Costa Rica on points and miles

Flights:

Here is what I found as I researched the best flights from SLC to Costa Rica

American Airlines, Southwest, and United seemed to have the best flights from SLC.  They had the shortest total time (about 7.5hrs from SLC-LIR or SJO, coming home the typical flight time was about 10hrs).  These airlines also didn't require flying on a red-eye.  These airlines typically had layovers in either Denver or Texas.  

Delta's flights (as of 2023) required a red-eye out of LAX to Costa Rica.  The flight home is not a red-eye, so Delta is a good option for flights coming home.  

Alaska Airlines is another option (out of LAX) but they also have a lot of red-eye flights.  On certain days (like Saturday's) you could get a daytime flight.

JetBlue flies from LAX-LIR and had some CRAZY cheap days (only 7.5k miles one way), so this could be a great option as well if you aren't tied to certain dates and just want to go when it's crazy cheap!  Just search their calendar and pick a 7.5k date!

Price wise, American Airlines usually had the best miles prices & flights (other than JetBlue's random cheap days) so I would recommend getting an American Airlines credit card to save up points for a trip to Costa Rica!

Hotels: There are LOTS of options for hotel stays using points (there are Marriotts, Hyatts, Hiltons, etc.).  Read below to see where my husband and I stayed.

 My husband and I had the privilege of staying at the Conrad Bora Bora last year using points and a cash upgrade.  Using points at the Conrad in Bora Bora gets you a room on land, you must pay about $400 per night to upgrade to an over water bungalow.  Sounds like a lot, but those rooms are about $2k a night so it’s a great deal.  We LOVED it and can’t wait to go back someday, but it also got me wondering (and searching online) for other amazing honeymoon type destinations around the world.  When I read about the Nayara hotels in Costa Rica, I was intrigued.

The Nayara hotels are not part of a chain (Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton) that can be booked with points.  However they can be booked in the Capital One, Chase, or Amex travel portals - which means you can use some of your points towards the booking to bring the cost down.  The great thing about owning the Amex Platinum card, is that you get great perks if you choose a hotel in the “fine hotels”  group and book it through the Amex travel portal.

The cheapest room at Nayara gardens is $600 a night and DOES NOT come with a private pool on your deck.  However, my Amex Platinum gives me a free room upgrade, so we booked the cheap room and I expect we’ll probably end up in the $800 per night room with its own private pool surrounded by jungle.  Ooh la la!  We will also receive free breakfast, a $100 spa credit, early check-in, and late checkout. 

Because I booked through the Amex portal, I decided to put 20k points towards each night, thereby reducing my room to $400 a night (the same price I pay for Bora Bora).

Paying $400 a night for an $800 room will be a fun experience at a cost I am comfortable with.  We used points to fly to Costa Rica, so overall it ended up being an affordable “luxury” vacation!! 

Our 2023 Arenal couples trip Itinerary:

We flew into SJO airport and arrived late, so we used points and stayed the night at the Fairfield Marriott that is close to the airport.

Day 2: We picked up our car rental and drove 4 hrs to Rio Celeste Hideaway hotel (I booked this through Capital One's travel portal).  We stayed just 1 night here.

Days 3-5:  We did the hike to Rio Celeste falls then drove 1.5 hrs to the Nayara Gardens hotel, which we had booked for 3 nights through the Amex travel portal.

While in the La Fortuna area we did the Canopy tour with 7 zip lines at Arenal Mundo, and the Mistico Arenal hanging bridges.

Day 6: We drove back to SJO for our early flight home the next day.  We again stayed in a hotel near the airport using points.

2024 Playa Flamingo family trip Itinerary

We stayed at the Villa Flamingo #5 (booked throuh VRBO).  These condo's were awesome as they slept 6-7 people and the location was fabulous.  There are a few different condo's listed on VRBO and AIRbnb and I definitely recommend them.  Oceanica high rise condo's (also on Playa Flamingo beach) would be another great location.  Playa Flamingo was about 1hr 20min drive from the Liberia Airport.  Hermosa Beach is only 30min from Liberia airport, but I liked the look of the condos on Playa Flamingo and we felt the extra drive was worth it in the end.  The beach was beautiful, warm water, and amazing boogie boarding waves, making it the BEST beach we have EVER been too.  The only downside was the sand fleas that were very bad (mostly at sunset) - so wear bug spray in the evening or keep your legs/feet up off the beach (they only jump up from the sand - they don't fly).  

While staying in Playa Flamingo, we did a scuba dive (with rocket frog divers) out to the Catalinas, family surf lessons with Mojo surf adventures (booked through Viator), the Palo Verde Tempesque river tour (booked with mytanfeet.com), and a boat tour for one afternoon with "Life is better at sea".  I highly reccomend ALL these excursions, they were all well priced and amazing!  

We stayed 6 days (5 nights) in Playa Flamingo, then headed to Hacienda Guachipelin to stay for 2 nights (one night here would have been sufficient).  While staying at Guachipelin, you have unlimited and free access to the waterfalls (they have lots on site) and the natural hot springs so I was glad we stayed there to take advantage of that.  One of the days there we booked the full day adventure pass that includes ziplines, a river tubing experience, horseback riding, and lunch.  It was awesome, our kids loved it and we felt it was a bargain for everything it included.  The bugs in this area were very hungry so stay covered (even before bed) with bug spray!  They were tiny (even imperceptible) but we had the bites to show they were there!

I booked this trip almost a full year in advance so that I could get a good price (since we were going over the Christmas break).  We were able to get american airlines flights there for 10k each, and home for 22k each.  We could have gone cheaper if we didn't go during Christmas break, but I was very happy with the price for a popular time to visit!

Car Rentals:  I followed the suggestions on this website for our Arenal trip in June and it worked out great!  When we went as a family in December, their prices were really high so I researched more and found Vamos rentals for half the price and the experience was just as good.  I still recommend reading the article linked above, just so you understand the car rental prices - then I would price check both Vamos and Adobe