Jenn Travels

first trip of the year!

January 28, 2017 was the day. I was geeked! I’m going to Costa Rica ya’ll! Exploring the city, a zip line tour, horseback riding, and a dip in the hot springs were all on the itinerary. Wooooo hoooo!

Arrived to the Ohare on time. YES! TSA lines flowed smoothly. THANK THE LORD! Flight departed on time. Arrived into San Jose on time. Cell phone worked when I turned it on. We were able to get an Uber to the hotel for $12 USD. Everything was perfect. Arrived at Hotel Balmoral. Our room looked nothing like the pictures but it seemed ok and clean enough so we dismissed any unease that we had and decided head out and start our adventure.

Walking around downtown San Jose proved itself interesting. Lots of people were out and about but they seemed more like locals enjoying a Saturday afternoon with their family. Friendly, approachable, and did their best to help, us find our way even though neither of us spoke the same language. Along the Avenoida we witnessed a hip hop dancing robot and a levitating man. Coool!

After walking 5 blocks in the wrong direction and being followed by a guy for 2 of those 5 blocks, we arrive at our restaurant. Nuestra Tierra. Traditional Costa Rican food served on a banana leaf. Wait staff was amazing! I really enjoyed the margarita (should’ve ordered another). There’s free wifi in the restaurant so I was able to use Google translate to communicate and somewhat understand the waitstaff.

Upon returning back to the hotel, a nap was in order before our evening turnUP at the casino dance club. I needed to confirm transportation for our Monday zip lining horseback riding hot springing excursion and found out we were approximately 3 hours from the pick up location. There was just no way to find an affordable convenient mode of transportation there. We could’ve took the bus for $2 but was advised that would’ve taken 5 hours each way. Had to cancel and started looking for alternatives.

I lay down and after what seemed like 15 minutes I feel something crawl on me. Look at the bed and notice there are several little red bugs. Did a quick online search and decided they looked like mites. NOPE! I’m not feeling this. Felt something in my hair. One was in my hair. Now I have a bump. NOPE! I make a call to Hotel Storm to find out what our options are. He advised we go to the front desk to change rooms. Not really interested in changing rooms after a bug bite. We just want to leave. After going back and forth with the front desk and a manager on the phone named “Beatrice” (who never showed up after she kept saying she was coming) they refused my refund request and upgraded us to another room. We strategized and booked a flight for 7 am to head to Newark. Landed in Newark… looked at the departing flights and decided to turnUP in Milan.

Lessons Learned

I will definitely return to Costa Rica better prepared. I’ve seen so many beautiful pictures and enjoy visiting a place where the people are kind and the drinks are amazing. My travel style of figuring it out when I get there didn’t serve me here.

Rookie costa rica tips

Take some time to prepare and familiarize yourself with where you are staying and the activities you’d like to do. Most of what we intended to do started at 1.5 hours outside of San Jose.
Brush up on your Spanish.
When booking hotel accommodations do your best to book directly with the hotel. My experience with third party providers is that they do not do their best in helping their customers if a situation arises.

That time I went to Costa rica...

first trip of the year!

Lessons Learned

Rookie costa rica tips