A Carefree Weekend in the Underrated City of San Jose

Caitlinepstein415/ February 26, 2018/ Latin America/ 1 comments

A Carefree Weekend in the Underrated City of San Jose

Oh, how I love weekends where I find myself taking what seems like a million photos (and is probably closer to 300). This always seems to happen when I find myself in San Jose for the weekend, and is only made easier when I’m with my classmates that are down to pose for photo after photo.

We started the day in San Jose off by tracking down something vitally important, especially for resident coffee addict Sara: Starbucks.

I haven’t had a chai tea latte in ages, and it was just as good as I remembered. After cooling down from the now scorching weather in Costa Rica, we set off to find the Open Air Event in the National Park.

There, we were delighted to find live music, food trucks, a mini market, and a photo booth. We wasted no time in picking out delicious food from one of the trucks. Sarah and I split an awesome pizza and Hannah gave us lessons on how to look cute while eating in photos.

After food, we listened to the talented musicians and took photos in the photo booth and around the event.

When we finally exhausted all of the photo spots and my classmates finished their beers, we left to aimlessly wander the city. We tried our best to show our new classmate, Lea, the beautiful and interesting parts of the city. We browsed through a trendy consignment store in La Cali, admired the street art, and stopped at Soleil Chocolate (read my post about this fantastic restaurant here) for some treats.

After our meanderings, we headed to the bus to Escazu to go to our hostel for the night. I can not stress enough that this is hands down the best hostel I have ever come across. If I find a better hostel in my next 3 years abroad I will be surprised.

The Fauna Luxury Hostel (check out a description and find prices here) used to be a luxury hotel, but was converted to a state of the art hostel, and it only costs 7 DOLLARS A NIGHT! WHAT? The dorm rooms are unlike any other – they are spacious and have pod-style beds. Each pod is big enough for tall people like me to sit all the way up without knocking their head, and comes with a light, outlets, and a delightfully fuzzy blanket.

I was so happy.

And I was even happier when I saw the rest of the hostel. It has a common room with pool, ping pong, and foosball (that we took advantage of), a pool, giant bean bags strewn about everywhere, eclectic artwork, and a rooftop with stunning views of the city.

It was on the roof that we lounged on the bean bags and had an impromptu photoshoot with the lights of the city as our background.

I could have laid out there all night, but eventually we got hungry and made our way to a local grocery store to find dinner. We brought our food back to the hostel and ate in the common room before hanging out a bit more. My classmates decided to go out in search of night life while I (predictably) was in favor of reading and going to bed.

The next morning, we woke up to bright sunlight and made our way down to breakfast. If you book at the Fauna Luxury Hostel through hostelworld.com it includes breakfast, and a good one at that. $7 a night and it includes breakfast? I’m still in awe.

We then explored the hostel more, admiring the artwork featured on almost every wall.

Upon making our way to our room, we changed into swimsuits to check out the pool. It was absolutely freezing, so we primarily lounged about in the sun (or shade if you’re me and burn super easily) and took photos.

Around noon, we checked out and made our way back to Heredia, but I cannot wait to stay here again. I’m already making plans to work and hang out here during a research project in a couple of weeks. I would recommend this hostel to anyone coming to the San Jose area, even if you’re only there for a night on your way to popular Costa Rican tourist destinations. And as for San Jose itself, don’t count it out. The city is vibrant, the food is good, and there is almost always a fun event on the weekends.