Honeymooners

I have to admit, I think I'm more excited for our honeymoon than our actual wedding. Jake and I have never been on a real vacation together. Jake is a big fan of "trips"...meaning, we go away for a long weekend somewhere, but we've never taken a week long vacation together. So I really can't wait for the honeymoon!!

With our wedding being in September, we got a little scared of the hurricane season in the Caribbean, so we basically crossed that off the list right away. We knew we wanted to go somewhere neither one of us had been before. We also knew we wanted a relaxing trip...we didn't want to be touring Europe or sightseeing a ton. I basically would be happy laying on a beach for 7 days with a fruity drink and a personal butler. Jake is more outdoorsy, so he will want to go hiking, fishing, etc. which I don't mind doing, but just not every day.

After throwing around about a million options, we started considering Costa Rica at the suggestion of one of Jake's groomsmen.

It seems to have the best of what we both want - relaxation and beaches for me, and tons of activities for Jake.

Without giving away too much, let's just say that I work for an international hotel chain and I get a FANTASTIC discount on hotel rooms all around the world. It's a pretty sweet perk, but unfortunately, I haven't gotten to take advantage of it much, seeing as I hardly ever get to take a vacation. Well I decided to just check and see which hotels we could stay at in Costa Rica and how much it would be with my discount. Well we hit the JACKPOT!! There is a BRAND new hotel in Costa Rica (literally, it opened on December 1st), right on the Pacific coast (in Tamarindo), beach front with a huge pool, and we can stay there for $89.00/night with my discount!!! Needless to say, we booked it immediately. We figured we can always cancel the reservation if it doesn't work out, but we wanted to ensure we would get that rate. The hotel is a 5 diamond hotel, and it's one of the most luxurious hotels in Latin America. AHHH!! We then looked into flights and realized we could fly from Baltimore to Costa Rica for $300/each!

Since we were sort of jumping the gun on everything, we started actually doing more research into Costa Rica and realized why everything was so cheap in September...it's the rainiest month all year. Hmmm. That sort of bummed us out...we definitely don't want to have bad weather. But from everything we've read, the rainy season in Costa Rica is sort of like the Caribbean...it's sunny and nice and then it rains for about 2 hours every afternoon. Not too bad.

The major drawback for Costa Rica is that we would fly into San Jose (which is in the center of the country) and then have to rent a car and drive to the Pacific Coast...5.5 hours!! To fly into the other airport in Costa Rica (which is MUCH closer to the resort 1.5 hours), Liberia, raises our airfare to $600/person (doubles it). Jake is really worried that the drive will be a challenge, with the roads in Costa Rica probably not being very good, plus it being really rainy.

Has anyone ever been to Costa Rica and can offer any suggestions? Is the rainy season bad? Thoughts on the road conditions to drive all that way? Would it be better for us to just fly into the closer airport and spend extra? We hope to just figure it all out and make our final plans soon! Then I can start the important part of the honeymoon...finding cute outfits to take!!!