15th Anniversary in Costa Rica
In June 2007 we set out on an epic 5 month honeymoon, starting in Cancun, going through Central and South America, and ending with a sinking ship in Antarctica.
We started this blog to journal our adventures and keep our friends and family up to date with our travels (this was before iPhones and widespread Internet!). Here's our first post about our honeymoon.
Can you believe it has been 15 years since then?!
To celebrate our crystal anniversary - the Big 1-5! - we headed to Costa Rica (where we spent an entire month of our honeymoon trip) for the first two weeks of August 2022.
We flew into Liberia, Costa Rica, which is a small airport with only 8 gates. We quickly made our way through immigration and then had a private shuttle ride to our first hotel.
JW Marriott Guanacaste
I found an amazing TravelZoo deal for this hotel that included an ocean view room, free breakfast, and $100 to spend on food/drinks daily. The JW Marriott is just south of Tamarindo in the Hacienda Pinilla area. I had heard that the road to get to the hotel was rocky and rough, but actually it wasn't bad at all - only a few minutes on dirt and rocks.
The JW Marriott is a very large property that has 5 restaurants, the largest pool in Costa Rica, and its own private beach. We started each morning at the breakfast buffet, which had an amazing selection of local fruits, fruit-infused chia seed puddings, juices, homemade tortillas, Casado (the local beans and rice dish), and even gluten free breads. Then, we'd hangout in the swim area of the hotel beach, which was sectioned off from the rest of the very rocky beach.
We'd spend our afternoons at the Azul Grill restaurant at the pool area overlooking the beach. We saw the most epic lightning and thunderstorms from this restaurant. The "rainy season" definitely lived up to its hype. We had epic rain downpours several times a day.
In the evening, we'd enjoy the sunset (if it wasn't cloudy/rainy) or relax on the hotel hammocks or beach bean bags and then walk to Tamarind, an Asian fusion place for dinner (delicious avocado rolls!).
Overall, it was an incredibly relaxing place with some of the most delicious meals I've had in a long time. However, the hotel is very isolated from the rest of Costa Rica. This is an amazing place to stay if you want to just relax on the beach, but if you want the real Costa Rica experience, you need to get to Tamarindo!
Jardin Del Eden
After 3 nights and four days at the JW Marriott Guanacaste, we took a shuttle to the Jardin Del Eden hotel in downtown Tamarindo. I found this hotel on Expedia after seeing the photos of the Romantic Star room which had its own private balcony with a jacuzzi and daybed. While the hotel was quite impressive, it didn't quite live up to its photos. It turns out that they stack all the Romantic Star rooms together, so you have no privacy on your balcony. Our neighbors would smoke often on their balconies, making it hard to enjoy our time outside. And, while the hotel did spray for mosquitos, there were still plenty around. Not wanting to get any of the four diseases they carry, we spent most our evenings indoors looking out longingly at our daybed.
Another thing the hotel website didn't mention is the long walk to its private beach, which involved walking down a dark passageway covered in greenery and crossing a high-traffic street. I got more than 12,000 steps a day at this hotel!
Luckily, the private beach was spectacular, though. It had lounge chairs, daybeds, and a small infinity pool. We spent ample time lounging here.
While the first few days at the hotel, the waves at Tamarindo were not as great as I had remembered, it turns out that was because of the tide and winds. On Saturday morning, the waves were glistening - perfectly formed with offshore winds holding them up for long rides. I decided that Sunday we had to find a surfboard. The next morning, we were able to rent a nice 9' Walden surfboard right from a person on the beach. The waves were a little less well-formed and there were A LOT of people out, but we each caught some great rides!
After spending the mornings at the beach, we'd walk into town for lunch. At first, I was in culture shock from the amount of people and cars and traffic in downtown Tamarindo, but once we explored and figured out where things were, it felt more comfortable. We searched all the restaurants on the beach for gluten-free vegan options and they were rather limited (as in just chips and guac). Luckily, Trevor found a place called "Friend's Cafe" in the Mercadito, a local food court that was up a rocky dirt road. Friend's Cafe had the most amazingly delicious gluten-free vegan hummus & veggie crepes! So, we went there nearly every day for the remainder of our trip. I also tried the avocado and black bean Arepa at another restaurant and it was amazing!
After lunch and some relaxing time on our daybed when the mosquitos weren't attacking, we'd enjoy the most amazing sunsets at the private beach. It rained a lot less in Tamarindo than it did at the JW Marriott, so we got a lot more sunsets. Tamarindo beach was also amazing for people, dog, and horse watching - it was quite an active beach with lots of movement.
In the evenings, we enjoyed a free 3-course dinner at the hotel as part of our reservation. It felt like we were eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant. The chef made the most amazing gluten-free vegan appetizers and dinners. The dessert, on the other hand, was the same for me every night - blackberry gelato (which was 99% seeds!).
Hotel Capitan Suizo
After four nights and five days at Jardin Del Eden, we took an Uber to Hotel Capitan Suizo. This is the hotel we stayed at as part of our honeymoon. We stayed in Bungalow Uno (#1) in 2007 and got the same one in 2022! We had fun recreating photos from 15 years ago - it was fascinating to see how much and how little things have changed.
We spent our mornings enjoying the delicious breakfast buffet that came with our reservation. I had all the mango I could fill my stomach with (my favorite fruit!!). They also made me gluten-free pancakes and avocado toast.
After breakfast, we'd enjoy time in the water - either surfing or standup paddleboarding or boogie boarding. Unfortunately, I accidentally tossed our water camera into the water when I went to grab Trevor's surfboard before it went over the falls (tossed down the whitewash of a wave) and it doesn't float, so we lost nearly all our water sport photos.
One thing that amazed me was how many people there were surfing at Capitan Suizo's private beach area. In 2007, it was just Trevor and me and maybe an occasional 1-2 locals. In 2022, it was jam-packed with large groups of surf classes as well as many other people. It was quite dangerous to surf with all the beginners out, so when we did surf, we surfed just south of everyone.
On the very last day of surfing, I was just about to paddle into a wave when I looked to my right and saw a turtle surfing the wave. I hopped off the wave and turned my board to follow the green sea turtle as long as I could - what a cool sight!
For lunch, we enjoyed some Casado, sandwiches, and/or pasta at Capitan Suizo's restaurant overlooking the ocean. The food was wonderful and the view was unbeatable. In our post-lunch food coma state, we'd lounge at the beach or our bungalow (in the hammock!).
For dinner, Trevor would walk to the Mercadito to grab food to bring back (I called it "Uber Eats - Trevor," or "Uber Trev" for short). We enjoyed our dinner while watching the sunset or inside our Bungalow as we hid from mosquitos - wow were there a LOT of mosquitos and other bugs at this place! My skin was burning from covering myself in bug repellant 4-5 times a day. Luckily, we had an amazing outdoor rain shower as part of our bungalow so we could rinse off in the middle of what felt like a jungle.
The sunsets every night were truly magical! Especially at low tide with the reflection on the water!
In 2007, monkeys were frequent visitors to Capitan Suizo - often waking us up multiple times a night with their loud howls. We didn't see a monkey the entire trip...until 5am on the day we had to leave. We were up early to catch a ride to the airport and then we heard the howlers very close. Trevor took off to find them. He spotted 3 in a tree across the street from the hotel and we watched them walk across branches and even power lines. Some made it back to our bungalow area - what a cool way to end the trip!
Until our next adventures...thank you for reading! Please reach out and let us know how you are doing!!
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