A huge thanks to Sophie, Eleah, Marie and Miriam for keeping the place warm for me with their guest posts, I hope you enjoyed them too! I’m back from my amazing vacation to Costa Rica–I’d love to say it’s great to be home, but I’m already ready to go back! There was no way to lump my vacation into one post, so I’m breaking it down into a few. The first? The highlights of the places I saw!
This may be something of a photo dump, but I took 600+ pictures, so consider yourselves lucky that I’m limiting myself…
La Fortuna
La Fortuna is located at the base of the stunning Arenal Volcano. The town is small, and the place is surrounded by beautiful outdoor sights and activities.
Our hotel room had a beautiful view of the town–although they charged an extra $5 if you wanted air conditioning. We sweated it out. In the name of the environment. Or in the name of just being cheap. We got to ride out a little bit of an earthquake our first night there, but the volcano stayed inactive.
A trip to the Arenal waterfall was a great opportunity for swimming, hiking and seeing a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the jungle.
The Arenal volcano. And a horse.
The next journey began with a trip across Lake Arenal.
Monteverde
Monteverde is located in the mountains of Costa Rica. The place is cool (temperature), insanely windy and home to spectacular mountain views and forests.
The ride up the mountains involved some rough bus riding.
My best friend being adorable at our amazing hotel room (the place was surrounded by gardens–sort of reflected in the windows).
The amazingly beautiful Santa Elena Cloud Rainforest.
Quepos/Manuel Antonio
This is a highly touristy area thanks to pristine public and private beaches. The town of Quepos has your standard tourist shops, Americanized restaurants and somewhat sketchy dance clubs. Manuel Antonio has a nice public beach, while the Manuel Antonio National Park has stunning private waters.
The drive there. Fields of African oil palms.
Oh, just chillin’ on our hotel patio.
Running on the “public” Manuel Antonio beach.
The private Manuel Antonio National Park beach.
So now that you have an idea of where I was, stay tuned for the food and the fun of Costa Rica, coming soon!
Have you gone on a vacation where you just wanted to stay?
Welcome back! I don’t blame you for wanting to go back. You went to some stunning places!!
I fully anticipate not wanting to come home from Italy.
Nope, trust me, you aren’t going to want to leave Italy
How amazingly beautiful your pictures are! I’m so glad you had such a wonderful trip.
Thanks JamieAnne! The whole country was so green, it was hard NOT to get good pictures!
SO beautiful… I have never been on a tropical/ beachy vacation. We have the Oregon coast about 90 minutes away, but it is COLD and not beachy!
This was my first time on a really tropical beach–most previous experiences were on the Maine coast, which I have a feeling is a lot like Portland, just, you know, the other side of the country.
I love vacation photos! Welcome Back, Allie!!
Thanks Fran! It’s good to be back blogging, I’ve missed it!
Fabulous pictures!! I love the one of the horse and volcano, and your hair is beyond amazing
So glad you’re back and so glad you had such a wonderful time!
That horse was SO sweet, he came running over while we were standing by the fence taking pictures, so I couldn’t resist getting him in there…
Oh my gosh! BEAUTIFUL pictures! I’m so glad you’re back and that a volcano didn’t erupt on you while in Costa Rica
It would have been cool to see some lava, though
WOW!! Gosh. How full of natural beauty is Costa Rica? I love each picture it’s just so alive.
and I always want to stay when I go away. That’s why I have wanderlust
It really is a gorgeous country–it was impossible to get an unflattering picture of the landscape.
Welcome back! So, so beautiful. (Both Costa Rica AND your blue hair!) I would love to travel again soon…looking forward to your travel posts so that I can live vicariously through you!
Thank you thank you! I guess I’ll just have to keep taking vacations so I can keep posting about them
That sounds like such a fun trip!!!! Welcome back!
My friend and I are planning a surfing trip to Costa Rica in the next couple of years. These photos look great!
I’d love to hear about that! It was an option on this trip, but I’m really not a huge water person and went for some other options instead. I admire anyone who can get up on a surfboard!
I love the photo of you 2 chillin’, so cute. I am so glad you had a great trip, the sights look stunning. So you didn’t try the sketchy dance clubs?
I went to school in Hawaii and could have stayed forever. The smell, the ocean, the sun. I loved it all.
Haha, thanks–the patio just begged for that picture to be taken
And nope, widely avoided the dance clubs–they all had weird blacked out windows and looked like just the place to be kidnapped from…
Welcome back! I’m so glad you had a fantastic time!
Your photos are beautiful, especially the one of the waterfall. Everything looks amazing, no wonder you wanted to stay!
Sometimes when I go to France I get a yearning to stay there, it is part of after all. I adore so much of the culture!
Thanks! And it’s always hard to come home, especially when you find the right location with the right culture!
Oh my, that waterfall is absolutely amazing. I would be afraid to swim under it for fear of weird currents. It looks like everything was just spectacular.
Oh Allie, I LOVE all the vacation shots. Looks like an amazing trip, thank you for taking us along with you vicariously!!! Have a great Thursday.
That looks like the most beautiful place ever… I’d so love to go, what stunning pictures. I love the “just chilling” pic too
Glad you had a great time!