[ITINERARY] 10 Day Kosher Exploration of Costa Rica

Day 4: Picking up Kosher in San Jose + Drive to Arenal

[SUNDAY] With the first relaxing part of our trip completed, we left the coast and headed back toward San Jose. Mind you, we had 7+ days left to our trip and at this point, we consumed most of the food we purchased from Sabress. That means we were going to stop back in San Jose to pick up a week’s worth of kosher meals from Kosher Center. When we arrived after the 2-hour drive, we first sat down at Kosher Center for lunch, as they serve a mix of some local Costa Rican and Israeli dishes which were tasty (don’t expect anything too fancy). The location is a mix of restaurant, kosher shop – with items from the US and Israel, and kosher caterer.

The food we ordered via WhatsApp from Kosher Center was finalized and placed in a large styrofoam cooler, about the entire width of our car. You would not be able to fit this in a truck or a regular sedan, a mid-to-large size SUV is required. We ordered a mix of items from the menu, everything came in large portions (at least 4 portions per order), and fully frozen. For those who have access to ovens or microwaves in home rentals like Airbnbs that they can kasher, this is ideal. This is less than ideal for those staying in hotels without such kitchens. I believe you can order from Kosher Center without it being fully frozen either.

Before we left the San Jose area, the really nice owner of Kosher Center took us on a quick tour of the Jewish community. A few minutes away from Kosher Center is the main Jewish Community Center and synagogue, a large beautiful modern structure in two buildings, one the synagogue, and the center which has a small kosher restaurant and a Holocaust museum, both open weekdays, not Sunday. The complex is heavily guarded and requires advance notice to enter if you’re not being escorted by a community member. We also took a look at an older local Jewish Italian pizza maker about 2 blocks from Kosher Center who has two large pizza ovens inside his home, serving kosher meals to go or to dine in. It’s an eclectic experience.

After killing some time at a beautiful local outdoor mall, which was both really nice and felt very safe, we started the drive up to La Fortuna, on the outskirts of the Arenal volcano in north-central Costa Rica. On paper, this is a 2-hour drive, but there’s no direct highway here from the capital. The drive requires lots of sharp turns and climbing hills through small towns. We were advised not to drive at night due to the quality of the roads, so it was a race against the sunset. We didn’t make it. We definitely had to drive in the dark, which was doable but not ideal. We eventually made it to our secluded Airbnb after a few rocky roads, some with bad potholes, but it was worth it. The house was great, with beautiful mountain views, fauna, birds, and a private pool.

This was our home for three nights, where we had access to laundry, internet, TV, and a full kitchen. Most importantly, it was within driving distance of the volcano’s attractions.

Day 5: Exploring the Arenal region

While on vacation, I’m often still planning my vacation. At this point, I hadn’t booked any of the activities for the next few days. My wife and I often have a list of options we saved in advance and book things the night before or the day of. Being flexible whilst traveling, especially with kids, is the name of the game. Obviously, certain things need to be booked in advance, but a lot don’t. That’s especially true here in CR where most things can be booked right beforehand.

We opted to spend the afternoon at Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges, a park with lots of hanging, literal hanging bridges you walk across, and beautiful views of the Arenal Volcano, which was the best part. You could also spot lots of local animals here, but we weren’t as lucky.

On our way back towards town, we stopped alongside the road to dip in the natural hot springs running alongside and underneath the roads. A whole bunch of tourists park alongside the road to do this. Be careful when doing this as there’s no official parking. Some locals will attempt to collect money from you to park there, but they have no authority to do so. A very short walk from the car gets you to a shallow stream that is quite warm, from the thermal waters of the nearby volcano, where you can just sit and chill.

If you prefer a less rugged or a more posh experience to dipping into the hot springs, there are a number of hotels and resorts along this road (between La Fortuna and the volcano) that offer a much nicer natural hot spring swimming experience. More on this on Day 6.

After drying off, we headed to La Fortuna to pick up some groceries and (kosher-certified) ice cream from POPS. (There is a local CR list of which POPS flavors are kosher nationwide). From here we headed back to the Airbnb to relax, have dinner, and go to bed.

• Costa Rica Tips
• Days 1-3: Heading to Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio National Park
• Days 4-5: Kosher in San Jose, Arenal Volcano
• Days 6-7: More Arenal, Monteverde Cloud Forest
• Days 8-11: More Monteverde, Play Flamingo, Heading Home
• Kosher Costa Rican Itinerary MAP