I feel like our first international trip with the kids actually started well before our departure date. We had to get documents and pictures together to get passports for the kids and with COVID still lingering we had heard that wait times could take up to 6 months. Luckily we didn’t have any issue and after getting passports we started looking into more details on what to pack (and trying to figure out what the kiddos were going to eat in Costa Rica).
Our adventure started with a departure from Reagan Airport at 6am, We live north of Baltimore so this meant we had to get up by 2 and be on the road by 3 so that we could get to security by 4am. Early morning for our excited travelers!
We had a 3.5 hour flight to Houston and another 3 hour flight to San Jose, everyone did okay and we arrived in Costa Rica around 2pm ready to explore! We had reserved a car ahead of time and were able to get through baggage and the rental car lines fairly quickly. We had heard some horror stories about renting a car in Costa Rica but we thought the process was straight forward and no hassles aside from catching a shuttle from the airport to the rental agency. We stopped for lunch at a mall/shopping plaza right outside the airport, it was delicious for my first tacos in Costa Rica, although the kids were not feeling adventurous yet and decided to stick to their traditional McDonalds. We had also heard how terrible the roads were in Costa Rica, we did not have any issues getting from the airport to La Fortuna and while I wouldn’t have been terrified to drive at night it was nice getting to our Airbnb while it was still a little daylight. For those that haven’t done their research, daylight in Costa Rica is from 5am to 6pm year round.
We didn’t know what to expect from our airbnb since we rarely stayed in them before and we weren’t sure how it was affiliated with the hot springs resort (relax termalitas). We were excited to find out that our reservation was for a container house, literally a 2 bed 1 bath “house” made out of a shipping container, that was located next to the resort but it also included daily passes for us to use the hot springs. More to come on our hot springs experience, excursion around La Fortuna, and wildlife encounters. By the time we checked in and got settled we were all pretty exhausted and ready for an early night.