Rion Explores: A Grand Tour of Costa Rica in a Week (pt.1)
Hello and welcome to the first edition of Rion Explores! My name is Rion Levy and I am a travel consultant with Nature Ways Travel, as well as the company’s content writer. This micro-blog series, underneath the general Nature Ways Travel Blog, is my space to share my exploration of some of the world’s most beautiful places, both in Costa Rica, and beyond. Here, I hope to bring you my raw experiences navigating travel, tourism, and cultural immersion, sharing local gems, the best food I found, and overarching insights to places both on and off the typical tourism maps.
This first edition of Rion Explores is a two-parter, sharing my fast-paced journey scaling from south to north tip of Costa Rica’s West half in 6 days. On average, each day my partner (the driver) and I (the passenger) drove for five to six hours on everything from major and toll highways, to dirt and gravel roads, as well as through a small but aggressively-flowing river.
As this series evolves, I will share the continuation of my travels throughout this beautiful country, as I look for the best places I hope to, in the near future, call home more permanently. I will also showcase my international travel, highlighting the best of each corner of the world I explore, as well as any insightful tips I learn along the way.
Who am I and Why am I Writing About Travel?
I am a Canadian who was born in Singapore and raised across Malaysia, Argentina, and Canada. Before the pandemic, I traveled an average of three months of the year, visiting family and friends who are scattered across the globe. During the pandemic, I studied literature, language, and culture at the University of Toronto. Since completing my studies, I have been traveling and working nomadically, exploring as much of the Americas as I have been able to, with plenty of wonderful stays with family who live between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. At the end of my year of purely nomadic travel, I have made my way to Costa Rica, to pursue my work with Nature Ways Travel more stably.
First Explorations of Costa Rica
My first week on the ground in Costa Rica, I spent exploring it with my partner by car. We landed in the Santamaria International Airport (SJO) around midday on a Tuesday. We hopped on the AVIS shuttle to their car rental facility just outside of the terminal area, where we picked up our wheels for the week. After two flights, and a very early morning, we drove 45 minutes through the scenic Central Mountain Range from the airport to our first hotel in Atenas.
Atenas, Alajuela
For our first night in the country, we stayed at the Barons Resort, just outside of the core of Atenas. The roads grew increasingly steeper the closer we grew to the hotel and we were glad to arrive during clear weather. The Resort sits atop a peak with absolutely breathtaking views of the mountain range. Our room and the restaurant’s patio shared this view, and we were taken aback by the distance with which we could see over the rolling mountains. After dark, the valley sat illuminated by human activity. We were lucky that the cloud level sat high, and that there was no rain during our stay at the Resort, despite our arrival being during the middle of the rainy season.
We slept early and rose early with the sun, and ventured into Atenas as it woke up for coffee the following morning. We stopped at Crema y Nata, a beautifully decorated café that bakes fresh bread and bagels each morning. Since we had entered town before most establishments were open, we didn’t stick around to explore it. Nevertheless, here’s a brief overview of this charming town:
Atenas is considered a medium-sized city town for Costa Rica that sits in the Central Valley, to the north-west of San Jose. It is built around a small central park, and is full of wonderful cafés, restaurants, and shops. This town has become a small hub for expats, in part due to its proximity to the city and airport, its authentic Costa Rican way of life, and its relatively low tourist traffic.
Jacó, Puntaneras
The same morning, we drove an hour and a half from Atenas to the Pacific Coast. Jacó is one of the most famous beach towns in Costa Rica due both to its proximity to San José and its dense tourist infrastructure. During our night in Jacó, we stayed roughly 10 minutes outside of town, in the beautiful Hotel Pumilio, a small gated resort with two beautiful pools, active lizards, and incredibly friendly staff. Our stay at the Hotel Pumilio came included with a glass of wine at check-in, bikes to ride off the property, private outdoor kitchen, and a buffet-style breakfast.
We walked around both the main street and the beach, but felt slightly overwhelmed by the density of tourist traps and tourists. The streets were very busy, even though we visited during the peak of the rainy season and the lowest point of the tourism season. As a result, we spent most of our time on resort grounds, enjoying our balcony that overlooked the pool and grounds.
Uvita, Puntaneras
Before we checked into our hotel in Jacó, we drove three hours down the coast to Uvita. This small beach town is full of dirt roads, surfing retreats, and excellent seafood. After a walk on the world-famous whale beach, we shared a medley ceviche, grilled octopus, and some fresh fruit juices. If you’re looking for a beach vacation slightly off the beaten, or in a hostel-style setting, Uvita may be a great place to explore.
Nicoya, Guanacaste
On our third day, we drove three hours from Jacó to Nicoya. This drive was almost exclusively on major highway, and we were thrilled by Costa Rica’s robust highway system. The roads were remarkably well-maintained, flat, and with great visibility compared with most major Canadian and American highways we are used to driving on. As a bonus, every couple hundred meters to every handful of kilometers, there are vendors selling fresh fruits and cold juices.
Nicoya is a beautiful mountain town that had a similar feel to Atenas, though it was much hotter. We had our first real bite of Costa Rican fare—tortillas! Tortillas, in this context, are large masaflour flat pancakes that are similar both in taste and texture to Colombian and Venezuelan arepas. Ours were topped with an assortment of gallo pinto (rice and beans), slow cooked meat (mine had beef and chicken; my partners had pork), friend plantains, fresh vegetables, and chilis on the side. Though delicious, our tortillas were massive and we had our leftovers for dinner the same night.
Cabuya, Guanacaste
After our stop in Nicoya for lunch, we drove another three hours to the southern tip of the Nicoyan Peninsula. After roughly two hours, the roads became mostly dirt and gravel. We passed through a number of charming small mountain and beach towns, our favorite, by far being Montezuma, on our way to the Calala Beach Lodge resort in Cabuya. The Calala Beach Lodge sits just slightly up from the incredible Pacific pebble beach, where we spent most of our evening and morning exploring—we even saw a pufferfish! This complex is full of standalone, A-frame cabins with a small kitchenette, bathroom, and outdoor shower on the ground floor, and bedroom with a balcony on the top floor. Its proximity to the ocean meant that the property was full of crabs of all shapes and sizes running around, butterflies, dragonflies, and beautiful spiders with impressive webs.
The staff at the Calala Lodge were absolutely wonderful, incredibly accommodating, and had a wonderful dog sidekick to boot. Our breakfast in the morning, included in our room fare, was the best we had throughout our trip. We both ordered their typical tico breakfasts and commented about its deliciousness throughout the rest of our trip.
After this first half of our trip, my partner and I continued North followed by inland, where we got to see a very different side of this wonderful country. In the second edition of Rion Explores, I’ll share about our journey driving through the rest of Guanacaste, watching volcanoes smoke with our morning coffees, and enjoying the best lightning show we have ever seen.
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