Costa Rica  —  the land of sloths, sunsets, and surf. It’s been a few weeks since my brother and I returned from our trip to Central America. So it's about time I spilt the beans (and rice), share the highs and the lows, plus some top tips we wish we’d known earlier.

What time of year did we visit?

We decided to spend our three-week vacation in Costa Rica during July, which is notoriously quiet and kicks off the mini-dry season (Veranillo), and lasts roughly until August. Weather-wise we were pretty fortunate. Whilst it did rain on a few days, these spells were mostly short, intense downpours that cleared in a matter of minutes. After we had acclimatised, the weather was superb.

Where did we go?

First, we flew from London Heathrow to San Jose International Airport and stopped at the Mariott City Express (10 mins away) for one night.

Note here: don’t make the same mistake as us and not realise you have to purchase US ESTA visas for a stopover in America. It’s worth getting these beforehand, which will save you the headache of having to nervously wait like numpties next to baggage drop-off hoping to get a confirmation email before your gate closes. Thankfully, ours came through with minutes to spare.

The next morning, we hired a 4x4 Suzuki Jimny in the capital, San Jose, from the team over at Jumbo Cars. They were super accommodating and presented us with a brand-new vehicle with less than 9km on the clock.

If you plan on going anywhere off the beaten track, or want to avoid long bus rides, we recommend grabbing your own set of wheels — ideally a 4X4. These will give you the clearance to navigate pretty much anything the Costa Rican roads can throw at you. We reccomend getting your own car insurance excess (if your credit card provider doesn’t already cover it.

Next, we drove from San Jose to one of the nearest coastal retreats — Jaco, which took us just over an hour or so. This gave us the chance to put the Jimny through its paces, spot a couple of crocs over the Tacoles River and try out some local snacks on the way.

We stayed at the Selina in Jaco for 4 days. This was a great little spot located just off the beach. The hostel was good, with its own pool, bar, great restaurant and affordable surf hire. It was exactly what we were looking for from our first pitstop. But after taking a few walks around the Jaco town, we realised we weren’t crazy about it. Still, we made the most of our time here and met a few interesting characters!

After that, we drove from Jaco up North to Puntarenas, where we took a short ferry ride across to Paquera, then drove south-west along the Nicoya Peninsula.

The ferry crosses 6 times a day and it can get quite busy, so best to arrive at least an hour early to avoid the rush.

Then we arrived at our second pit stop, Somos which looked as good if not better than the pictures online. This hostel has an incredibly cool vibe, it’s tastefully decked out, and well situated just a few minutes from the beach. It has its own surfboard shaping facilities on site, which meant the boards here were some of the best we’ve ever ridden. This place was so good we extended our stay, not once but twice.

Our favourite Santa Teresa spots were Eat Street (check out the Coconut Mahi Mahi curry), Satori (Japanese restaurant), and Kooks (bar). We chose to surf during high tide (best conditions) which usually matched up with the stunning sunrise and sunset. During the midday sun, we kept our heads down, played lots of chess and chilled by the pool. The lifeguard's ‘jungle’ gym was just around the corner and pretty affordable for a week — just don’t pin your hopes on hitting any PB’s whilst working out in the 30-ish degree heat. If you’re in Santa Teresa, we reccomend checking out the Mal Pai tide pools. Looking to party? Friday is live music night at Somos and you can pick up tickets for the Jungle Rave which happens every Saturday.

We took a couple of day trips from Santa Teresa, including to Montezuma — a peaceful spot with a stunning coastline.

After our stay at Somos came to a reluctant end, the remainder of our trip took a bit of an unexpected turn. We took the return ferry trip and drove back to San Jose. From here, we planned to drive to Bocas del Torro, Panama. Unfortunately, this got cut short as my brother came down with Dengue fever, which meant we spent the next few days in and out of hospital until he was deemed medically fit to fly home.

Luckily we booked travel insurance as this saved us what would have been a pretty hefty medical bill!

We don’t usually in style, but the medical insurance had us covered on the way home.

Where didn’t we go?

As it was the rainy season, we decided to skip the volcanic regions of La Fortuna and Monteverde and stuck to more coastal areas where we could make the most of the surf. We met a bunch of folks who did visit those parts and told us they had a great time ziplining, rope swinging and bungee jumping in the rainforest.

How much did it cost?

As two cash-strapped young bucks, we stuck to a relatively modest budget. Over three weeks for two people we budgeted approx. £2000, which worked out at about £70 per day each. We spent slightly less after discovering the ‘optimum food shop’ which took care of breakfast and lunches.

The optimum food shop: porridge oats, bread, rice, beans, wraps, meat, avocado, apples and tinned tomatoes. This did mean we ate a lot of beans and rice, but when in Rome and all that.

Would we go back?

With some unfinished business on this trip, it would be awesome to go back and see Panama. As for Costa Rica, we had an amazing time and made some special memories, so who knows? Maybe we’ll have to catch a few more Costa Rican sunset surfs one day.

Pura Vida.