I was lucky enough to be chosen to go to Costa Rica in April through my work. Before you get to wondering who I work for, I work for a technology company in sales and account management. We have this program called the Circle of Excellence, where every year they pick the top performers and leaders in the company to go to a place of their choosing for completely free (and we get to bring a companion).

This trip was in April of 2022, but I had to choose who would go with me early in the year, and Hannah and I were rather new to serious dating, but I still chose her, Ann- you snooze you lose. We were going to the Four Seasons in Costa Rica for four days.

Passports – Check

Covid shots – Check (though I barely made the cut on getting it).

First thing first, we got those spray tans, which made me go from Casper to Bahama Mama until I showered.

We arrived at the airport and were greeted by the HOT humidity. We were coming from St. Louis, so we were still in that awkward Midwest winter to spring transition. There were sloths everywhere, and anyone who knows me, knows that’s what I was going for. We got through customs fairly easy, but it felt like forever to get our luggage of the carousel, so we shopped instead , then we headed to the bus. Our ride was about 40 minutes, but you could smell the ocean as you got closer. The Four Seasons sits back in the resort having the most beautiful homes on the bluffs over looking the water and PERFECT sunset.

Airport was setting it up.

Cheapest beer

Costa Rica Beach edge at Four Seasons

We were super lucky that when we arrived we had a local floral shop there that allowed us to pick out a flower arrangement for our room with local flowers off the island, then had drinks and a few appetizers and started socializing while they placed it in our room. Luckily for me, my ‘work wife’ was also going on this trip, so we waited for them to arrive. Costa Rica makes you also feel like you are completely rich, because a regular beer is so cheap. On the resort we had a lot of coconut type drinks with the rum that’s made in Costa Rica. My absolute favorite drink was Flor de Cana with their local juices. Don’t worry the food did NOT disappoint either, but we will get there. We learned Costa Rica’s moto is PURA VIDA, which means the good life, and we were living it.

Flower Choices

The lawn for dinners

Our arrangement

You are also on a huge golf course on this resort. Hannah and I had free time to go out to the golf course, simply to go to their cute Tap House, which we had WAY TOO much fun at since we were the only ones there for a while. Charge it to the room por favor! The sweet potato fries were the best thing I have ever eaten to this day, and I am very sad we didn’t get them their own photo.

Tap House Lunch

You can hear a ton of the wild monkeys who will roam up to your room, but they never mess with you, so you don’t have to worry about them.

F O O D : T H E G O O D S T U F F

We had breakfast in two spots on the resort. The buffet (which also had menu food, and we usually picked it, because we could not eat that much in the morning), and there was a walk up café we visited the last two days of the trip we really liked.

From the buffet restaurant, we were shocked that they had so much traditional food, because sometimes you will see you get local food in different countries, but Hannah dove straight in to the Costa Rican Breakfast, and she says it is the best thing she had in her entire life. She was given two eggs, gallo pinto, homemade tortillas, avocado, local cuajada cheese (the best), sweet plantain and molcajete sauce. I got the eggs Benedict, because as a Louisianian, it’s my job to test that-it passed, just needed hot sauce. The coffee in Costa Rica is not matched to anything I have ever had in America. We probably drank 9 pots those few days. For pricing, I felt it was pretty good, which our work gave us each a select amount to spend on the resort. The alcoholic drinks would eat it pretty quick if you didn’t watch out. The view from breakfast there was looking out through trees onto the beach and the ocean.

Breakfast

Another breakfast place was that café. The smoothie bar and ham and cheese croissant made for the perfect light breakfast, and weren’t too hard on my stomach. We had team building exercises one day, and I learned quickly to not eat before a relay race. You can definitely use this to create your own Costa Rican smoothie.

All of our dinners were with our work group, and they all were phenomenal. We ate on the resort at two of the dinners, and then we were escorted to a different restaurant on a catamaran one night. Ceviche is huge deal there, but so is a lot of the local fish and shrimp, which I was fine with.

On the resort, we also were able to make our own Nikes. You go in and design your Nikes, then they ship them to your house. It was super cool to be able to do that while on vacation, then you got a treat a few days after you arrived home.

We were also given the opportunity to go zip lining, which I didn’t manage to get many photos of since we had to put our phone in a locker, but I highly recommend you doing the zip lining in the lush months, and not the summer months, because there wasn’t a large canopy of trees below us. The zip lines ends at a zoo, and we finished off the afternoon with fire dancers

Zip line view

Our FAVORITE night, was silent disco night. I’m not sure if you have ever met the CEO and Executives of your company, but to be able to drink a little wine, then go to a silent disco with them really created a bond for some reason. The number of times we would try to convince someone to change their channel on their headphones, then half the room would be screaming a song, while the other half would be screaming something else. I loved every second of it. They also captured the best photos of us.

The afternoon of the catamaran ride, they let us eat and drink snacks while we sailed around seeing the island and the sunset. Allison, who is my work wife, and her guest was Allison (confusing, we know), but we had soooo many jokes from this catamaran ride.

Though this was a work trip, it was so much fun to get to go with Hannah out of the country, introduce her to people in my work that are like my idols, and spend some time with her in a group setting. Getting to go sparked us wanting to travel together constantly.

If you ever get the chance to visit the Four Seasons in Costa Rica, definitely go for it.

How to Spend a Weekend Getaway to Costa Rica | Four Seasons Resort