Holbrook Travel's very own Bernadette Bernard traveled to beautiful Costa Rica with Road Scholar in 2012.  Here is a day by day account of her journey:

Ensuring that I was all packed, especially with the necessities such as the right clothing for tropical weather, an extra pair of proper walking shoes, mosquito repellent, a flashlight and a rain poncho, I began my travels from Orlando heading to San José, Costa Rica, on a non-stop flight of approximately 2 hours 45 minutes.

After my arrival in San José, Immigration formalities were quite interesting for me due to my Seychelles Passport.  I attracted a lot of curious Immigration personnel who confirmed that this was their first and wanted to know all about where I’m from and where Seychelles was located.  Customs was smooth and quick with no search.   My transportation was easy to locate -- the Road Scholar sign could be detected as soon as I came out of the door from the baggage area.

The drive to the first hotel, Hotel Balmoral, was approximately 35 minutes through the city of San José.  The hotel room was beautiful and comfortable with provisions such as a hair dryer, shampoo, conditioner, soap, a face cloth and mini fridge.  The hotel has its own restaurant, but it’s also surrounded by other restaurants and American fast food favorites such as McDonald’s, Quiznos and KFC.  Since I arrived during the daytime, I was also able to walk along the boulevard which is quite safe, visited the super market, restaurants, shops and other local venues.

[caption id="attachment_4934" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Photo by: Bernadette Bernard[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4939" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Photo by: Bernadette Bernard[/caption]

That first night ended rather fast for me, being a first-time visitor to Costa Rica I was filled with much excitement over my journey and the anticipation of the next day when the program activities would begin.

Road Scholar program #8577

Part 2