We Went to Playa Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica

I wouldn’t call myself a “beach person.” I don’t really like prolonged sun exposure because I am sensitive to heat, not to mention getting sand everywhere is an absolute nuisance.

But imagine visiting Costa Rica and not going to a beach. Sounds pretty tragic, right?

Of course, Erika (who is also from my roommate outfit swap post) arranged for us (meaning us two and our other roommate Apeksha) to spend three days in Manuel Antonio, which is a little more than a three-hour bus ride away from San José.

We were pretty hungry by the time we arrived at our hostel “Selina” (nice, affordable and pretty clean by the way!) so we decided to grab something to eat at the little shack by the pool. A pair of small tacos and a bottle of beer cost us about $5 which I guess isn’t too bad.

Imperial is the most popular beer in Costa Rica so we decided to give it a try. I personally am not a big fan of beer so I wasn’t able to finish my bottle, but Apeksha and Erika seemed to thoroughly enjoyed theirs.

The next day, we bought tickets ($16 each) to go to the National Park in Manuel Antonio. Unfortunately, I don’t have many presentable pictures because we were extremely exhausted, having walked from the hostel to the park and then some very long trails within the park itself.

However, I was able to take pictures of this (what I believe to be a) white-faced monkey that was perched on a branch.

Feeling hot due to the humid weather, especially after almost three hours of hiking, we decided to go on the “beach trail” to cool off at the beach.

To my absolute pleasure, there were a lot of trees in certain areas of Playa Manuel Antonio so there was plenty of shade from the sun. The weather also became a bit cloudier so I felt uninhibited bathing in the water.

Another thing I liked about the beach was that it wasn’t too crowded – at least not when we visited. I really like having a tranquil environment and being able to actually have some space to lay my towel on.

The waves weren’t too crazy that day either. Because of that, it wasn’t too much of a pain to wade in the water. Honestly, I found the experience pretty ideal overall.

The only thing that sort of dampened the mood was the fact that I couldn’t see without my glasses (but this is kind of an everyday struggle).

I was so comfortable I didn’t even feel too awkward posing for pictures lol. Thanks, Apeksha!!

We had to wear these bracelets during our stay at Selina which felt somewhat surreal. To be honest, though, I kind of liked having it around my wrist like a proper tourist.

We spent more or less two hours at the beach mostly just relaxing, enjoying the cool water and chatting with each other. The experience confirmed to me that I can only enjoy beaches if the weather isn’t scorching hot and if there’s barely any other people there lol.

A couple hours later, we left the beach and attempted to leisurely walk back to the hostel. (This later proved to be unsuccessful because Erika wasn’t feeling too well and it had started raining). We decided to grab a bite to eat, and saw a bunch of monkeys on our way to a local restaurant.

Weirdly enough, I actually saw more monkeys outside of the national park, just casually (and nimbly) moving along the power lines in the streets.

By the time we arrived at the restaurant, we were incredibly hungry. I know it’s pretty funny that I went through the effort of taking a picture of this obviously non-Costa Rican dish (which also happened to be super cheap), but it actually wasn’t bad at all.

On our last day in Manuel Antonio, we ate at a restaurant by the beach. There, we found this tremendously helpful guide to Costa Rican Spanish. It took me a bit of time to memorize all this, unfortunately. 😉

I couldn’t help but order a typical Tico breakfast which I enjoy quite a lot. The flavorful rice-and-beans combo called “Gallo Pinto” must be one of my favorite foods. I also like the inclusion of fried plantains and fresh fruit!

Naturally, we ordered fresh fruit smoothies which made our meal so much more enjoyable.

After our meal, we got on the bus back to San Josè. Soon after that, we prepared for a few more excursions in the country. When I reflect back on this trip, going to Playa Manuel Antonio was one of the definite highlights. Thanks, Erika, for bringing us here!

Stay tuned for more posts about Costa Rica!