If you are reader of this blog, you know that I am not really a
luxury traveler. However, if an opportunity to try something new shows up, I am
always open to it. So this summer, I took what I consider to be a luxury resort
vacation for my cousin's wedding.
I have only been
to a resort one other time, in Koh Tao, Thailand for my 32nd birthday for
3 days. And to be honest, resort might be a stretch. It was quite small and
intimate and was only a resort in the sense that it was a closed location that
I only left a few times to venture to the beach.
This trip, took me
to the northwest coast of Costa Rica. I have traveled to Costa Rica before, in
2009, but visited the southeast coast. I flew into the small, clearly tourism
fueled Liberia Airport about 45 minutes from the Papagayo Peninsula
where I was to spend the next four days.
My family likes to
travel but for the most part, we don't travel together or at least not en mass.
This was a whole different situation. My cousins' wedding allowed us the
opportunity to experience a foreign country together that wasn't the foreign
country that a lot of them grew up in. It was something that almost didn't come
to pass but we were all grateful that it did.
When my cousin
said he was getting married in Costa Rica at the height of Zika, almost everyone said they were going to
decline. There are a whole pack of cousins who are close in age who are all of
child bearing age, Zika was pretty unknown, and the whole
event seemed unknown. Then they had an engagement party in New York and it was
a blast. It was essentially as big as some people’s weddings, with all the
trappings of a wedding, cool venue, full dance floor, out of control awesome
food at cocktail hour, beautiful dinner and drinks, lots and lots of drinks.
After the engagement party, one by one, people started to commit to Costa Rica.
Articles on Zika started to circulate in the family,
information on the location trickled out, and the family FOMS struck.
For me, it was knowing that I wanted to be there to support my cousin and his
bride, who I adore. I knew I needed to be there to lend my support, love and my
unbridled dancing.
The family who was
in attendance (not all were able to make it for various reasons) trickled in
over two days from multiple states and countries. 45 minutes from Liberia
airport (via taxi), through rolling fields of sugar cane, up hills where we
thought the taxi wouldn't make it and through farm land, we got our first view
of the peninsula. When we reached the peninsula, I was surprised to see there
was a gate to enter the peninsula. That is when I knew this would be unlike any
other international experience I had had.
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| Our welcome drink view. |
After what I would
come to know as the first gate, there was a line of perfectly planted palm
trees, all nicely lined up as if guards greeting you. There would be two more
gates before we reached our hotel. As we pulled up on the most glorious sunny
day (even though it was the rainy season), we were greeted by perfectly
manicured young people in crisp shirts and pants. An open air lobby/reception
area gave us our first view of how close to the ocean we were. A welcome drink
of pineapple, kiwi and a mystery fruit was in our hand before we sat down to
fill out paperwork and await our check in. Once they sorted the numerous rooms
under the same last name, we piled into a golf cart, the preferred mode of
transportation around the Andaz, and
were taken to our rooms.
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| The shower was awesome! It looked out to the balcony and beyond. If you were feeling particularly adventurous, you could also open the door. |
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| Breakfast on the balcony. |
The Andaz is
a Hyatt hotel it turns out and it is the only other hotel on the peninsula
besides the Four Seasons which basically occupies the rest of the peninsula and
includes several villas that can be rented out, one of which would house the
wedding. Even though the peninsula is basically a giant resort, it is mostly
wilderness and jungle. This area of Costa Rica and well Costa Rica in general
has taken great strides to ensure that the natural beauty of the country is
protected and respected. Somewhere around 70% of the land must remain natural
in Guanacaste,
where the Papagayo Peninsula is.
The Andaz has
numerous room options but luckily we had a discounted room block with the
wedding. There are 8 or 10 buildings with rooms and it was supposedly sold out
the weekend we were there but it never felt busy or even that there were very
many other guests besides the ones for my cousins wedding. I'm not sure how to
describe it but it felt like we were the only ones there. There were three
restaurants and to be honest I only ever ate at one. Upon check in we were told
there was the main restaurant, a tapas place and an upscale seafood place near
the adult only pool. The main restaurant held breakfast each morning which
unfortunately I only made once for various reasons. Most of my meals were at
off times and had to be at the tapas place which was nothing to sneeze at. It
was a smaller more intimate setting with lounge seating, proper high tables, a
nice bar and was of course open air. There was a lot of meat on the menu so I
ate a lot of spinach and cheese empanadas and guacamole. A little cliché I know
but it was a resort after all.
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| A view of my building. |
The property
boasted a small gym, multiple beach access points, two pools (one adult only),
3 restaurants, multiple bars and drink points, a full slate of classes (dance, mixology, running tour etc.), meeting rooms
that were basically giant state of the art cabana looking structures,
lots of jungle surround the property, easy well-manicured paths between
buildings and a paved road throughout. The staff was incredible, friendly,
mostly English speaking, super helpful, every golf cart that went by would offer
you a ride, and most of all they just always had a smile for you, no matter
what their job was.
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| Another beach with lots of lounging options. |
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| One of the beaches on a cloudy afternoon. |
Since I tend to be
resort suspicious for a number of reasons, I was pleasantly surprised to find
myself enjoying my time. It was partly the resort, partly the company of my
family, and partly because it was a different style of travel for me, the
ultimate slow down, not just slow travel but barely moving travel. I had set my
mind to do nothing and that is what I did. When my cousins' friends wanted to
go to a beach town about an hour away the first night, I passed without guilt
or fear of missing out. I was completely content to enjoy good conversation,
food and drink instead of rushing off to make sure I was "getting things
in." This was not the trip for constant exploration. I lulled myself into
laziness and literally only left the resort to go to the wedding. I actually
took a vacation instead of traveling in my normal style. It was a gift and a
relief almost. I wasn't planning to write about the experience or really even
share it so there was no pressure to take notes in my head or review things in
my head. It all just existed for the short time I was there. I took the
pressure off myself, my interactions, off everything and just enjoyed. I guess
that's the point of resort experience, right?
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| Sunset at the wedding after a rainstorm. |
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