Plan Costa Rica around your family—not the other way around.

“The best thing the guide did was give us permission to do less. We originally planned La Fortuna, Monteverde and the beach in seven nights. After working through the route and transfer guidance, we dropped Monteverde and stayed longer in the other two places. That was absolutely the right call. We still saw sloths, went on a night walk, visited hot springs and had real beach time, but nobody was packing every other morning. It was not a ready-made itinerary; it helped us build a realistic one for our children.”

“After the Fieldbook helped us choose Manuel Antonio, the hotel list helped us solve the harder question: where six people could actually sleep comfortably. The Costa Verde notes made us look beyond the lowest room rate and compare the casas, bungalows, kitchen options, bed arrangements and number of bathrooms offered at Tulamar. We also understood that the hillside and stairs could be a drawback for my family. Both hotels have this problem but Delia wrote in her notes that Tulamar has golf carts. This is the kind of inside knowledge that may have saved our trip! We are still confirming the exact occupancy directly with the hotels, but we now know which room categories to ask about instead of sending a vague “family room” request.”

“My entire family requested a surf vacation. My husband hasn’t surfed since his mid-twenties so I was a little nervous we were biting off more than we can chew. We decided on two surf towns (Tamarindo and Nosara) and I am very happy we had that change mid trip. Even if they were two surf towns they were completely different. Tamarindo was super high energy and Nosara was totally chill. I am not a surfer so I was done after my first lesson but both towns had something for me to do while they were at the beach. I shopped in Tamarindo and took yoga classes in Nosara. The best part of the day was when we all got together for the sunset.”