Epic One Week Costa Rica Road Trip Itinerary

Costa Rica is a country full of amazing landscapes and epic adventures. One of the best ways to get a small taste of everything is to rent a car in Costa Rica and head off on a road trip. That is exactly what we did on our recent trip to Costa Rica.

 Here’s a quick recap video of our one week in Costa Rica.

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This was our third time in Costa Rica, so we wanted to check out some of the best places in Costa Rica and visit a few places we’d never been to. We started our time in the north of the country, playing around in the jungle and the cloud forest.

From there, we made our way to Lake Arenal and the giant volcano. We had nearly perfect weather to see the volcano before heading to the Caribbean beaches. To finish up our trip we spent the last night in the mountain town of La Paz to chase a few last Costa Rican waterfalls.

*When looking for the best price and biggest selection of hotels, check prices on Booking.com, we’ve found they are the best option and have a great cancelation policy.*

San Jose

Almost all trips to Costa Rica start in San Jose, the capital city. For us, it’s just a get-in and-get-out kind of city. When booking our flights, we opted for the early morning flight that had us arrive before noon. We don’t recommend arriving after dark and renting a car planning on driving out of San Jose.

When booking our rental car online, the prices from the San Jose airport were $0, some maybe $1, which we knew was too good to be true. We confirmed that it was actually just $1 per day – but there is mandatory third-party insurance of $27 a day. The phone call saved us another headache (and a bunch of money) because we found out we also needed to bring documentation from our credit company showing CDW coverage for car rentals. Otherwise, we would have to take that as well.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Our first Costa Rica road trip stop was Monteverde, which is 3.5 hours from San Jose, high up in the mountains. We had never been to Monteverde before, but once we saw pictures of the cloud forest and hanging bridges, we instantly made it part of our one week in Costa Rica. We opted against the traditional hotel and instead stayed in a really cool treehouse. We had to meet the owner in town for the keys, we used Skype Credit to call his cell once we were in town to meet up.

The next morning we woke up early to get into the cloud forest right away so that we could take some epic shots on the hanging bridge. To our surprise, we only came across a handful of other tourists the entire day. Traveling during the rainy season in Costa Rica has its perks. We noticed on days 1 & 2 that the rain started usually right after 2 pm, so we made sure to plan our day around the rain.

We spent two nights in Monteverde on our trip, and we think that is just about right. There aren’t a ton of things to do in Monteverde, but due to the drive times and rain, it wouldn’t be worth it for only one night.

Highlights in Monteverde – Monteverde Cloud Forest & Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve

Arenal

After our time in Monteverde, we made our way to Arenal, Costa Rica’s most famous volcano. It was a gorgeous but bumpy ride (think gravel road with lots of potholes). It’s about a 4-hour drive depending on how many times you stop for photos or get stuck behind slow trucks. We had a gorgeous clear day and were able to see Arenal in its entirety all the way to its perfect cone top. This was our second time in Arenal, on our first trip we ziplined, did the boat tour, and stayed in an Arenal hot spring hotel.

On this trip, we had our eyes on La Fortuna Waterfall.  We stayed at a place that was a quick 5-minute drive to the entrance. By the time we arrived the rain had arrived so we set our alarms to make sure we were the first guests to enter the next day.

It’s a hike down to the waterfall, 500 steps down and 500 steps up. The steps are totally worth it, we’ve chased many waterfalls over the years, but La Fortuna waterfalls is hands down one of the prettiest we’ve ever seen. Thankfully we had the whole waterfalls to ourselves for about 10 minutes (perks of getting there early).

We only spent one night in Arenal on this trip but we suggest 2-3 nights for those traveling to Costa Rica for the first time and have their hearts set on all the things to do in Arenal.

Highlights in Arenal – Arenal Volcano, Lake Arenal, La Fortuna Waterfall, Ziplining, and a ton more activities are available in Arenal.

Puerto Viejo

After our fill of mountains, volcanoes, and rainforests we headed to the beach. When most people think of Costa Rica beaches they think of Pacific Coastal towns, which are great but we love the little beach towns in the Caribbean. We set off on our 5-hour road trip to Puerto Viejo, which is full of cute little beaches, all with different characteristics.

Some beaches are black sand. Some are yellow sand, and some, like Playa Cocles, are good for surfing. If you want to escape, go to Playa Uva and have the beach to yourself. If you’re lucky, you may even see sea turtles hatching and making their way to the ocean as we did! Complete Puerto Viejo guide. We stayed in Playa Cocles which is just outside of Puerto Viejo town but close to our favorite beach Playa Uva.

This was our third visit to Puerto Viejo, and typically, we just explore the beaches, but we recently saw a nearby waterfall on our friend’s Instagram. So we set off to find it. It’s not a known tourist spot, so asking how to get there was impossible. We knew we were on the right track but couldn’t figure out exactly which house to go to. We used Skype Credit to call our friend to get directions, and a few minutes later, we were at the right spot, and our $0.23 call led us right to the waterfall.

We suggest three nights in Puerto Viejo. It’s the perfect place to relax after spending a few nights up exploring the jungle. We think a week here would be too much, and there are so many amazing places in Costa Rica you’d be missing out on.

Best Beaches in Puerto Viejo: Playa Uva, Playa Cocles, Playa Chiquita, Playa Negra, Playa Grande – See full list of beaches

La Paz

We were looking for a hotel that was closer to San Jose as our flight home was the next morning and Puerto Viejo was 5 hours away from the airport. When chatting with our friends who had just taken a Costa Rica honeymoon, they told us about La Paz and this gorgeous hotel right on the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. La Paz was only an hour from the airport, so it was the perfect place to spend our last night during our one week in Costa Rica. Before leaving for the trip we quickly rang up the hotel with Skype Credit to ensure they had availability for a room with an epic view and to confirm our room rate included entrance to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens.

La Paz was much more than we expected. The waterfall and the gardens made us feel like we were in the middle of a Jurassic Park set – it’s surreal back there. La Paz was easily our favorite place in Costa Rica, and we know on our next trip back, we’ll be back and probably for longer.

We suggest staying two nights at the lodge in the Waterfalls Gardens, the grounds and scenery are out of this world. This way, you’ll have enough time to check out the nearby Poas Volcano.

Things To Do In La Paz – La Paz Waterfall, Poas Volcano, coffee fields

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Why use Skype Credit While Traveling?

When you think of Skype, you instantly think of video calls, which it is, and video calls are amazing, but Skype has so many features on top of that. One of the many services we love is Skype Credit, which works like a calling card but is much cheaper and easier to operate. Since we are always traveling, it’s a must to be able to make cheap international calls.

On our recent trip to Costa Rica, we used Skype Credit not only while we were traveling in Costa Rica to call back to the USA but also while we were at home planning the trip to call hotels. Here’s everything you need to know about Skype Credit and what makes it the best and cheapest way to make international calls. 

What Is Skype Credit?

Skype Credit is basically like a calling card. Do those even exist anymore? You can use Skype Credit to call anywhere in the world, both on landlines & mobiles, and even send text messages.

How much does Skype Credit cost?

The cost of Skype Credit varies based on where you are calling and if it is a landline or a mobile phone. Rates are per minute and are very affordable. Click here to check how cheap international calls with Skype Credit are. 

How To Use Skype Credit?

You can purchase Skype Credit right on the Skype app. You need to purchase Skype Credit in increments of $4.99 on mobile or $10 or $25 on a desktop. Once you run out of credit, just top up. If you find yourself using it often, you might want to sign up for the auto-recharge, so once your balance drops below $2, it tops up with your set amount. On our one-week Costa Rican road trip, we used less than $10 of Skype Credit.

How we Use Skype Credit

I love being able to call my Grandmother, who is in a nursing home back in Wisconsin. She doesn’t have a computer or cell phone, and being able to call her from the beach anywhere in the world whenever I want for only 2.3 cents a minute is priceless. Every time I call her she is in disbelief that I am calling her from halfway around the world. She always says “It sounds like you are right next to me.”

We’ve also found ourselves in need of calling our local bank or credit cards after having some issues. Hopefully, you’ll never run into any banking issues while traveling, but if you do, Skype Credit is the best and cheapest way to call back home to deal with any such issues.

Using Skype Credit To Plan A Trip

When picking out accommodation or renting a car, sometimes you just want to call them yourself. But you don’t because who knows what calling Costa Rica from your cell or home phone will cost a ton of money. On our recent trip to Costa Rica, we called a hotel to confirm we would get a specific room with a view, and it only cost 6.9 cents per minute using Skype Credit.

We booked our car on Discovercars.com. They had the best price and free cancellation. Click here to check rates. We used our Skype Credit to call the local car rental company to confirm what paperwork we needed to bring to show insurance proof. If we hadn’t done this, we would have had to take out their extra insurance at an additional $35 a day. That would cost us way more than that $1 phone call using Skype Credit. 

How to Use Skype Credit While Traveling

Whenever you are connected to Wifi or have data coverage, just launch the Skype App and make a call. From the beach, a boat, in the middle of the rainforest, where ever there is service.

Have you used Skype Credit while traveling?

This is a Skype-sponsored post, but all opinions are our own. We have been using and paying for Skype calling features daily ever since we started traveling full-time in 2013, and truly believe in the products.