Honeymoon Highlight: JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa

Continuing with a few more of our honeymoon highlights from Costa Rica in December! Miss the first honeymoon recaps? Check those out first.

• Our Honeymoon Overview
• El Silencio Lodge: Hiking Adventures
• El Silencio Lodge “Cultural Tour”
• Waterfall Rappelling!
• White Water Rafting
• Hanging Bridges, Volcano Hikes, Waterfalls & Hot Springs!

After departing from the Arenal volcano area of Costa Rica, we headed to our final stop on our honeymoon adventures – the northwest Pacific coast and the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa.

The first week of our honeymoon was filled with a lot of rain and clouds, rainforests and hiking, so arriving on the sunny coast was like stepping into a completely new vacation. Apparently this area of the country (which was about a 4.5 hour drive from Arenal) has a different dry/wet season schedule than where we were before. Hello, dry season! It was sunny with blue skies every single day we were there.

In addition to a couple fun excursions (posts on those to come), Matt and I enjoyed soaking up the sunshine (with lots of sunscreen on… and usually under an umbrella – that sun was intense!), swimming in the pool and ocean, walking along the beach, eating good food, having fruity drinks, and relaxing. It was wonderful.

As you can see, my waterproof camera came out to play quite a bit. :)

Normal:

Since we were on the west coast of Costa Rica, we were also treated to stunning beach sunsets almost every night. They were seriously magical… collages don’t do them justice so get ready for a billion photos.

One of the most stunning sunsets was when we went into town for dinner one night with our new friends John and Diana (who you’ll remember we first met on the whitewater rafting trip in Arenal!). This was the beach in the nearby town of Tamarindo, which was a really cool surfing community.

We had some great dinners in town that I unfortunately didn’t take photos of, but another food highlight was Lola’s restaurant, a 40 minute walk down the beach from the Marriott where we were staying. This place came recommended from a ton of people we talked to at the Marriott and had great reviews online, so we knew it would be worth the trip. One of the afternoons we walked down there for lunch with John and Diana.

40 minutes later and we found it, tucked away just off the main beach.

I started with a smoothie while enjoying the view.

And our table shared some ceviche.

I had the chicken pita, which was delicious (and huge!).

I shared it with Matt in exchange for a few bites of his ahi tuna sandwich.

Delicious food – two thumbs up! Check this place out if you’re ever in the area. :) They also offer yoga – wish I’d had the chance to try it!

Stay tuned… two more honeymoon recaps to go: ziplining and scuba diving!