CASA DE LA VIDA GRANDE: A TROPICAL PARADISE IN PLAYA GRANDE

This was the first trip to Costa Rica for myself, my wife and our accompanying grad student son. On this trip, we were more interested in simply relaxing and hitting the beach. This property was ideally suited for both of these goals...one of the best beaches (Playa Grande) I've ever seen is within a 5 minute walk out the front door. The location of the house (in Palm Beach Estates) is in a small residential community (with just enough resources for visitors but not touristy).

The house itself is attractive and has excellent furnishings and amenities (incl. gas BBQ grill). My wife loves eating outside, so when we ate at the house, we ate every meal on the outside covered patio. The weather (late-Dec) was perfect every day and in our collective opinion, eating breakfast outside with a warm breeze and a mug of brewed Costa Rican coffee can't be beat. Likewise, returning after a day at the beach, sitting on the couch/comfy chairs on the patio or in the pool, with an Imperial (Costa Rican beer) in hand - what's better than that?

All of the descriptions of the property were accurate...there is land-line telephone, and connectivity to internet which worked flawlessly. Electric is same as American, water is safe to drink and use, and everyone takes US dollars.

In the time period prior to our vacation, I was in periodic email contact with Colin (property owner) who took great care and time to answer all of my questions. His property manager in Costa Rica (an American, Alyssa, "Senorita Casitas") was super-helpful and friendly: she arranged airport pick-up at Liberia airport - 1 hour to house (BTW - airport pick-up is ALSO available for flight into San Jose...4 hours, I'm told); she went grocery shopping for us; she arranged activities (zipline canopy tour). Colin had a cleaning crew in every couple of days for general house cleaning and fresh linens; and gardeners/pool people as well.

The busy touristy town of Tamarindo is located across the river and there are water taxis that take you across during daylight (cost us $3 USD per person)...best way to do this is to go to the bar at Bula Bula and ask them to call you a taxi...we had to wait around ten minutes at the little dock there.

There are several restaurants within easy walking distance (I mentioned Bula Bula above) and also, a small grocery/general store. We didn't have a car for the week we were there and did fine.

In conclusion - we liked it so much we've already booked another stay!

Casa le La Vida Grande is all that you can ask for in a vacation home. Less than 7 minute slow walk to the beach, 3 restaurants, and a market. It is everything you see in the pictures. The wraparound porch was especially nice; all our dining was outdoors with accompanying jungle sounds of monkeys, birds, and crashing waves.

I typically perform surveillance when staying a new place, to compare for alternative places for future trips. But I did not do that this time – I don’t see how you could possibly upgrade from Casa le La Vida Grande.

All our future trips to this location will be at Casa le La Vida Grande.