Costa Rica With Kids

Planning your perfect Costa Rica family vacation? Learn essential tips, itinerary ideas & how to pivot when travel goes wrong!

Join Melissa from Family Travel Unpacked for a complete guide to Costa Rica with kids—from cloud forests and coffee farms to zip-lining adventures and beach resorts. After an unexpected flight diversion forced a complete itinerary change, this family of four discovered amazing destinations most visitors skip entirely.

In this episode:

• Essential tips: car seats, souvenirs, feeding kids & must-have travel gear
• What to do when your flight gets diverted mid-air (yes, really)
• Hidden gems in Costa Rica's Central Valley most tourists miss
• Best family activities in La Fortuna including zip-lining and hot springs
• Honest Andaz Papagayo resort review with points & miles strategies
• Money-saving tips using credit card rewards and travel insurance
• What worked (and didn't) for kids ages 11 and 14

Perfect for families planning their first Costa Rica family trip or looking for adventure-plus-relaxation itinerary ideas. Includes specific recommendations for wildlife spotting with kids, maximizing points and miles and more.

00:00 Welcome to Family Travel Unpacked
00:44 Essential Costa Rica Travel Tips
04:12 Unexpected Travel Challenges
07:43 Exploring Costa Rica's Central Valley
10:51 Adventures in La Fortuna
14:97 Relaxing at Papagayo Peninsula
19:50 Trip Highlights and Reflections
24:08 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Resources:

Our travel binoculars

Perfect 7 Day Costa Rica Itinerary for Families

Andaz Papagayo Review

La Fortuna with Kids Guide

Costa Rica Central Valley Day Trip

The Wildest Flight Diversion Story

Travel Insurance Comparison Tool

Best Travel Credit Cards for Families

Southwest Companion Pass

Hosted by Melissa Conn, founder of The Family Voyage, certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and mom of two who proves family travel is achievable for everyone.

Blog The Family Voyage

Get your free ebook The Busy Mom's Guide to Free Travel

Check out my favorite travel gear and my Etsy shop!

Chase Sapphire credit cards

Transcript

0:02

Hey there, and welcome back to Family Travel Unpacked. I'm Melissa, and in case you're new here, you can find tons of detailed destination guides, travel tips, hacks, and more on my website, thefamilyvoyage.com. Today we're talking all about our recent Costa Rica adventure with the kids. From wildlife spotting and coffee farms to zip lining through the rainforest and finally decompressing at a beautiful beach resort. This trip had everything active, volcanoes, rescue jaguars, sloths, hanging in trees, thermal, hot springs, and some relaxation too. And yeah, there were definitely a few mishaps along the way, including a windstorm that cleared the entire beach, plus a volcano that decided to get active right when we wanted to visit. But before we dive into our itinerary and all the crazy stuff that happened, I wanna share some general Costa Rica tips that'll make your trip smoother, Things I wish I'd known before we went. First up car seats. This is serious business in Costa Rica and as a certified car seat tech, I absolutely love it. Our rental company, Adobe, reminded us every single time we saw them that car seat laws are strictly enforced in Costa Rica. The expectation is that kids ride in a harness car seat until at least four years old, a high back booster until at least six and a backless booster until at least 12. We brought a booster for our daughter who was 10 at the time, and our son at 13 was big enough not to need one. Honestly, I wish the US had these laws in place too. While I always recommend bringing your own car seat that you're familiar with, if that's not an option for you, check out my link to Adobe in the show notes and you can get a free car seat with your rental. They had a pretty wide range of options when I took a peek. Okay, my second tip, souvenirs are shockingly expensive. If your kids love buying things to remember their travels, give them a budget in advance. We're talking$60 for a medium-sized stuffed sloth. Ridiculous, over$50 for the T-shirt that my son liked. And these weren't at fancy resort gift shop either. Just the regular tourist spot. And read the labels carefully. We saw some items that were made to look Costa Rican, but they were actually manufactured overseas. The same cheap stuff that you can get in the US, but really overpriced. I think it's just a sign of how popular Costa Rica's become as a destination. Third, feeding kits in Costa Rica is actually pretty easy, even if they're not super adventurous eaters. You'll find a lot of American staples like burgers and simple chicken dishes, but even plenty of traditional Costa Rican foods work well for kids who are at least the tiniest bit flexible at breakfast. Look for eggs, gallo, pinto, that's beans and rice, avocado, tortillas, and fresh fruit. At lunchtime, a casado plate is similar, but with meat instead of the eggs, and maybe a salad or plantains instead of fruit. Okay. Most meals in Costa Rica come with a lot of different items on the plate, so hopefully your kids can find something they like, even if they don't want everything. Fourth tip, and this is a big one, bring binoculars for each kid and maybe another pair for the adults. We use our travel binoculars constantly in Costa Rica. Wildlife. Spotting is such a huge part of the experience and binoculars make it way more engaging for the kids. Bring a pair for each one to minimize the bickering. They don't take up that much space or weight, and the ones that we get aren't super expensive. They also make the perfect pre-travel gift. If you're looking for something practical. I've got a link in the show notes to our family's favorite pair. And finally consider multi-city flights to save driving time. We flew into San Jose and out of Liberia, which saved us about three or four hours of driving. Your kids will. Thank you for spending less time in the car. I think this is the route most people go if they're visiting the central and northern parts of Costa Rica and it makes sense. The were super affordable thanks to our Southwest companion Passes. Our kids each traveled for about$85 round trip and the tickets for US adults were on point. One heads up though. All flights to and from Costa Rica have government imposed taxes and fees that total around$60 per person. It's unavoidable and usually it's wrapped into your ticket price. If you're paying cash, you'll only see them broken out if you're booking on points. One thing before we get too deep into our Costa Rica travel experience, the itinerary I'm about to share with you wasn't actually our original plan. Picture this. We're cruising toward Costa Rica dreaming of beaches and sloths. The kids are excited. We've got our Manuel Antonio Hotel National Park admission and private tour guide all booked, and then suddenly the plane starts circling the Cayman Islands. I'm looking at the map, I'm wondering what's going on, and we keep circling for an hour, and then we turned around mid-flight, no joke. Yep. We flew back to the United States when we were halfway down to Costa Rica I've never experienced anything like it before, but apparently there was a ground radar outage in Honduras and Southwest, along with every other carrier that was on their way to Central America, had to divert back to their originating airports. As far as I know, it's never happened before. Hopefully, it'll never happen again. But for our family, instead of waking up in Manuel Antonio National Park the next day, ready to explore the jungle, we spent the night near the Orlando airport waiting for a rescheduled flight the following morning. We made the most of it by booking a hotel near the airport that had a great pool, which we knew would be covered by our travel insurance, but more on that in a minute. But here's the problem. Our planned stay in Manuel Antonio was only two nights. Originally it was supposed to be three, but the kids had a conflict that we just couldn't get out of. So we shortened that visit by a day. It was also gonna involve a lot of driving to get to Manuel Antonio from San Jose. With the overnight delay, it was basically impossible to make that work, so we had to pivot, and honestly, it turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened. While we were still sitting in the pool in Orlando, I got really creative with our planning. I started messaging all the guides that we had booked on WhatsApp, asking them where we should go and what we should do in between San Jose and La Fortuna, which was supposed to be our second stop. I hopped on booking.com and grabbed a one night stay We ended up in Costa Rica's central Valley, which I admit I hadn't focused on in our planning. Most visitors skip it entirely on their way north to La Fortuna or west to the Beaches. But it turned out to be a fantastic first day. Totally different from what we'd expected, but full of adventure. Now this whole fiasco is a great reminder of why I never travel without a solid travel insurance policy. Flight diversions, extra hotel nights, missed reservations. It all adds up fast. In our case, it was over a thousand dollars. For less complicated trips, we rely on the excellent coverage from our Chase Sapphire credit card or our Chase Inc business preferred credit card. But it can be trickier if you're flying on miles and booking hotels on points like we do. I was beyond relieved to have a standalone travel insurance policy to cover the chaos. If you wanna check out travel insurance options for your family, I've used a comparison website for years to find the best policies for our needs and I'll link to it down in the show notes. But the bigger lesson here, flexibility is your friend when traveling with kids. Yeah, it was really frustrating to lose a day and to have to completely reorganize our plans. We were all bummed to miss Manuel Antonio of course. But we stayed calm, made some calls and ended up with an iterary that was honestly better for our family than the original one. Alright, let's get into what we actually did. So we landed in San Jose the first morning. Finally picked up our rental car from Adobe and immediately headed north into Costa Rica Central Valley. Like I said, most people skip this area entirely and rush straight to La Fortuna or to the beach. But we had a day to fill, and thanks to those recommendations from our guides, I'm so glad we spent it in this area. First stop the Starbucks Hacienda Alcasia Coffee Farm, which is about 45 minutes from the airport. I know Starbucks sounds totally un Costa Rican, but hear me out. This place offers one of the best coffee tours in the country, according to lots of local guides. It's a 90 minute walk through the farm where you learn the whole process from plant to cup. We didn't actually do the tour because naturally we arrived without a reservation, but we ate breakfast overlooking this gorgeous valley with a waterfall, butterflies and birds everywhere. You can see tons of pictures on my website. I had traditional gallo pinto with eggs, Ronnie got empanadas and the kids split some pastries. Even though we couldn't do a tour, we did a fun coffee and chocolate tasting flight that walked us through different roasts and flavor notes. It was the perfect gentle introduction to Costa Rica, especially after the crazy travel experience we had. From there, we drove another 30 minutes north to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. This is an animal sanctuary with five waterfalls walking trails and tons of rescued wildlife. For families, it's an ideal first stop in Costa Rica because the kids get to see animals they'd be pretty unlikely to spot in the wild even with a guide; we're talking tropical birds, butterflies, poison dart frogs, several species of monkeys and plenty of big cats. They have ocelots, margas, a jaguar, and even a puma. The waterfall walk is beautiful. You go downhill the whole way, hopping from one waterfall to the next. The last one is visible from the road, so we skipped it. At the end there's a bus that takes you back up to the entrance, which is nice because you've just walked about four miles. You definitely wanna wear good shoes because sometimes those paths can be a little slick. Here's the thing though, this area sits on the edge of a cloud forest. It can get cool and visibility can drop to almost nothing. We got caught in incredibly thick fog in the afternoon we were driving back and we had to be really cautious coming down the mountain. But it was still an amazing experience and such a unique ecosystem. We loved it. One more thing when you're driving through this area. Stop for fresh strawberries by the side of the road. It's a regional specialty and there're are amazing. Now, the big attraction in the area is the Poas volcano. Unfortunately, we skipped it even though it's only 30 minutes from the Starbucks coffee farm. Partly because our sun has a real fear of active volcanoes, which is totally understandable. But also the week we arrived, Poas decided to get active, like major mag movement, high levels of volcanic gas, serious seismic activity. It actually erupted with a huge ash fall just a week after we left the area. So the moral of the story check conditions before you go and be flexible, which you know, was kind of the theme of the whole trip. The next morning we drove up to La Fortuna. It was about three hours through some really beautiful countryside. La Fortuna is all about Arenal volcano and outdoor adventures. We stayed at Arenal Observatory Lodge, this semi rustic property that was originally built by the Smithsonian in 1987 to study the volcano. The rooms are basic but comfortable. There's no ac, but a really good ceiling fan. There are also no TVs, but here's what you do get. A balcony where you can watch tucans flying through the treetops while hummingbirds are buzzing around below you. Seven miles of hiking trails, a 92 foot observation tower, and some of the best wildlife spotting we've had anywhere. We saw coatis, agoutis, peccaries. There were so many birds: honey creepers, tanagers, oropendulas, bananaquits. I'm sure there were more. And we could hear the troop of howler monkeys deep in the forest surrounding the base of the volcano from our room. It was so cool. The breakfast buffet there was really solid; plenty of options, both American and Costa Rican, and there were lots of choices for the kids. We thought dinner was good too. The sea bass and the Caribbean chicken were standouts for us. But one quick note for families with food allergies: costa Rica is really amazing. Our daughter has celiac disease and almost all of the cuisine that you'll find is naturally corn and cassava based. So it was no problem finding safe food. They also don't use a whole lot of nuts, and they seem to be very aware of all the issues surrounding food sensitivity and food allergies. Things like gallo Pinto at Breakfast, tamales, patacones, all that stuff is naturally gluten-free, naturally nut-free, and you can always ask about eggs. One thing I wanna warn you about the lodge is that it's pretty far outside of town. You might say it's on the backside of the volcano and La Fortuna is on the front. We like the location because it was really peaceful, but if you don't wanna have so much driving to do, then I have a few other great family friendly options in my La fortuna article link down in the show notes. I definitely recommend taking a Guided Wildlife tour in or around La Fortuna. We did one in town and we saw at least a half a dozen sloths of all ages. It was amazing. I'll just warn you that if you don't go with a guide at any point, chances are good that the only sloth you'll see is the one that hangs out in the tree next to the main road. Literally, everyone who has been to La Fortuna has taken a picture of that exact sloth, and you'll always be able to find him because there are a dozen people standing there looking up into the tree. But other than that one sloth, they can actually be kind of hard to spot if you aren't an expert. Those binoculars I mentioned were clutch. On our sloth tour the kids could spot sloths way up in the trees and from our terrace at the lodge, they could follow birds as they flew from branch to branch. One evening we did an awesome Costa Rican cooking class that was hosted by a local family. It was a great balance of learning the recipes and techniques, tasting amazing food, and connecting in a mix of English and Spanish with our host and his wife and his son. But the highlight for me was definitely zip lining at Hotel Los Lagos. There are 12 cables that go through the rainforest here with the Arenal volcano as the backdrop. We even had to pause midway through the tour because a family of monkeys was walking along the next line that we needed to use. So cool. The guides were really awesome. Kids can zip solo or they can attach themselves to a guide and they could make a different choice at each platform depending on how they're feeling. But here's the best part: the tour ended right at the pool deck of Los Lagos, and there are more than a dozen hot and cold spring fed pool. With the cost of your zip lining, you get free access to the entire property all day. We spent the whole afternoon bouncing between pools, going down the super fast water slide, and just decompressing in this gorgeous setting. After three nights of adventure in La Fortuna, we were ready for a complete change of pace. My family tells me that they want a balance of trip versus vacation, so I really try to give them that. We drove about three hours to the Papagayo Peninsula on the Pacific Coast. At times, the road was slow, narrow, and windy, so keep that in mind. If anyone in your family gets carsick. We made it to the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort, and that's where our trip shifted from go, go, go. To slow, slow, slow. The Andaz is probably one of the most popular Hyatt properties you'll find, especially for families. It's a mid-size boutique resort with about 150 rooms, and it's nestled into a steep hillside overlooking the Gulf of Papagayo on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. It's so well integrated into the landscape that you can barely see the buildings when you're out on the water. We booked with Hyatt points. It was 29,000 points per night at the time, though it's gone up since unfortunately. To snag our room on points I made sure to book when the calendar opened exactly 13 months in advance to the day. I ultimately had to shift things, but I was glad I had locked in Most of the dates we needed well in advance. Since I have Hyatt globalist status, we got free breakfast for the whole family, which saved us a ton of money, and that breakfast is amazing. It has every type of American and Costa Rican breakfast food you could think of. You could definitely load up there and skip lunch if that's how your family rolls. The breakfast isn't cheap. I think when we were there, it was almost$40 per adult, but kids are half price and toddlers eat free. There are also cheaper a la carte options if you want the convenience of eating on site, but you're on a tighter budget. The whole Papagayo Peninsula is pretty remote, so unfortunately there aren't really affordable local restaurants nearby. I wasn't able to upgrade us to a suite because the hotel was a hundred percent full for spring break, but thankfully our regular room was spacious. We had over 500 square feet with two queen beds and this massive balcony with beautiful bay views. I'd sit out there every morning to watch the sunrise, and at night we could even do some star gazing. One night we actually saw fireworks from the planet Hollywood. But here's what I loved most about the Andaz Papagayo. You could genuinely do nothing and have an amazing time, and that's high praise for me, since sometimes it's really hard for me to slow down and relax. There are three beaches on the property. The main one, Playa Sombrero Oscuro, has free kayaks, paddleboards, snorkel gear, and life jackets. We spent hours snorkeling around the rocky areas and saw some really unique fish, uh, and even an eel, sea stars and a turtle. Ronnie spotted an octopus, which was a new one for us. There's also this newly reopened beach club called Casa de Playa. It's exactly what a beach club should be. There are tons of lounges and umbrellas. There's a small pool, a restaurant, and staff even bring complimentary popsicles around while you're hanging out. One thing that's truly unique is that most guests get a casa de Playa by a free houseboat that picks up at the main beach. We had one rough day there when the winds really picked up like 30 mile an hour gusts. Sand was whipping into everyone's faces and the entire beach club evacuated back to the main property by van. My one big regret is that we didn't go back to the beach club the next day. And we missed a whale shark that spent 30 minutes in the bay right in front of it. We've never seen one in the wild, so I'm still kicking myself for that one. The food at Andaz was mostly great. Our favorite restaurant was Chao Pascal, which serves central and South American cuisine. The menu is literally a map of the region with dishes from each country labeled. My kids loved it so much that we went back there twice and the food was simple enough that even though they didn't wanna try everything, they found plenty that they liked. Breakfast at Rio Bongo was incredible- one of the best hotel breakfasts we've ever seen. As I mentioned before, there are hot options made to order. Eggs and pancakes, fresh juices, tropical fruits, a whole table full of different types of breads, including some gluten-free ones. And there's even a kid's buffet with things like a waffle bar and different types of cereal. The coffee situation was also amazing. They keep a carafe of cold brew sitting out every morning. Plus, you can order any hot or cold drink you want with the buffet. I'd order a frappuccino to go at the end of breakfast and take it down to the pool with me to save me money buying one later. We also tried Ostra for Asian food one night and honestly it didn't quite hit the mark. The prices were really high,$30 for coconut laksa, and the quality just didn't match. But overall, the dining was solid, especially for a resort. One thing that's great about the Andaz Papagayo is that it's really close to the airport in Liberia. The day we left, it only took us 30 minutes to get there. We had our own car because we've been driving around other parts of the country. But if you just wanna pop over to the Andaz for a long weekend, you could totally get away with taking a shuttle and it would be an incredible quick getaway. So let's zoom back out to our whole Costa Rica adventure and talk about what worked for our family and what we'd do differently next time. Let's start with the good. The progression from Adventure to relaxation was perfect for us. Our son got his outdoor time, our daughter got the resort experience, and my husband and I got to try local food and spend time together as a family. Those binoculars I mentioned were a game changer for wildlife spotting. I think we use them every single day, even at the Andaz. Seriously, don't skip that tip. And honestly, being forced to pivot our plans and check out the Central Valley turned out to be a highlight of the trip. We never would've gone there otherwise, and it was such a great introduction to Costa Rica without the crazy driving we would've done if we'd gone to Manuel Antonio like we'd originally planned. Costa Rica is also just really easy with kids. It's safe, the people are friendly. The food works for families, even with dietary restrictions, and there's this great mixture of nature and comfort because the tourism infrastructure is really strong. Okay, so what didn't work? For one, the heat was tough, especially for our son who really doesn't like being hot. It was mid nineties in March, which is about five degrees warmer than usual, so it wasn't totally our fault for being caught off guard. We also should have booked dinner reservations at the Andaz before arriving. We scrambled a little bit because the popular restaurants were filling up, but you can always reserve those online in advance. I also wish we'd checked the hourly wind forecast more carefully. It was something we just didn't know to look at, but it would've saved us from the beach evacuation. If we were doing it again, I would've loved to stay an extra night or two or three in La Fortuna to do even more of the cool activities. We'll have to go back another time to check out the hanging bridges and the nearby chocolate farm. And it definitely would've helped to give my kids a firm souvenir budget for the trip. We didn't do that, and there were some hard conversations when they saw the outrageous prices. Now onto money. Real talk? This trip was not cheap, but we used points and miles to keep our out-of-pocket costs way down. For flights, we used our Southwest Companion passes, which meant that each of us traveled for less than a hundred dollars round trip. That's a massive savings, especially for a family of four. We booked the Andaz on World of Hyatt points. It was 29,000 points per night, which we earned through credit card signup bonuses with Chase, and I've linked our favorite Chase credit cards down in the show notes. That saved us over$5,000 on the room, though there's no way we would've spent that kind of cash out of pocket. Free breakfast as globalists saved us another$500 or so. The free activities onsite at the Andaz- Kayaks Paddle Board, snorkel gear-probably saved another 200 to$300. If you don't have points or elite status, there are still other ways to save. You could get your beach time at a more affordable hotel or a vacation rental, or if you wanna stick with the luxury resort experience, you can book through American Express Travel with a Platinum Card or through Chase Travel with a Sapphire Reserve card to get free breakfast resort credits and potential upgrades, plus both of those credit cards give you a credit back for their luxury booking programs. Another option for the Andaz is to find a friend who's a Hyatt globalist and ask them for a guest of honor award. It gives you all the elite benefits- free breakfast, waived resort fees, potential upgrades, at no cost to your friend. Plus when you use it, you'll actually help them requalify for their status. So it's a win-win. For La Fortuna our budget was in the middle of the pack for accommodations at Arenal Observatory Lodge at a little over a thousand dollars for three nights with breakfast included. We could have saved a lot by staying at a vacation rental, but honestly, once I saw the lodge, I knew it would be a really special place to stay. I had originally booked Los Lagos for our accommodations too, and that was about the same price. We definitely spent the most for our activities in La Fortuna, probably in the neighborhood of$300 per person for zip lining, the wildlife tour and the cooking class. And that travel insurance. It covered over a thousand dollars in costs from the flight diversion: the extra hotel night in Orlando, the Missed Manuel Antonio Reservation, Meal expenses; our annual policy more than paid for itself. Alright, so would we go back to Costa Rica? Absolutely, but we'd probably structure our trip a bit differently. Maybe spend more time in La Fortuna if we wanted to be in the north and then head to Monteverde Cloud Forest and finish at a different beach area. Or what I'd really love to do is head down to the Osa Peninsula, which is supposed to have some of the best wildlife viewing in all of Costa Rica, plus much thinner crowds than the other parts of the country. There's a Hilton property down there that I've got my eye on. I could book it through my Amex Platinum and save$300, plus that card gives me automatic Hilton Gold status to cover breakfast and$50 every quarter that I can use at Hilton Properties. The trick with Osa is that it's pretty far from the beaten path. You have to either take a tiny plane or a long drive from San Jose to get there. The beauty of Costa Rica is that there are so many different ecosystems and experiences packed into a relatively small country. You can see cloud forests, rainforests, volcanoes, beaches, wildlife, all in one trip. Just remember though, you can't do everything all at once. Pick your priorities, balance adventure with downtime, and leave room for some spontaneity. Also, bring those binoculars, set a souvenir budget. And don't stress about feeding the kids, they'll find something they like. Pretty pleased though. Don't skip the travel insurance. Learn from our experience. You never know when your plane might turn around mid-flight. For families. Specifically. Costa Rica really is one of the easiest international destinations. It's a great place for families looking to dip their toes into Central and South America. Thanks so much for listening to Family Travel unpacked. If you want even more details, specific hotel recommendations, tour links, booking strategies, head over to thefamilyvoyage.com or look down in the show notes to check out our in-depth Costa Rica guides, and be sure to drop a review and at Five Star Rating wherever you're listening. That'll help other families find this podcast, which helps me keep on creating new episodes for you. Until next time, happy travels.