Costa Rica was the second country of our Central America backpacking trip, having started in the easternmost country of Panama. We crossed the border near Bocas del Toro and started our Costa Rican leg with a night on the beach in Puerto Viejo.
I quit my job last July and decided to take what I coined an "adult gap year", given I was taking it aged 28, instead of the typical gap year age of 18. I went back and forth for months on exactly when I would go, which countries I would visit, for how long I wanted to travel, with whom I wanted to go - if anyone...
My Central America trip would turn out to cover five countries in five weeks; the first three (Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua) with my partner Tobi and the last two (Guatemala, Belize) with Ina, a friend from Salzburg.
Costa Rica was decidedly my least favourite country of the trip unfortunately - and quite possibly one of my least favourite I've ever visited. I shared about this on Instagram while we were traveling, with the key reasons being that it was absurdedly expensive, miserably over-touristed (trashy beaches, everything's become a tourism grab) and poor infrastructure with nowhere materializing into a place we were happy to spend time. We ended up leaving Costa Rica after just three nights instead of the original eight we had planned.
We spent our first night in Puerto Viejo, traveled north through the country to stop over for a night in the capital of San José and finished with a night in La Fortuna in the north of the country near the famous hot springs and volcanoes.
Although it was a lot of work, I made daily vlogs on Instagram reels of every single day of my Central America trip which I branded "the backpacking series".
→ Check out my episode of the Backpacking Series of visiting La Fortuna!
Here is my short guide to La Fortuna if you do find yourself here looking for some insights:
