Traveling 9 Days Across Costa Rica – The BEST Local Experience

A Guest post by Ysabel Chavez – Global Dream Team

I recently spent over 3 weeks in Costa Rica, and towards the end of my trip, I spent 9 days exploring the northern part of the region, adventuring through the more rural and remote areas of the country. When most people think of Costa Rica, they think of beautiful beaches, exotic wildlife, adventure sports and tropical cloud forests. While this is all significant to Costa Rica, what people often miss out on is experiencing more of the local culture and meeting various rural communities living in the countryside working to maintain the traditions and cultures that nowadays seem to be overtaken by technology and development. For my 9 days in the northern region, I embarked on a journey that encompassed exactly that, and it was truly an impactful experience and put into perspective a different kind of living and how dedicated Costa Ricans are to an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture. 

Here is my experience traveling 9 days through Costa Rica and the different activities we did and hopefully this can serve to help you plan for your next trip to the country as well!

Watch part 1 of our Costa Rica Journey Here:

Day 1:

On day one, I picked up my friend from the airport then we headed to our lodge in Santa Ana at Posada Nena. This place is a super cozy boutique hotel just a 5 minute walk from the Santa Ana city center. The lodge serves breakfast, so we had breakfast here then headed to Indian Tribe Quitirrisi where we arrived by 10am. Our guide, Rosemary showed us around and shared a bit of the history and ancient traditions of the tribe and their close relationship to nature. We got to see ceremonial graves, ceremonial rancho, and an archery workshop. The rancho is where you would go inside with a shaman to get your sickness cured. Such a unique experience!

After visiting the tribe, we continued our journey to Ciudad Colon and met the Aguilar family around 1pm. There we ate a delicious home-cooked lunch and learned a bit about Mascaradas and watched a dance performance. La Mascarada is a Costa Rican adaptation of Halloween, celebrated on October 31.

Day 2:

On day 2 we started our voyage towards the Juanilama Community. On the way, we stopped by a coffee farm, La Paz waterfall (one of the most popular waterfalls in Costa Rica), then arrived at the Juanilama Community. We embarked on a 3 mile hike in the rainforest and we ended the night to see how they make soap from scratch.

Day 3: 

On Day 3 we visited a farm in the Juanilama Community, and saw fresh pineapple, cacao and more that they grow there. The best part was making cacao from scratch, where we roasted the beans and then made fresh hot chocolate!

Afterwards, we made an authentic Costa Rican lunch and we ended the evening seeing how they make paper from scratch through recycling and watched a cultural dance performance.

Day 4: 

On day 4, we visited the ecotermales in La Fortuna. All of the thermal springs are heated naturally and this was so relaxing and nice and an absolute must-do activity! We felt so soft and refreshed after this.

Next we arrived at Los Heroes, a replica of a quaint swiss village that has stables, a small hotel, a chapel and a train station. The owner founded the hotel on the lakeshore of Costa Rica in 1989 with her husband and the beautiful view of the lake reminded her of Switzerland, so they built a hotel with something from Switzerland and Costa Rica. Here we had a quick tour of the hotel and had lunch at their restaurant. We then headed to the mountains of Zapotal where we arrived late at night.

Watch Part 2 of our Costa Rica Journey:

Day 5:

On day 5, I started the morning visiting a farm in the mountains of Zapotal then did a quick walking tour of the forest, then headed to another nearby waterfall (so many beautiful waterfalls in Costa Rica!). We passed the gorgeous mountain ranges of Zapotal along our journey.  

Afterwards, we visited a sugar mill and cut our own sugar cane then saw the sunset at the cloud forest. Such beautiful views! We ended the night cooking and learning how to make tortillas.

Day 6:

On Day 6, we headed to Santa Barbara de Santa Cruz and along the way we passed by La Amistad Bridge, which spans the Tempisque River. After a few hours drive we arrived at the Ancient Casona, which is a house in Guanacaste that is over 158 years old. The owner of the Casona hopes to demonstrate to others that come from other countries that they are happy in this more natural, peaceful and free kind of life. We later did some pottery making then ended our evening trying Coyol, a traditional drink of the Guanacaste region.

Day 7:

On Day 7, we started our morning bright and early around 5am at La Finca Zanjra Negra, experiencing a morning at the farm. My friend even got to ride a horse!

Later we made more tortillas from scratch with grandmother Genuilda, watched a Marimba performance, and a dance performance. Marimba is Costa Rica’s national instrument and is a symbol of culture and tradition and their goal is to continue to pass this down to future generations.

Day 8:

On Day 8, we arrived at Bahia del Sol, a boutique hotel in front of the ocean! The end of the trip we spent time relaxing on the beach. They also have a restaurant at the hotel, so we had lunch and even made some drinks with the bartender! We also found an amazing lookout point for sunset and ended the night at Playa Danta, a black sand beach.

Day 9:

Day 9 was our last day! We ended our trip trying a Soda (a small eatery in Costa Rica where you can find a lot of Costa Rican cuisine) and enjoying the sunset at the beach.

My 9 days in Costa Rica were incredible! I hope you get the chance to travel to this beautiful country. If you want to watch the full experience, I documented the entire travels on YouTube! You can watch both videos on the Global Dream Team channel.