Our original honeymoon plan was to go to Brazil for the World Cup. That didn’t end up working out for various reasons, including sanity. So we got our thinking caps on and decided on Thailand and Cambodia. Since we already have a trip to India planned for the fall/winter, we figured it made sense to tack on an extra couple weeks and do the big trip then. Thing is…there’s a lot of time between April and November, so my husband decided we needed to take a trip before then. And because the flight prices were right, we decided on Costa Rica.

We booked the tickets for a week. Then realized we had no idea what we were doing. So we googled! And found this and this. We decided to rent a car and make hotel reservations that roughly correspond to the Frommer’s itinerary: one night in San Jose, one night in Arenal, two nights in Monteverde, two nights in Manuel Antonio, and a final night in San Jose.

I wanted to pack light:

* Shorts
* Skirt
* Comfy pants
* Light t-shirts
* Dresses
* A couple swimsuits
* Flip flops
* A cover up
* Sneakers
* Minimal makeup and skincare
* A light layer
* Pyjamas

And it all fit into one suitcase with room to spare!