Costa Rica 2019!

We flew into the San Jose airport and stayed at an Airport Marriott overnight. Then, early the next morning a big van came and picked up our group of 14 and drove us 3 1/2 hours to The Springs resort Arenal. They had a bunch of cool little hot springs pool in various temperatures from 88-104 degrees and a big game room for the kids at night next to the restaurants that had everything from air hockey to fortnite to 20 American girl dolls. Our room was room 217, which had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the hot tub. Also centrally located between the main pools and these little hot springs pool with water slide.

The resort has some on-site activities a 5 min shuttle ride away and we did the nature walk, tubing, a rock wall and horseback riding. They were all great little 1-hour activities.

Most of our party did the zip line one afternoon and that was a big hit (I passed).

We all did the waterfall rappelling, which all the kids enjoyed from age 7-13 (and most of the adults too). One day we did the hanging bridges tour (which was a cool walk through the jungle and spotting animals, but a bunch of the kids got bored) in the morning followed by the ATV tour in the afternoon. The ATV tour was my favorite. We did the family ride so the older kids could drive their own vehicles, but it which was more treacherous than it sounds - Sara actually tipped over her ATV right in front of me. We rode through some rougher jungle terrain and then some open fields with cows and then some local neighborhood roads. Super cool. We were in Arenal for 5 days and then took a van for 4 hours to Tamarindo.

In Tamarindo, we rented a big house that fit our 3 families well.  Shortly after we arrived, a big group of howler monkeys passed through the trees in the backyard.  Great timing as I guess they only come through about once a week.  The house also had access to the LaCosta Beach Club a short walk down the beach where we could get food and drinks beach-side and get surf lessons.  The town of Tamarindo was a short golf cart ride away and was filled with shops and restaurants.  And finally, we ended the trip with a catamaran trip on the Serendipity.  

All in all, a pretty fun, action-packed trip with just the right amount of relaxation!