Costa Rica Excellent Family Vacation

This is the view from the back of the Surf Inn hotel at Playa Hermosa, where we stayed for 8 days. Hard to argue with perfection.

LSS™ and I both turned 50 this year and felt that a significant vacation was in order to celebrate this decade birthday. Part of the protocol of this vacation was that it would not be to visit anybody, gain significant education, or involve strenuous activity unless such was specifically sought by a traveler.

Generally I wanted to read books on the beach, experience nature, and play in the water with the kids. Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica was the winner. We flew to San Jose and motored out to the beach for an excellent experience in large measure because of Christina, the proprietor of Surf Inn Hermosa. She helped us book tours and activities, always with excellent people, and showed no weariness for answering the questions she must have faced hundreds of times.

Front of the hotel.

Back of the hotel.

The kids took surfing lessons and experienced powerful waves in the 85-degree water. On a few days the waves came up and locals put on quite a display of high-octane short-board surfing. We had a GoPro and make this video of more pedestrian water play:

Other excellent activities included a visit to Manuel Antonio National park where we saw the son's (and this blog's) mascot -- the mighty sloth! We saw both two- and three-toed varieties, all in no particular hurry to do much of anything -- always nice when experience meets expectation.

More importantly we enjoyed each other's company, had long meals, drank copious amounts of fruit smoothies, and developed bizarre inside jokes. Mission accomplished!