4 Day Costa Rica Bachelorette Itinerary – Under $1000/Person
Costa Rica just keeps me coming back for more. In January 2025, I visited Costa Rica for the third time. This trip was a 4 day getaway for my best friend’s bachelorette. I was in charge of planning the trip for 8 people and importantly, keeping all of our costs under $1000/person (excluding flights). I’d never planned a trip for so many people, but everything went so smoothly and the bride had an amazing time. Here’s how I pulled it off:
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What Part of Costa Rica Should You Go To?
Costa Rica has so much diversity, from the beaches to the cloud forest to the hot springs and more. For a 4 day trip, you realistically have to stay in one place the whole time. Based on my previous trips to Costa Rica, I was able to narrow it down to 2 main areas: either staying near Tamarindo or up in the Arenal region.
Each place has a lot to do, but they’re very different. Tamarindo is on the beach and has all the activities you’d expect, from catamaran tours to surfing and more. Arenal is famous for their hot springs and more adventurous activities nearby like white water rafting.
There’s no wrong answer but ultimately, we chose to be near the beach at the bride’s preference. Staying in Tamarindo, the closest international airport is LIR in Liberia, Costa Rica (not to be confused with the country of Liberia!). We flew Southwest Airlines from Houston Hobby direct to LIR.
Here’s a map of direct flight options to LIR from flightconnections.com.
Hotel vs. Airbnb
For a bachelorette trip with 8 people, we had 2 main options: book 2 hotel rooms with 4 girls sharing each room or book an Airbnb. Cost was a huge concern, but so was location and comfort. Ultimately, we ended up booking an Airbnb that was the best of a resort (daily breakfast, pool, concierge, AC) and the best of an Airbnb (privacy, more space, kitchen, location) combined and I cannot recommend it enough.
Casa Duna Airbnb Review
We stayed at Casa Duna, which is an incredible property run by the nicest people (who just so happen to live next door so if you need anything they can help). The house really lives up to the listing photos. The beauty of the house isn’t even my favorite part – the hosts were able to help us book every aspect of our trip. They provided a guide book immediately after booking with tour recommendations and a list of extra services they could coordinate for us.
Key features:
- 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms – sleeps up to 11 people
- air conditioning
- private pool
- breakfast included daily (except Sundays, holidays, and check out days)
- in a gated community
- great proximity to Tamarindo
Optional extras (all booked through the wonderful Airbnb hosts):
- Transportation to/from airport
- Golf cart rental (through Rent Me Tamarindo)
- Private chef
- Yoga at the house
- Massages at the house
Note that Casa Duna actually has 3 booking options, each with their own Airbnb listing link.
- Option 1 is the main house + the pool house that sleeps up to 11. This is what we rented and what my review covers.
- Option 2 is the smaller house next door where our hosts stayed while we were there. This has 2 bedrooms and sleeps 4 people. It has it’s own small pool.
- Option 3 is to rent both Option 1 & 2 together, which features 7 bedrooms and can accomodate up to 15 guests.
[RELATED: Triple dip on points earning when booking an Airbnb]
Transportation – Should You Rent a Car?
The choice of whether or not to rent a car largely comes down to personal preference. On my 2nd trip to Costa Rica, I stayed near Tamarindo with my family and we rented cars without any issues. For this trip, no one really felt comfortable taking on the responsibility of driving.
We did end up renting 2 electric 4-seater golf carts through Rent Me Tamarindo instead, allowing us to zoom around town to get groceries, go to dinner, etc. We staggered our rentals so on day 1, we only had 1 golf cart and then days 2-4 we had 2 golf carts. This allowed us to save a little money since we only needed half the people to go to the grocery store on day 1.
Your itinerary will also factor into this decision. All the activities we chose had the option for private transfers or they were close enough to the house that we could take the golf carts.
Day-by-Day Itinerary
When choosing a destination, I did a lot of due diligence to make sure wherever we went would have enough available for a 4 day trip (within budget!). I wanted to make sure we had a mix of activities, from relaxing to adventurous, and didn’t have too much downtime to the point of boredom. If you’re in the same boat, here’s exactly how we pulled this off:
Day 1
Everyone except me was flying from Houston, so I flew to Houston the night before to be on the same flight as everyone else to Liberia, Costa Rica. I really recommend trying to coordinate flights because the airport is far from Tamarindo and you don’t want to make people wait for hours!
We opted for a more low-key first day since travel can be exhausting and it allowed us time to settle into the Airbnb.
2:45PM – landed in LIR, immigration took about an hour
3:45PM – met our driver outside (booked through our Airbnb) and due to traffic, it took us 2 hours to get to the house
5:45PM – arrived at the house, our lovely Airbnb hosts gave us a run down of the place. Our private chef we’d hired for the first night was already there preparing our food.
6:15PM – half the girls went on a grocery run and the other half stayed back to decorate the Airbnb with bachelorette decor
8:00PM – dinner was served, a beautiful Costa Rican feast served up by the amazing chef
9:00PM – game night at the Airbnb
Day 2
Day 2 was our high adventure day. We booked a hike to La Leona Waterfall, which took up most of the day given that it was over an hour away, north of Liberia. We’d booked a group tour to keep costs down, but given our group size, we ended up with a private tour at no extra cost.
9:30AM – traditional Costa Rican breakfast was served at the house, including fresh juice and coffee
11:40AM – picked up from the Airbnb (included with the tour we booked), ~1.5 hr drive to the start of the hike
2:15PM – 2.5 hour hike/swim to La Leona waterfall
7:45PM – arrived back at the Airbnb
8:30PM – dinner at Pangas Beach Club (get the Pangas Tuna Tower!)
[RELATED: La Leona Waterfall Adventure Hike – What You Need to Know]
Day 3
For our 3rd day, we had a much more relaxing itinerary than day 2, including an energizing morning yoga session and an afternoon on the water.
Unfortunately, I can’t confidently recommend our catamaran operator, The Pacific Lounge. One of the 2 guides was filming some of the girls while they were dancing, which was super inappropriate. The catamaran itself was fine, but it wasn’t one with nets across the bow like I’d expected. They came recommended from our Airbnb and were also the only private catamaran tour in our price range (+ we got a discount from being guests at that Airbnb).
7:30AM – private yoga class at the Airbnb (booked through the Airbnb)
9:00AM – breakfast was served
9:45AM – 3 hours of free time at the house. Some people napped, others swam in the pool, etc.
12:40PM – got in the golf carts and drove down to the beach (we did have to pay $10/cart for parking at the beach)
12:50PM – boarded our catamaran for an afternoon/sunset cruise with lunch, snorkeling, and all-inclusive drinks
6:00PM – arrived back on the beach, went back to the Airbnb to shower and change for dinner
9:30PM – dinner at Dragonfly Bar & Grill (drove the golf carts there)
Day 4
Given that this was a Sunday and also our check out day, breakfast was not included. We spent the morning eating leftovers from the private chef and getting the house ready for check out. Thankfully, there wasn’t much required for check out, unlike some Airbnbs with lengthy to-do lists!
8:30AM – a few of us took a golf cart down to Pico for a coffee run. This cafe is right on the beach, but be warned, their service is pretty slow.
9:30AM – golf carts were picked up
10:00AM – private van picked us up to take us to the airport (booked through Airbnb). The flight wasn’t until 3 and there wasn’t as much traffic today, so we got there with plenty of time to spare.
Cost Breakdown – Keeping it Under $1000 per Person
Below is a full breakdown of our costs. As you an see, we just barely scraped under the $1000/person budget, but we pulled it off! I will note that it helped that very few people ordered any alcohol during the trip.
The number of people on your trip will impact your budget greatly, as lots of activities had a set base rate and then additional fee for each extra person.
Other Activity Ideas
If you’re looking for more activity ideas of what you can do around Tamarindo, here’s some inspiration. It’s good problem to have deciding between so many great options!
- Clubbing/dancing
- ATVing
- Scuba diving
- Turtle watching tour
- Surfing
- Ziplining
- Freediving
Additional Advice for Costa Rica
- You definitely need cash! Specifically USD or Euros. Credit cards are accepted at restaurants but for our drivers, yoga, and catamaran, we had to pay in cash so the vendors could avoid high credit cards rates. We knew in advance how much we’d need (and accounted for some extras) and split up the responsibility among the group so no one person had to carry thousands of dollars. No need to get local currency.
- The sun is strong in Costa Rica and even in January, it was quite hot and humid. Make sure to wear sunscreen and stay hydrated. Also, be sure to apply plenty of bug spray!
- Outlets in Costa Rica are the same as US outlets, so no need to worry about your electronics.
- I recommend using an app like Splitwise to track spending. It simplifies the “who owes how much to which person?” question that inevitably comes up on group trips.
- We did themed nights for dinners, but didn’t make it too hard. Our themes were pajama party (night 1), sunset (night 2), and floral (night 3), so everyone could wear what they already had instead of going out for new clothes.
Final Thoughts
Costa Rica made for an incredible 4 day bachelorette trip and we were able to stay in our $1000/person budget. It’s very safe, it’s great yearround, plenty of people speak English, and no visa is required for Americans. Everyone on our trip (and most importantly the bride), had an incredible time on this trip and was sad when it was over. At the same time, 4 days felt like the perfect amount of time because it only required 2 vacation days from everyone + a weekend.
Be sure to save this post for future planning!
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