Anniversary Trip To Costa Rica – Playas Grande, Avellanas And Tamarindo

We celebrated our 28-year anniversary with a week in Tamarindo. It was a true bleisure trip (business + leisure) because we booked the trip to renew our Costa Rican bank card and jumpstart a kitchen renovation. As luck would have it, the best airfares and the most opportune time in-between other commitments turned out to be our anniversary week! So, we were able to bookend very unromantic trips to the bank and various furniture stores, with several sunsets, walks on the beach and delicious comfort food.

Flying Orlando/San Jose, driving to Tamarindo

Typically, we fly NYC/Liberia and then taking a one-hour shuttle ride direct to our hotel. The flight leaves early morning, and given the two-hour time difference, we end up in Tamarindo in time for sunset. However, this time, we flew Orlando/San Jose, rented a car and drove the five-hour trip from San Jose to Tamarindo.

We love flying direct to Liberia, but that isn’t an option from Jacksonville. The closest flights to Liberia start from Atlanta or Miami, which would require an overnight stay before and after the trip. We also wanted to experiment with flying out of Orlando since it’s a major hub and less than a three-hour drive from Jacksonville. Finally, it has been five years since we did the San Jose to Liberia drive, and we wanted to do it again. We love road trips, and the lush landscape of Costa Rica during rainy season makes a nice backdrop.

As it turns out, we very much enjoyed flying out of Orlando. We always take the earliest flight available, so we left Jacksonville around 5a, missing a lot of the heavy traffic. There are ample off-airport parking options – we chose Fast Park & Relax at less than $10/ day, and it was an easy drop-off and pick-up. (When you park your car, the shuttle to the airport actually picks you up and drops you off right at the exact spot of your car, which saves a lot of time!)

Orlando Airport has a lounge that participates in the Chase Sapphire Priority Pass program, so we were able to wait for our flight in comfortable quarters, enjoying a varied breakfast of pastries, bagels, eggs, potatoes, coffee and juice. On the return flight, San Jose Airport also has a lounge open to Chase Sapphire members, and it’s very comfortable. We stayed for almost three hours and got breakfast options (tamales, gallo pinto, eggs) and lunch (meatballs, pasta, mini croissant sandwiches). Throughout the day they put out snacks and desserts, including mini cheesecakes, pastries, sugar cookies, parfaits and nuts.

The downside of the Orlando/ San Jose option is that you have that 5-hour drive from San Jose to Tamarindo. Traffic can be heavy and unpredictable, so you need to book the full five hours. Renting a car in Costa Rica is expensive because of the mandatory minimum insurance (separate from what your credit card may provide), and the wait at the rental car place is long (at least every time we’ve had to rent a car in Costa Rica). The NYC/ Liberia option is still our go-to choice.

Sunsets in the rainy season

The Orlando/ San Jose trip takes all day, so we missed sunset on our first day there. It was a rainy week, but we still managed to capture some magnificent sunsets, like this one on our anniversary:

Not only did we get a sunset, but the coloring in the sky after sunset was amazing, and behind us there was a large rainbow:

On our final night, we almost didn’t attempt a sunset walk because it was already raining, an hour before sunset. However, we figured we could at least get a drink at one of the many beachfront restaurants and watch the rain on the ocean. Instead, we were treated with a perfect, egg-yolk-on-the-horizon sunset, as the sun managed to set in the one spot where there was no cloud cover!

Battle of the beaches

Since we had rented a car for our drives between San Jose and Tamarindo, we took advantage of the opportunity to visit additional beaches besides the ones we could walk to from our condo. Playa Grande is the beach just north of Tamarindo, and in low tide, you can actually walk there. (It’s approximately six miles round-trip, and requires a super short boat ride, but we highly recommend it!).

We wanted to scout out the town near Playa Grande, not just the beach, so we drove, which took approximately 40 minutes. You can park right next to the beach entrance, and there are a few food and drink options nearby if you want to make a day of it. Playa Grande is a wide, flat beach with great surf waves.

Playa Grande is part of Las Baulas National Park, which is home to the largest Leatherback sea turtle nesting ground in the world! We haven’t seen any sea turtles on our trips so far, but interested in taking one of the tours in the future.

In addition, we returned to Playa Avellanas, one of the beaches we visited on our first trip to Costa Rica.

The drive to Playa Avellanas also takes about 40 minutes, and the roads are dirt and rock, similar to Tamarindo. The swanky JW Marriott resort abuts Playa Avellanas, so it is a tourist draw. In low tide, there is ample room for walking, but we were there during high tide where there was far less space – though great waves for surfing.

We had breakfast at Lola’s, a popular restaurant. Though there were only two options – fruit bowl or the traditional Tico breakfast – they were both delicious. I always opt for the Tico breakfast – gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs, avocado, fruit and soft cheese.

Comfort food photo gallery

As with previous trips, food was a highlight of this one. We revisited many of our favorite restaurants.

Meats and sides at Longboards:

Eggs, fresh bread and banana bread french toast at Breaking Bread:

Café Tico has the best breakfast skillets:

Fine dining at Dragonfly:

We’re already planning a return trip

Ideally, our cadence of visits would be early November or December and then April or May. This avoids the worst of the rainy season and also not the times of the year with prime short term rental income. It also would be a good timetable if we moved our dental care abroad!

Travel is chaotic and expensive right now, so unsure that later this year is realistic, but we’ll be scouting for cheap fares.