We woke up feeling refreshed after an amazing experience in the famous hot springs of Tabacon. If you stay at Tabacon, they include breakfast at the Los Tucanes restaurant, where they serve a buffet style breakfast with different stations.
Definitely a little bummed to leave this beautiful resort, but we always have plenty more adventure right around the corner…and plus, La Fortuna is just the first stop on our Costa Rican itinerary! Today we’ll be heading to the Pacific coast of this beautiful country where we plan to stay for a few days at each of the major beach towns. Our first stop on this Pacific Coast journey will be Playa Hermosa, a quiet beach town in the gulf of Papagayo.
On the way to the Pacific coast, we planned to stop at Rio Celeste in Tenero Volcano National Park…one of Costa Rica’s beautiful national parks…because we’ve seen and read about the stunning blue waters. The hike to the waterfall itself was about 1km from the entrance. The entrance fee is $12USD per person and parking is 2000 colones (about $3USD).
The hike is a steady incline and during the rainy season it can get pretty muddy (they also rent rain boots for $5USD), but luckily it hadn’t rained too much when we went and the trail was almost completely dry. Once you near the falls, there are well maintained stairs leading down to the waterfall.
Once we got to the viewing platform at the bottom of the stairs, we found some of the bluest water we’ve ever seen! Local folklore state that the bright turquoise water is from God dipping a paintbrush in the water after painting the skies!
There are other things to see further down the trail after you hit the waterfall, like the blue lagoon, the volcanic hot spring, and the spot where you can see the two rivers meet…but when we started on the trail it was all uphill and another 1km, so we decided to turn back…those stairs really got us! Turns out you can’t enter the water in the national park, but just up the road there’s a local swimming hole where you can take a dip and enjoy some local juices.
The swimming hole was just as blue as the waterfall… there were even a few tour groups that had the same idea as us. In Costa Rica, there are no drones allowed in the national parks, so we decided to fly our drone from the swimming hole and follow the river up to see if we could spot the waterfall (the video will be on our YouTube page after our trip).
After dipping our feet in the refreshing water, we got back in our car and made our way west to Playa Hermosa. It’s less than 2 hours to get to the Pacific coast from Rio Celeste…pretty winding and mostly single lanes, but well maintained with the exception of some smaller or local roads. However, during our drive to the coast, we did hit one major traffic stop due to a fallen tree that was blocking a one-lane bridge. It took about an hour before we could actually move past it, but it’s all part of the adventure!
We arrived at our hotel in Playa Hermosa, Hotel Bosque del Mar, which is right on the beach! When we were planning for our trip, we realized that there are plenty of beaches called “Playa Hermosa” (beautiful beach)…but after seeing the beaches in Costa Rica, it’s easy to understand why there are so many beaches that carry this name.
Playa Hermosa is located in the Guanacaste region…one of the driest regions in the country. There are seeming endless options for beach towns along the Pacific coast… whether you want a surfing destination or a party scene, but we were looking to start our adventure in a quieter beach town…which is exactly what Playa Hermosa is. There aren’t as many restaurant options in town compared to the neighboring beach town, Playa del Coco, but we found solace at Aquasport Bar…a laidback open air restaurant right on the beach.
The vibe was great and the food was even better! You really can’t beat a spot with good music and unobstructed beach views! After filling ourselves with a delicious meal, we walked along the beach and made our way back to our hotel. We saw some people starting to set up their beach blankets to watch the sunset, so we quickly grabbed ours and found a quiet spot to watch the sunset too.
We’ve seen a lot of beautiful sunsets in our lifetime…especially in Key West…but this sunset really blew us away! We’ll be spending 3 nights in Playa Hermosa, so we plan to watch this sunset each and every night…and who know, maybe we’ll end up exploring the many other neighboring beaches…so stay posted!