So this stopped being a “let’s just wing it” trip.

And honestly, good. Winging it is overrated when a country is in holiday mode and everybody else had the same sunny idea you did.

The New Rule: If It Can Be Reserved? Reserve!

Once we understood the assignment, we booked anything that could possibly be booked in advance.

That meant Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio for Saturday, and not just any slot - the first group of the day. The park directs visitors to book through Costa Rica’s official SINAC system, which is exactly the kind of clue you should not ignore during a high-demand holiday period.

We also booked a trolley ride / 4x4 transfer ahead of time for Nauyaca Waterfall Nature Park on Sunday. Again: same logic. If a place is popular, if access is structured, if a delay could turn annoying fast, lock it down and move on.

This became the whole vibe of the trip. Not overplanned. Not rigid. Just smart enough to avoid avoidable nonsense.

Why We Booked Dinner Reservations Too

A lot of people think ahead about flights, hotels, and maybe a park ticket, then act like dinner will just magically sort itself out.

Maybe on a random Tuesday.

Not on Easter weekend in Manuel Antonio.

So we booked Le Papillon Restaurante for Friday evening and Emilio’s Cafe for Saturday evening. Those were not random picks. They were the kinds of places people actively seek out.

Le Papillon is known for its panoramic ocean views and sunset setting. The restaurant’s own site leans hard into the views and sunsets, and traveler reviews do the same. That made it exactly the kind of Friday-night reservation you do not leave to chance during Semana Santa.

Emilio’s Cafe made sense for a similar reason, but with a different flavor. It is known for its open-air hillside setting and broad ocean-and-coastline views, and reviews specifically mention that booking ahead is a good idea because wait times can get long. That is basically all I need to hear during a holiday weekend.

So yes, we reserved dinner. Because “let’s just see where the night takes us” sounds cute until it takes you to a one-hour wait and a bad mood.

Driving in Costa Rica: The Useful Stuff

A good little reality check here: if you’re visiting from the U.S., you generally do not need an International Driving Permit to drive in Costa Rica. Your U.S. driver’s license is normally accepted, and the official practical move is to have your passport, driver’s license, and rental car agreement with you.

The bigger gotcha is insurance.

Costa Rica rental car pricing has a reputation for looking one way online and another way once insurance enters the conversation. So even if you have credit card coverage, this is not the place to assume the advertised rate is the real story. Read the terms, expect the total to climb, and do not act shocked when it does.

As for the roads near Manuel Antonio, the truth is not dramatic, just useful: generally paved, but often narrow, steep in parts, and occasionally rough around the edges. Totally manageable, especially with a normal SUV or small crossover. This is not off-road heroism. It is just better to know the road is not going to feel like suburban Dallas.

One Tip That Can Save Your Whole Day

If you are driving San José to Manuel Antonio, leave early. Like, genuinely early.

During Semana Santa, especially Thursday and Friday before Easter, traffic builds fast as people head out for the holiday. Costa Rica travel guidance consistently warns that beaches, national parks, and popular destinations fill up quickly during this stretch. So if your drive normally looks like a reasonable three-ish hours on paper, do not get cocky and assume holiday traffic will respect your spreadsheet. It won’t.

That is the kind of mistake that quietly wrecks a day.

The Sweet Spot

I do not want a trip scheduled within an inch of its life. That is not travel; that is admin with better scenery.

But Costa Rica over Easter is also not the moment for pure spontaneity, especially if you’re heading somewhere like Manuel Antonio. The move, at least for us, was obvious once we stopped pretending otherwise: book the things that matter, and leave the rest flexible.

That meant the park. The waterfall transport. The dinners with a view. The first entry of the day. The stuff that could sell out, bottleneck, or become irritating.

Everything else can breathe.

And honestly, that feels like the right way to travel anyway. Not frantic. Not rigid. Just considered.

For me, it’s where the experience really begins - comparing flights, mapping routes, choosing the right place to stay, and slowly shaping what a few days away might look like. Good trips rarely happen by accident. They come together through a series of small decisions.

Our next destination is Costa Rica.

This will be a relatively short trip - just a long Easter weekend - but the planning has already taken on a life of its own.

The Shape of the Trip

We’ll leave Houston on Thursday afternoon from IAH and arrive in San José around 7:30 p.m. After picking up a rental car at the airport, we’ll spend the first night nearby at the Holiday Inn Express San José Costa Rica Airport.

Airport hotels tend to be expensive almost everywhere, and this one is no exception. Our room comes to about $260 for the night, which feels steep for a quick overnight stay - then again, Easter weekend. But with a late arrival and a long drive planned for the next morning, staying close to the airport seemed like the easiest way to start the trip without rushing.

Early Friday morning we’ll begin the drive to our main destination for the weekend: Manuel Antonio National Park along Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast.

The drive from the San José area to Manuel Antonio typically takes about three hours under normal conditions. Because we’ll be traveling during Easter weekend, we’re planning to leave early and give ourselves plenty of time for the journey.

From Friday through Monday we’ll be staying at the LAYAN Hotel & Spa, where we’ve booked a superior room with an ocean view. For three nights, the total came to about $650, which felt like a good balance between location, comfort, and price for a short getaway.

Why Costa Rica?

Costa Rica has been on Lee’s list for years. Somehow the timing never quite worked out, but this spring everything finally lined up.

When we started thinking about what we wanted from the trip, the priorities were pretty clear: hiking, wildlife, and time near the ocean.

Costa Rica seemed like the perfect place to combine all three.

Why Manuel Antonio?

Those priorities quickly led us to Manuel Antonio National Park.

The park is famous for rainforest trails, wildlife viewing, and beaches that sit right along the edge of the jungle. For a relatively short trip, it seemed like a place where we could experience several sides of Costa Rica without trying to cover too much ground.

With only a few days available, choosing a destination where we could arrive, settle in, and explore nearby areas felt like the right approach.

The Research Phase

Like most trips we plan, the research phase has been part of the experience.

Over the past few weeks we’ve watched more YouTube videos about Costa Rica than we probably care to admit - park tours, wildlife sightings, hotel reviews, and driving guides. Each one adds another piece to the picture of what the trip might actually feel like.

I’ve also been building the itinerary in TripIt, which gathers flights, hotels, and reservations into a single timeline. I share the trip with Lee so he can review the plans and add his own ideas as the itinerary evolves.

Travel planning works best when it’s collaborative.

Another tool that plays a big role in how I organize trips is the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. The annual fee is a bit steep, but the travel benefits - if you use them! - make it worthwhile. When flights or hotels are booked through Chase’s travel portal, purchases earn 8x points; 4x points on flights/hotels booked directly; 3x points on dining, etc etc etc - all of which add up quickly!

Also - one final suggestion: travel insurance. We purchased the Annual Premier Plan from Allianz (for the two of us right at $700), and it covers a wide variety of pesky snafus that can drive a vacay off the rails - including trip cancellation/interruption, emergency medical, emergency transportration, baggage loss/damage/delay, travel delay, travel accident, and more.

The Easter Surprise

And then we realized something we probably should have noticed earlier.

Our trip falls over Easter weekend.

In Costa Rica, Easter week - Semana Santa - is one of the most important holidays of the year. It’s also one of the busiest travel periods for locals, many of whom head to the beach during the long holiday weekend.

Suddenly the trip planning shifted slightly.

Instead of simply deciding what we wanted to do, we also started thinking about how to navigate what might be one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Will traffic leaving San José be intense?

Will popular areas be crowded?

Should we adjust our timing or approach?

Those questions are now part of the planning process.

What Comes Next

Over the next few posts, I’ll share how this Costa Rica trip continues to take shape - from choosing where to stay near Manuel Antonio to figuring out how to navigate travel during Semana Santa.

Now we’ll finally see if the reality lives up to the anticipation.

Coming Up Next: Planning Ahead for Semana Santa

For me, it begins much earlier.

I’ve always enjoyed the process of planning a trip almost as much as taking the trip itself. Choosing where to go, deciding which neighborhood to stay in, comparing hotels, building an itinerary that balances exploration with time to wander - these decisions shape the experience of a journey long before it begins.

Good trips rarely happen by accident. They come together through a series of small, considered choices.

Considered Travel is a place to document that process.

Here I’ll share the thinking behind the trips Lee and I take: how destinations are chosen, how itineraries take shape, what works well once we arrive, and what we might do differently the next time.

Some pieces will focus on planning. Others will review hotels, neighborhoods, and experiences along the way. And sometimes I’ll simply document what it’s like to move through a place for the first time.

The goal isn’t to create a list of attractions or a catalog of destinations. Instead, this is a place to explore how thoughtful planning leads to better travel.

One trip we’re looking very forward to - - and already planning for! - - is a return to Greece this fall. Over the coming months I’ll share the process of designing that journey from the beginning - from choosing flights to deciding where to stay in Athens and how to structure the trip.

Travel may begin when we leave home, but the journey often starts much earlier.