A Wonderful Country to Visit

Costa Rica | Aug 4 - Aug 11, 2025

My daughter joined my wife and I on our Costa Rica trip. Our trip planners, Holden and Serendipity Adventures tailored our visit to accommodate our special needs and schedule. We landed in San Jose and stayed at a hotel within a mile of the airport. Next day, Alex picked us up at the hotel for our trip to the Arenal Volcano area. Alex was much more than a van driver. He is an encyclopedia for Costa Rica! He gave us interesting facts about each small town we traveled through, pointed out interesting flora and fauna, and took us to his favorite Soda for an excellent Cost Rican lunch.
Our hotel, the Arenal Springs Resort, is a full service resort with multiple restaurants, swimming pools and excellent service. Our favorite restaurant was the swim-up in the hot springs swimming pool! The only negative for the hotel was its size. Our rooms were far from the central area and, since we had trouble walking, we needed to call for a ride every time we needed to do something. The rides arrived quickly, but were a little inconvenient.
From our hotel, Serendipity took us to a jungle walk, a river rafting trip (no rapids), and a coffee/chocolate tour. Lots of great photos and we are now experts on coffee and chocolate!
After 4 nights in Arenal, we journeyed to Monteverde, and the Cloud Forest Lodge, Our trip began with a short trip through the jungle to Lake Arenal, where we and our luggage boarded a boat for a sail across the lake to a landing about 45 minutes away. Our van was then loaded up and we learned about some of Costa Rica's very poor roads! 3 1/2 hours of pot holes, with a few newly paved sections to give us some hope! Next time we visit we hope that paving will be completed!
We only had 2 nights scheduled for the Cloud Forest Lodge, which was unfortunate. We could have stayed there much longer! The hotel is an eco-friendly facility with no TV, no pools, and no noise! Yes, you can hear birds singing and some animal calls from the jungle, and occasional thunder, but nothing else. We had never experience such an atmosphere and I thought I might get bored, but it was a wonderful experience. Thanks to Holden and Serendipity for finding this unique destination. Next time, we will spend a week at that lodge.
More kudos: My wife is gluten intolerant and when we had lunch that afternoon on the balcony overlooking the jungle, we informed the waiter of that. Her lunch was excellent and gluten free. When we went to dinners, lunches, and breakfasts thereafter, all the wait staff knew of her gluten intolerance and were careful to serve her only gluten-free dishes. Even the amuse bouche was separately prepared for her at the dinners. We have eaten at many Michelin-stared restaurants without that level of attention.
Our best tour of the week began the next day, a bird watching adventure in the cloud forest. Our guide, Andres (Andy), was an internationally recognized naturalist who is an incredible source of knowledge of birds, animals, trees, etc!