today I'm sharing seven tips you need to know about Costa Rica before visiting
for the first time after you hear these seven tips you are going to know what to
expect how to pack according to their weather and how to better plan your
adventures when you visit Costa Rica for the first time if you are traveling to
Costa Rica for the first time let's pop into my video the number one tip you
need to know before going to Costa Rica is that there is a wet season and a dry
season and our driver told us that during the wet season you can expect it
to be sunny warm in the morning and then the clouds to roll in for around one or
two hours of rain and then it'll be over and a little wetness at night we were
there in April during the dry season and it looks like a desert on some of those
mountains like the trees are bare but in like after the first rain you are going
to see lush green beautiful fauna and scenery everywhere in this beautiful
country we stayed near the Liberia Airport because the beaches there are
only about an hour away in the guanacaste region of Costa Rica there
you have coffee tours you have ziplining you have an animal park and you have so
many beaches that you can tour now the weather in Costa Rica can be stagnant
because you are right there on top of the Equator and we had one day of
stagnant weather it was hot as everything no breeze whatsoever and
humid a lot like Houston Texas can be and in the four days after that we had
gorgeous breezy weather dry weather it was absolutely beautiful
ok before I get ahead of myself let me start with flying into the Liberia
Airport now we flew into Liberia because of the closeness of the beaches and
that's where United Airlines flew from Texas the number 2 thing to know before
you visit Costa Rica for the first time is to use the restrooms onboard your
airplane before you land you know they start turning on the seatbelt sign about
40 minutes before you land use the restroom before then because in baggage
claim there one stall restroom in baggage claim
now when you leave the airport all of that has been newly renovated within the
last year like in 2017 2018 so it's beautiful
air-conditioned many restrooms to choose from but there's only one stall in your
baggage claim and because your drive to the beaches maybe an hour that's why
I suggest going before you even land so you don't have to stand in line you're
ready to enter your vacation zone the number three tip to know before you is
that Costa Rica is to know mentally that the beaches are on the Pacific Ocean and
the sand is black the water is brownish blue but it's clean but I just want you
to be prepared mentally it's not the Caribbean whites in clear crystal clear
water it's beautiful you are gonna be at the ocean you're gonna love it it's
gonna be gorgeous and you are gonna be on vacation mode
and not care what color the sand is or anything I will say I like the sand
better than the Caribbean because it's firm and you can really get a good walk
in on that firm sand versus the dry big granule sand in the Caribbean by the way
my name is Laurie and I create YouTube videos about ideas that pop into my head
travel mostly because I'm married to an airline employee but I also make lots of
other videos just take a look around my channel
Lauriepop ideas that pop and if you're on your phone scroll all the way to the
bottom to leave me a comment and introduce yourself and the great thing
about Costa Rica is your adventures can be in the sea but they can also be
inland there's so many things you can do inland in Costa Rica I don't know if I
said this but this was our first time to Costa Rica and what I was most worried
about was the number four tip that you need to know about Costa Rica is we did
not see any mosquitoes and I was so worried and I had heard from lots of
people that mosquitoes were everywhere at night they would wake up and there
were mosquitoes off in front of their bed
door trying to get to the light we didn't see any of those and one thing
that we came with because my husband is a great researcher is this insect
repellent sunscreen combination that is patented it is non greasy it's not lumpy
it doesn't get watery and when you're traveling that's one of the main things
that happens to sunscreen especially when it's super hot like we took this in
our bag on our excursions and our tours I will link this below because I am so
highly recommending this it is a thick lotion and if you see it goes on
smoothly now make sure you buy the two ounce one because they also offer a four
ounce one if you haven't seen my travel hacks video I'll link that there and
I'll also link how I pack in a suitcase if you don't travel a lot it might help
you we wore this all the time and let me tell you one of the best things about
this it only comes in 15 an SPF 15 I was at the pool in the pool at the pool
walking down the beach for at least two hours only one application and I never
got burned the military uses this because of going in the jungles they
needed the bug repellent and the sunscreen the number five tip you need
to know about Costa Rica before visiting is that every vehicle is going to be
very well air-conditioned we took several tours even the drive from the
airport to our hotel was completely and fine with air conditioning I was very
worried about that and pleasantly surprised we set up all of our tours
online ahead of time and all of them except one we could pay for online fully
but one Alex on the beach we paid a down payment like $20 and then we had to pay
like 90 dollars when we got there you might want to take cash
we had an ATM at our casino and the Riu resort and I'll link my resort review
up here for you bring your debit card so that you can
get cash because some of the tours do not take credit card they only take cash
I will link down below the tour companies that we use they're not
sponsored but these are the ones we used to give you a starting point to research
what tours fit your family's activity or activity level or adventure level a
day-long adventure that we took was a riverboat cruise and a coffee tour and
we loved coffee especially Costa Rican coffee and the CI
tours who we used said lunch will be provided and we were expecting to be
dropped off at a resort and use their food or we didn't know what to expect
they took us to a real live working farm homemade rice beans chicken from the
farmyard it was so fantastic we had rice pudding as a dessert they had an
authentic Costa Rican house that we could walk through and see these really
old tools and it was just fabulous they need to advertise this ranch more we
were very very glad and relieved that we got to experience this farm-to-table
meal firsthand and we even saw a real Costa Rican coffee maker they use this
filter it starts off white but you can use it for a few days and then you wash
it and then reuse it and it'll last for about a month the number six tip I would
like you to know about Costa Rica is to know what beach you are staying at like
our Resort was the Riu Guanacaste but the beach was Matapalo and it was less
touristy because there are only two resorts on that entire beach well
granted each resort holds at least 701 rooms but those are the only two resorts
on that beach and the other beaches like coco and flamingos those are much more
touristy so just to know when you're researching that that would help because
it could be raining when you arrive and because I saw some passengers having to
walk down the steps of the airplane and walk across the tarmac
I would suggest wearing Keens not flip-flops we were there in the dry
season so we didn't have that experience but that
thought did pop into my mind when I saw those people having to walk down the
steps in the elements it was sunny and beautiful but anyway something to think
about and you can wear those Kings because a lot of ziplining companies
require closed toed shoes you can wear those Keens while you go ziplining I was
gonna wear my Tevas and my friend said she is the one who read the website who
said they require closed toed shoes and I also speaking of ziplining I also did
not want all my parts to be splayed and smooshed for everybody to see so I wore
capri leggings and then a little thin pair of shorts on top of that and it was
totally fine so fun I highly recommend ziplining
we are not risk takers we just wanted to enjoy a canopy tour by ziplining canopy
tour is the same as ziplining fYI and the Congo trail is who we use because
they were right by our resort but when the guys at the Congo trail ziplining
tour let asked us if we wanted to go upside down or fly Superman style we
said yes just to try it out so I felt like we got an extreme experience you
can choose on your ziplining tour if you want the basic or if you want an extreme
canopy tour ziplining experience and you can also choose like from as little as a
two hour tour for ziplining all the way to a much longer to her since we were
not going to leave the resort very often I didn't worry about bringing a raincoat
because I didn't care if I got rained on but I did bring a hat I did not need it
and I thought I was gonna need my hat while I was if lining but you couldn't
have worn a hat because you're wearing a helmet for ziplining every experience in
Costa Rica is going to be wonderful you can research on TripAdvisor
Viator is a link of Trip Advisor and they set up tours for you you will not
be disappointed that says how those people make their money how they live so
you want to support them and there do their best our guide for with CI
tours took us by a little playground which he called and go on a park on our
way to the riverboat cruise we stopped he walked us around taught me how to pet
an iguana it was just a little stuff that he didn't have to make he took the
time and he was doing his best above and beyond his best to make our experience
enjoyable and we did tip him $20 each we were the only people in his van and you
build up such a relationship with these people that brings me to the seventh tip
that you need to know about visiting Costa Rica bring dollar bills bring some
cash because sometimes people forget about paying their driver two bucks per
bag or $1 per bag because this is the way they are earning their money and
they are working hard for it when you drive through the Guanacaste region you
will see any region I'm sure you will see how poor some of these people live
and so and they only get paid a little bit of money so you just want to give
these drivers and these tour guides so much of your money you want to support
them and with the driver they are going to stay with you usually all day long
for your tour even then they may not even be the tour guide so we tipped our
driver for that day since it was such a long day and he was with us he talked to
with us we did tip him $20 each one thing that Alex on the beach tours did
for us the guy who only accepted $20 up front and then we had to pay the rest on
the spot in cash only he sent us an email the day before with the the
drivers picture in the email so we knew exactly who to look for on the beach in
your resort you might have people like salesmen in the lobby and then some of
them are on the beach but there they're legit people on the beach legit
companies with great websites so don't discount those if you are when you were
researching and the more you research the more you are going to get excited
about your you're gonna see all these pictures
you're gonna hear all these wonderful adventures and your creativity is just
going to go go go let it flow research all you can and
learn and be prepared and I hope these seven tips have helped you be more
prepared and know what to expect and how to pack and I hope you have a fantastic
Costa Rican trip thanks for watching