The Mindful Drift
We traveled through Costa Rica from mid November to mid December 2023.
We wanted something a half day or less traveling from the US with great outdoor activities, natural abundance, affordable adventures and beautiful beaches. This led us to Costa Rica which houses 6% of the biodiversity on the planet despite its tiny stature on the map. We split our month of travel into 2 weeks in Uvita and 2 weeks in Manuel Antonio.
Although it has become more popular and expensive in recent years-we are pros at finding lesser known spots and affordable travel options which I will share with you below.
We gave ourselves a couple of days after landing to settle into the country and language by staying in downtown San Jose which was lively and lovely. We found very affordable accommodations across the street from the Jade Museum (Airbnb Link). There were plenty of parks, restaurants, coffee shops and cultural experiences within blocks of where we were staying. We used Uber from the airport and found a bus station close to our Airbnb to move on to our next destination so downtown was a perfect spot to settle in. (The Bus was our only form of transport-we found it easy and affordable. For Bus information visit https://tracopacr.com/)
Click on the pictures below to see where you can find these places!
We had a lovely and quiet 2-week stay in Uvita. We chose it for its iconic Marino Ballena National Park (Looks like a whale's tail with immaculate beaches), its bustling whale watching seasons, its abundant wildlife, and the slower pace compared to other beach spots on Costa Rica's West Coast. We stayed at a lovely Airbnb about a 30-minute walk from the beach which we didn't mind because it was ICONIC! We had a cute bungalow with all the amenities we needed and howler/capuchin monkeys, toucans, parrots and much more right outside our door! (See our accommodation HERE) Uvita has loads of cute restaurants and hiking opportunities as well.
Click on pictures below to see our favorites!
We spent 2 weeks in Manuel Antonio and we chose it for its national park (which we didn't end up going to because we saw all the wildlife we wanted to see at the beach!) We stayed at an Airbnb apartment so we could cook some of our own meals and stay away from the crowded areas. We found the bus system in town super easy to use as they run every 5-10 mins up and down the main road and are very affordable-usually well below $1 USD per trip per person. The beaches were nice and full of lots of wildlife. We saw sloths and capuchin monkeys (beware the monkeys are cunning thieves!) and lots of red macaws. Manuel Antonio was a little more developed than Uvita and had many more restaurants and amenities in town. Although it is much busier and noisier than Uvita.
See below for our favorite spots!
PS-We HIGHLY RECOMMEND the Manuel Antonio Bee Farm!
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