Planning your first international trip with kids can feel overwhelming — visas, vaccines, long-haul flights… is it even worth it?
We felt the same before choosing Costa Rica, and now we always say: there’s no better first step into global family travel.
Here’s why Costa Rica makes the perfect destination for that first big adventure abroad.
🌴 1. It’s Easy to Navigate for First-Time Travellers
First things first entry requirements are super easy – especially for UK & USA families. You can enter Costa Rica for up to 180 days without a visa – woohoo! As it is a relatively small country it is easier to navigate and distances from a to b are more manageable.
The tourist infrastructure in Costa Rica is strong so you have the options to play it safe or go adventurous. You’ll see throughout this piece, we did a little of both.
The Costa Rican roads are pretty good to drive on if you want to hire a car although we did hear when speaking to others it was pretty pricey. Of course that could have changed since we went. However, we actually really enjoyed travelling on the buses and by taxi. Taxis are cheap. Buses even cheaper. The majority of buses don’t have air con and run on Tico time (grab your free Costa Rican lingo guide here) but it felt super authentic.
In a nutshell, the actual “travel” part of getting around Costa Rica is super easy and fairly cheap. This is what makes it the ideal country for your first dive into travelling.
A quick funny travel story:
We were travelling from San Jose to Monteverde, the plan was by bus. We took a taxi to the bus station and as we were walking into the bus station I realised my eldest didn’t have his backpack. Panic set in. He wasn’t really carry much of value but he did have his beloved journal. You can actually grab one here.
Anyway as you can imagine all the taxis are the SAME colour! My husband went legging it down the street after this taxi and honestly, I have zero idea how but somehow he managed to track it down and retrieved the backpack. However, we missed the bus. This led to our friendship with Pablo. We’re still in contact and that day he drove us all the way to Monteverde and became our go to taxi guy.
🐒 2. It’s Full of Nature (So Kids Learn Without Even Realising)
Rainforests, volcanoes, cloud forests, beaches — it’s a giant outdoor classroom. Even if you aren’t worldschoolers or home educators and are just planning a trip in the school holidays it is still satisfying to know you have supported your child/rens educational growth.
The cloud forest was such an amazing experience for us and opened up learning pathways so much. The kids were amazed by how different the weather was just by heading up the mountain and back down. The climate in the Cloud forest region is a lot cooler than when you head south.
The Arenal Volcano was a huge highlight for us but we actually managed to top it on our last couple of days at the Poas Volcano. This one is active and it’s just breath taking.
Our trip to Costa Rica certainly led to a love of learning about the biodiversity of the world. When you visit a country where you can pack in rainforests, volcanos and cloud forests it’s going to spark awe and amazement in the minds of the young.
Further Learning:
If you’re looking to develop what the children have learned on their travels I can highly recommend Little Robin Education Book Club. A home educator herself she creates wonderful book studies based on non-fiction books. The majority of the books focus on nature and you can purchase past book studies dependent on stock.
It’s not just the wonders of mother nature and the earth that are truly amazing in Costa Rica but the abundance of wildlife too. From humming birds, to hermit crabs in swarms, huge pelicans, sloths and monkeys it feels like Costa Rica has it all.
As Costa Rica is a major hotspot for wildlife spotting you can find tour guides and hikes in most areas. Prior to our visit we found a lot of online information suggesting Manuel Antonio for wildlife hikes in the National Park. For us, it was not a hike. Nor was it brilliant. Very touristic area, the “hikes” are overcrowded and is not what we would deem a hike.
The beach you walk out to is beautiful but highly populated as everyone is on the same tour to the same spot. If you’re looking for a more secluded, less touristy hike then heading to Drake Bay will provide that. We did a night tour too which was fantastic and allowed us to see a lot more wildlife!
🛏️ 3. Accommodation Is Family-Friendly
We only had one issue whilst in Costa Rica with an air b&b (the area itself didn’t feel safe – outskirts of Manuel Antonio.) Other than that everywhere was super welcoming of families. Costa Rica is a very family orientated place. I don’t believe we came across a single place that made our life difficult with kids. Even getting on buses etc people always let those with kids go first.
Our absolute favourite place to stay was Confort Arenal near the Volcano. The accommodation is pretty basic but the pool had just had an upgrade and has views of the volcano behind. Breakfast is also included and it was the perfect start to the day, but the thing that made our stay here was the staff.
We remain in contact with Hazel who runs the hotel and Antonio was an absolute hit with the kids. He made so much effort to show them everything on site, teach them about the wildlife and nature and nothing was too much for any of them.
The hotel is a little way out of town but they were helpful with always organising taxis etc for us. We will 100% return to this hotel just for the amazing hospitality and stay for even longer to make the most of it.
If you haven’t already seen my page on how to save on your travel definitely check it out. At a quick check I put in a random week for Confort Arenal and it was £125 cheaper than booking.com! Save And Earn On Your Travel!
🥭 4.The Food Is Familiar Yet Fun
If you’re worried about the food element of travelling then this is another reason to make Costa Rica your first travelling adventure. The food in Costa Rica is pretty simple. It’s filled with rice, beans and grilled chicken/fish all served up together to form a Casado.
Fresh fruit is also plentiful and served up with breakfast along with scrambled eggs and a different style of rice and beans. Most of the restaurants serve up food like burgers and fries, pizza and pasta etc too so you know you’ll always be find something which suits the whole family.
🕊️ 5. It’s Safe and Welcoming
There was only one moment I felt unsafe as previously mentioned. That is because the locks didn’t work on the door to the air b&b. I didn’t feel comfortable staying in a new place and area with no locks! Aside from that, I never once felt unsafe with the kids. We travelled by bus, taxi from the North to the south – oh and by boat!
The Ticos are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. They are all so happy and the pura vida vibes is so infectious. Our children were welcomed into football games with the locals in Sierpe. We chatted with the locals everywhere we went and the whole country just feels very family – orientated.
We felt comfortable letting the kids explore, learn and interact the whole time we were there and I am confident that all other families would do too.
📚 6. It’s Educational Without Being Overwhelming
With no rigid schedules and text books in front of them children won’t feel like they’re being forced into a lesson of sorts. Every outing felt like an educational experience.
One educational highlight which of course was pure fun too was a coffee and chocolate making tour.
We did this tour in the Arenal Volcano area whilst staying at Confort Arenal and we loved it. Not only did we all get to learn about the process of making coffee and chocolate we also got to try it! The kids also had an opportunity to create their own sugar cane juice which was a fantastic experience for them.
This was the trip that showed us how learning could come alive through travel.
If you’ve been putting off that first trip because it feels ‘too much’ — Costa Rica will change your mind.
We hope to inspire other families to visit Costa Rica and soak up all the wonders it has to offer.
Download our free budget planner here to help you on your way to planning the most inspiring trip and don’t forget about those potential savings you can make too!
Happy trip planning!
Francesca xoxo
P.s – don’t forget to grab your free guide to the Costa Rican terms here.