The Fuhr Five: Costa Rica, The Beaches

Almost two months ago, our family took a vacation down to Costa Rica. Aaron and I have been wanting to see this country for a while and we decided his 30th birthday was the perfect excuse to make the trip.

Costa Rica is such an amazing place. While we were there, we were able to see three very different parts of the country. We spent a third of our trip in the dry northwest beaches, a third in the lush midcoast beaches, and a third in the wet cloud forest.

We started off on the northwest Pacific coast in the Guanacaste and Nicoya Peninsula region, which is famous for its surfing and beaches.

Most of the Guanacaste region is devoted to farming and fishing but the tourism industry is slowing developing. The coast is speckled with small little surf villages connected by rough dirt roads. Sections of this area is becoming very popular with resort vacationers and condominium living.

It was a great four days of playing on the beaches, swimming in the pool, exploring tide pools and relaxing.

We stayed in a resort tucked in the beautiful crescent shaped, sandy white beach of Playa Flamingo. The beach was quiet, beautiful and had tide pools on either end where Ethan spent a lot of time looking at crabs, sea urchin, starfish, frogs, snails and other little critters.

A few of the days we ventured down the rough roads to check out the small surf towns. It was fun spending some time surrounded by the laid back vibe, playing in the sand and tide pools and relaxing in the surf shacks afterwards.

Since the region is great for surfing, it was a little rough for swimming. Which was fine with the kids because they loved hitting the pool after our beach time.

Beach vacations are perfect for our kiddos. Almost all of their waking hours were either spent in the sand or in the water, which is heaven for them.

We would wake up in the morning (early, because apparently Kelsey thinks thats what you are supposed to do on vacation) and eat breakfast on the patio.

Then we would be first down on the beach by 7:30, to play in the sand and watch everything start to wake up for the day. High tide would just be going down, which made for perfect tidepools.

Kels would play full steam, eating sand and trying to bath in it, until she crashed for naptime in her little tent.

Ethan and Daddy would go exploring to see what they could find on the beach,

or Ethan would play by himself with his diggers and Aaron and I would get a magical moment of relaxing together on the beach without any kids!

We would play on the beach until lunch, grab a bite to eat in a local little restaurant, then the kids would crash for naps and Aaron and I relaxed on the patio enjoying the view.

They loved the meals when we didn't even have to leave the beach to eat!

Afternoons were reserved for pool time fun.

We all enjoyed splashing around and playing together.

And Aaron and I loved happy hour at the pool bar.

Some evenings we wouldn't even leave the poolside for dinner, but other evenings we ventured out and found some perfect spots to watch the sunset and eat the local food.