Our actual last stop was in San Jose. We were pretty tired by that point, and only planned to stay for two nights to dry out our clothes from the rainy national park visit. We returned to city life normalcy and went to dinner and a movie theatre:
That would’ve been the end of our trip, but I ended up making a mistake with the vet paperwork for Bailey and had to stay an extra night! There was mixed information between the requirements to enter the US and to leave Costa Rica. The US has new, more lenient rules, but Costa Rica was following their own rules, so if you’re bringing a (US) dog back to the US from Costa Rica, make sure you visit a vet and get the screw worm clearance. You’ll save yourself a lot of stress!
But Bailey and I found a last-minute hotel very close to the airport and were lucky to find the most wonderful vet (AlbaVets.) Dr. Alejandra was the best and really went above and beyond to help me.
It took an extra 24 hours, but I made it back to the US with Bailey safe and sound!