Sunny Spring Break 2014 in Costa Rica

Tired of that heavy winter coat, snow boots and wet, dismal weather? We agree. As record-high levels of snow, ice and rain and record-low temperatures continue to grip North America and Europe, Costa Rica is looking better and better as a Spring Break 2014 destination.

It’s time for some sun, and Costa Rica has plenty of it. Costa Rica’s dry summer season continues to deliver endless tropical sunshine over most of the country – welcome news for beleaguered residents in the cold north.

If a Costa Rica vacation sounds good for your near future, here’s a quick and easy 7-day Costa Rica vacation package that will leave you suntanned, steamed, relaxed and enjoying the adventures of the rainforest.

The Best of Costa Rica Package gives you two nights in the cultural center of the capital city of San Jose, two nights at the famous Arenal Volcano, and two nights on the renowned sun-kissed beaches of Manuel Antonio.

Highlights include:

• Whitewater rafting on one of the top rivers in the world – the Pacuare
• Natural volcanic hot springs at the award-winning Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort at Arenal Volcano
• Guided tour of the Manuel Antonio National Park
• Exhilarating canopy zip-line tour

Top spring break destination Costa Rica is an easy flight from all major hub cities in the U.S. and Canada. The main international airport is the Juan Santamaria International Airport (airport code: SJO) by San Jose; there is also the Daniel Oduber International Airport (airport code: LIR) by Liberia that services the north Pacific region of Guanacaste.

Get the best travel information on where to go, hotels in Costa Rica, tours and transportation in Costa Rica from 2Costa Rica Travel. They offer customized Costa Rica vacation packages, itinerary planning and in-country support service.

Article by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica eco lodge is unique place for rainforest retreats

Imagine attending a workshop or a retreat, but instead of a conference center or event hall, you were surrounded by sounds of lapping waves of 80-degree calm Pacific gulf waters and roars of howler monkeys in Costa Rica eco lodge.

This is what it is like to have a seminar or retreat at Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica. From conferences with scientific guest lecturers to yoga retreats, family reunions to company meetings, Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge is ideal for small group getaways. Groups of 18-28 persons can take the entire lodge for a completely private event; or smaller groups can share the lodge with other guests and still have private meeting and gathering space.

Accessible only by boat, Playa Nicuesa is situated in southern Costa Rica on the breathtaking Golfo Dulce (“Sweet Gulf”), one of only a handful of unique tropical fjords in the world. The renowned Osa Peninsula is just across these placid Pacific Ocean waters. The lodge’s 165-acre private reserve joins into the Piedras Blancas National Park.

Playa Nicuesa’s beautifully-designed 3,000-square-foot main lodge building – described to be like Robinson Crusoe’s tree house – is built in harmony with nature, and houses an open-air bar, dining room and lounge areas. Unique “jungle-chic” accommodations in five private bungalows and a separate four-room two-story guest house are private with open-air bathrooms and hot water showers. Fresh meals are included in all stays.

There is a spacious yoga deck by the beach and a canopy-level yoga platform in the main lodge building. Yoga classes are given daily in the early morning and late afternoon. To complement any retreat or seminar program, there are plenty of adventure tours.

For more information on holding a retreat, seminar or group event at Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica, check here.

Article by Shannon Farley

Meditation and yoga on the beach in Santa Teresa Costa Rica

In today’s busy world, being centered, balanced and at peace are much sought-after elements. People in seriously busy places are turning to the timeless Eastern practices of meditation and yoga to help them get there.

People have different reasons for wanting to meditate, but those who do so regularly say it greatly enriches their lives. Mantra meditation is one of the most popular meditation techniques.

What is a mantra? It’s a word or phrase repeated over and over during meditation – generally sacred in nature, that uplifts you and helps keep you focused during meditation. Mantras give your brain something to do to quiet all of the usual chatter, whether repeated, chanted or sung out loud or silently. Mantras have a soothing, calming effect on the mind to softly but firmly focus only on one tiny simple thing.

“With so much emphasis on multitasking, it’s not as common in our society to concentrate and focus. Mantras help build the skill to focus,” commented Nancy Goodfellow, yoga instructor at Pranamar Oceanfront Villas and Yoga Retreat in Santa Teresa Costa Rica. Goodfellow integrates the practice of mantras and meditation into her daily yoga classes at the Costa Rica beach resort that specializes in yoga retreats and vacations.

The key to building a healthy meditation practice is to start slowly with 10 minutes a day and work your way up to 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, an hour, etc.

Top 10 benefits of meditation:

• Quiet the mind and find calm
• Reduce stress
• Improve creativity
• Visualize achieving goals
• Dispel negative thinking
• Follow a faith or spiritual teaching
• Get to know yourself better
• Breathe better and improve focus and concentration
• Improve your health
• Control anxiety

Pranamar Oceanfront Villas and Yoga Retreat

Enjoy private Costa Rica villas with Bali-style flair on the beach at this Santa Teresa, Costa Rica hotel. The luxury boutique resort features tropical gardens, a healthy gourmet restaurant, free-form saltwater pool, beachfront spa, and a magnificent yoga shala offering yoga classes, yoga retreats and yoga vacations. See their weekly yoga class schedule on Facebook.

Article by Shannon Farley

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Best place to see frogs in Costa Rica: Veragua Rainforest

Walking through the Costa Rica rainforest in rainy season is the time to hear frogs: calling, croaking, barking, whistling, tinkling, trilling and making all manner of loud sounds.

Why are they so noisy? The quick answer is to attract a mate, and to defend a territory – especially in breeding season. In an evergreen rainforest, newly formed ponds, puddles and pools erupt into a cacophony of several species of frogs all calling and competing at the same time for mates.

The tropics hold many such natural wonders. Costa Rica is home to 133 species of frogs and toads, which are found on all of the planet’s continents except Antarctica. The greatest numbers of species are found in the regions with warm, humid tropical forest.

One of the most frog-diverse places in all of Costa Rica is Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure, with 54 recorded species. In the Caribbean mountains by the La Amistad International Park, Veragua hosts a unique Frog Habitat. Their fun interactive exhibits, created by resident biologists, will teach you a lot about the rainforest frogs and toads in Costa Rica.

In the fascinating Nocturnal Frog exhibit, day is artificially turned into night so you can see these nighttime frogs and toads going about their normal lives. You will be given a small flashlight to help you spot the intriguing amphibians. When visitors are gone, night becomes day to allow the frogs to sleep.

In the open-air Diurnal Frog area, you will see native frogs that are most active during the day, such as the colorful Strawberry poison-dart frog. This special group of frogs is so-named from the practice of indigenous hunters in South and Central America to coat the tips of their blow darts or arrows with the toxic secretions from the Dendrobates frogs’ skin.

Learn more about frogs in Costa Rica, along with birds, reptiles, insects and butterflies at Veragua Rainforest Eco-Adventure. The rainforest adventure park is a top attraction in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica, and an important national scientific research center. 

On a cruise to Costa Rica, Veragua Rainforest is one of the best shore excursions from the Caribbean port of Limón Costa Rica. For passengers who only have a few hours to experience Costa Rica’s wonders, Veragua Rainforest is located an hour away from the port of Limon and offers half-day and full-day shore excursions with minimal travel time.

Article by Shannon Farley

Costa Rica surfing paradise: Malpaís and Santa Teresa

Long swaths of gold and light beige sand, warm, clear aquamarine water, world-class surf conditions and spectacular sunsets – the Pacific beaches of Santa Teresa and Malpaís in Costa Rica consistently win recognition for being the best beaches in Central America.

Both top Costa Rica beach destinations are found on the western coast of the southern Nicoya Peninsula. Poor or non-existing roads kept this tropical utopia off the beaten path for decades. Backpackers and surfers camping their way along the coast discovered the paradise of small fishing villages in the early 1990s. Today, they are popular with tourists from around the world.

The jungle sweeps down to the Pacific Ocean from coastal mountains hugging the shore, creating some of the most beautiful and hidden beaches of Costa Rica. The road from the ferry port at Paquera across the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula ends at the beach of Playa Carmen. To the right (north) is Santa Teresa and most of the tourist development; to the left (south) lies the sleepy beach hamlet of Malpaís.

At the southwestern end of the Peninsula, Malpaís sits opposite the popular beach town of Montezuma, with the Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve lying in between. It is a very relaxed jungle lifestyle, with tourist lodging and restaurants interspersed in the thick forest along the beach – you’ll probably find more monkeys than people! There is exceptional surfing with consistent swells year round, along with a canopy zipline tour and horses for riding along the beach.

Santa Teresa is known for pristine Blue-Flag beaches, easy-to-ride waves, volcanic reef formations and picture-perfect sunsets. The bustling town is full of high-end luxury resorts, little hotels, top-notch restaurants, shops and tours.

Where to stay in Santa Teresa Costa Rica

Between Santa Teresa and Malpaís at Playa Carmen, the beachfront Hotel Tropico Latino is a relaxed, charming oasis on four acres of abundant gardens – an ideal Costa Rica vacation destination. Hotel Tropico Latino offers exquisitely-designed tropical bungalows and suites, a beachfront spa, yoga classes and retreats, surf instruction and retreats.

Article by Shannon Farley

Sensoria eco-tour thrills the senses in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

North of the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, there is a place where the dry brown rolling plains give way to tall, lush green forest. Suddenly you are in an enchanted paradise of gushing waterfalls, warm thermal springs, sky blue streams, and bright orchids. This is a place where jaguars, pumas and tapirs roam free. Listen for the call of howler monkeys and the symphony of tropical birdsong with cicadas whirring in tempo. This is Sensoria.

Sensoria is a private nature reserve that provides extraordinary hiking tours through pure forest to hidden waterfalls and volcanic thermal springs on the northeast side of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park in Guanacaste.

The unique Guanacaste tour is located on the Atlantic slope of the north Pacific’s largest active volcano – Rincon de la Vieja – where frequent rains keep the jungle green and dense. Part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, the region holds 2.6% of the world’s biodiversity and has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Wild animals like pacas, ocelots, pumas, tapirs and jaguars have been captured on film by Sensoria’s camera traps.

The three- to four-hour Costa Rica eco-tour takes you hiking through the rainforest to waterfalls and pools where you can swim, like the electric blue Aguilar Waterfall and Pool, the 20-meter-high Buenos Aires Waterfall, La Jícara Waterfall, and the warm thermal spring Dantas Waterfall and Pool. The guided tour includes lunch.

Sensoria’s tour is available by prior reservation only, to limit the number of visitors at one time on the reserve. You can stay at Sensoria overnight, renting out rustic accommodations at “La Casona” for private groups between six and 20 persons.

How to get there

Sensoria is located north of Liberia and Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste. You need a 4x4 vehicle to drive there.

Where to stay near Sensoria

An excellent Rincon de la Vieja hotel is Hacienda Guachipelin. Day trips to Sensoria are easy from the hotel, which has 54 comfortable ranch-style rooms, a full restaurant, and an adventure park.

Article by Shannon Farley

Famed Sloth Sanctuary is a fun Puerto Viejo Costa Rica Tour

The latest celebrity stars of Costa Rica are cute and lovable, with masked furry faces that seem to smile beatifically. In a country full of exotic wildlife, sloths are one of the most well-known animals, and those at the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica are gaining fame on the popular TV show Animal Planet’s “Meet the Sloths”.

You can see these fascinating animals in person at the Sloth Sanctuary, just south of Limon Costa Rica in the small town of Penhurst on the Caribbean Coast.

The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica rescues, protects and rehabilitates sloths, along with studying and researching the extraordinary mammals. They offer a fun and highly-recommended half-day tour for visitors to Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. They are open to the public Tuesday through Sunday (closed Monday) starting at 8:00 a.m. The “Buttercup Tour” – named after the sloth that changed the lives of Sanctuary owners Judy Avey-Arroyo and Luis Arroyo forever – begin every hour on the hour; the last tour is at 2:00 p.m.

On the very popular two-hour tour, you will learn about sloths and meet some of the resident adult sloths, plus see the babies and meet now 21-year-old Buttercup. The tour includes a one-hour, guided small boat ride through the bayous of the Estrella River Delta where you may see wild sloths, monkeys and other rainforest wildlife.

Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica Hotels

One of the finest upscale hotels by the beautiful South Caribbean beach town of Puerto Viejo Costa Rica is Hotel Le Caméléon. The hotel is located across from the beautiful golden sand beach of Playa Cocles with its own private beach club. Hotel Le Caméléon can arrange tours to the Sloth Sanctuary, and other activities in the Caribbean region. 

Le Caméléon is an Enchanting Hotel of Costa Rica.

Article by Shannon Farley