Destination Costa Rica: Planning an Easter Weekend Getaway
Costa Rica Series
Planning a trip is often half the fun of travel.
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
I'm so excited for y'all!!!! Costa Rica is amazing!!!