As you probably know, I studied abroad in Costa Rica when I was sixteen and have been back probably over twenty times. It’s a place I feel very comfortable and very confident in, so when Dan suggested we take a trip so he could de-stress (he has a lot going on right now), I figured it was the perfect place, because he really needed somewhere easy, stress-free and chill.
I chose Las Catalinas, a really beautiful community on Playa Danta in Guanacaste, about 45 min from Liberia Airport. I’ve stayed there before, and it’s a really gorgeous little gem of a town. If you don’t feel like leaving, you don’t have to - they have everything from a gourmet grocery store to restaurants to shops, a gym, wellness center, spa, etc. There’s a hotel on site and there are also a number of rental properties.
We rented this apartment, and it was small but so perfectly functionally designed that it felt much more spacious than it was, and the owners thought of literally everything from beach bags to snorkeling equipment. They also had hands down the best welcome basket I’ve ever seen at an Airbnb - a bottle of wine, fresh bag of Costa Rican coffee, pineapple, grapefruit, bananas, apples, two bottles of artisanal local beer, 2 avocados, a tomato, kiwi, tortilla chips, jam, two masks, kettle corn, and Costa Rican beef jerky. It was truly a fantastic welcome after a long day of travel.
Speaking of rentals, many of you have asked about tips for finding great places. Here’s what I generally consider:
Reviews - I won’t stay at a place with no reviews. I don’t need 9 million five star reviews, just a few good ones. I will look at all the reviews and filter which ones are made by people determined to be unhappy, and which seem authentic. When there is a problem described in the review, I look to see what the communication with the host was like. Problems are unavoidable - broken appliance or whatever - but how quickly the host responds and what they do to make it right is what’s important to me.
Amenities specific to what I need. I typically look for:
Solid, eat in kitchen (bonus if they have a variety of cooking equipment and seasonings)
Washer and Dryer (I hate going home with dirty laundry!)
High speed internet
Privacy - I have to do a lot of filming for work and I feel weird doing it around others.
Noise - I need it somewhat quiet for filming as well, so I always book a private place rather than a shared place, and try to see what the surrounding area looks like via photos, and if I can’t tell, I’ll just message the host and ask if there’s a highway or busy road nearby.
Proximity to where I want to go - When I stay in Grand Cayman, for example, I want to be close to 7 Mile Beach, which is hands down the best beach I have ever been to in all my travels.
Photos - This might be obvious, but I look pretty closely at the photos and look for things like quality of photos (that can often tell you a lot about the host- usually a host who cares about their space and its cleanliness is going to care about the quality of the photos), can I see curtains and shades in the bedrooms (sometimes people are just quick to flip a property and don’t do the little things that make people feel comfortable- I’ve stayed in places where there were no shades or curtains in any of the bedrooms because the place was so new, and it was just really uncomfortable).
Free People Crop top (similar), Jumpsuit (alternative option for jumpsuit here), hat
Birkenstocks, Tube Top thrifted (similar), Overalls, Eugenia Kim Head wrap (similar)
Luli Fama Bottoms (here’s a pink version by diff brand), Good American bikini top (similar here)
Sunglasses, Robe (similar), Emilio Pucci Scarf (similar)
For our trip, we weren’t really planning on doing anything other than relaxing, and aside from a boat trip (we used Serendipity Tours to charter a sailboat), we truly didn’t do anything else. We both read a lot. He is reading Castaway Mountain, about garbage pickers in Mumai. I finished Forever, Interrupted, The Soulmate Equation and The Last Thing He Told Me, and then started I Am Watching You.
I did a little work (new video coming soon to my YouTube channel) and shot a bunch of Reels.
We worked out once, and other than that, just chilled. I’m looking forward to getting back home and getting back into my routine of work, workouts and tracking macros, which I feel so much better while doing.