Our Costa Rica Casita
What Did We Expect for US $600 per Month?
When we started searching for a house (casita) vacation rental, we contacted our Canadian friends who live here in Costa Rica. They easily convinced us we'd love their location on the west shore of Lake Areanl in Guanacaste Province. They were right.
They also put us in touch with Coryn Wallen a local agent who handles vacation rentals and I cannot stress enough what an absolute pleasure she has been to work with: Answering our (many) email questions before our arrival, arranging transportation (a private car pick up) from the airport, greeting us at the house even though we arrived late, and attending immediately to our every need and request since then.
I'm using the Spanish word, "casita", meaning cottage or small house, because I like the sound of it. In fact, our vacation rental is easily as spacious as our permanent home in Ontario.
We fell in love with the mosaics found in various spots around the house and learned they are the work of the original owner, Helen. Her name, along with various strange and curious objects, like horseshoes, 45 rpm records, belt buckles, and sea shells, can be found embedded in the art. It’s not uncommon for Randy and I to ask each other a daily question such as, "Have you found the.....plastic frog, the key, or the duracell battery yet?"
There are a few things to adjust to:
A $100 deposit held our booking with the remainder payable one month in advance for each month of our stay. Our rent includes all utilities, high speed wi-fi with unlimited data, and even housekeeeping service (once per month).
There are many listings on sites such as VRBO and Flipkey but this house and another even less-expensive casita (equally nice but, unfortunately, not available for our entire stay) are not listed there. We can highly recommend both our location and our agent and would definitely try to rent this same house on a return trip! It was recently purchased by an American and we're the first vacation tenants. A few embishments are planned so we expect the rent may be slightly adjusted in the future.
The location is exactly what we wanted. In a future post, I'll explain why in detail.
And where is this house exactly? In the village of San Luis in Guanacaste Province. Here, in Costa Rica, it's important to always state the province; many towns have the same name. Addresses are a peculiar thing here. They don't use street names and houses aren’t numbered. Instead they are identified in relation to some landmark or other. And this “description” is actually the official address, not just some obscure set of directions. Our official address is: “Frente Antiguo Bar Minos de San Luis, Casa Amarillo, de Tilaran, Guanacaste, Costa Rica”. Or, for local people: “a frente Viejo Las Palmas Restaurante y a lado de los apartementes en San Luis.” Loosely tanslated: "In front of the old Las Palmas Restaurant and beside the apartments in San Luis". Try and put that address into your gps:-)
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House owner ! [email protected]
I had a coffee farm in Costa Rica for years but partners wanted to sell. It overlooked the orisi Vally and it broke my heart to sell it! But I fell in …
Great Snap Shot!
Love your snap shot into this wonderful rental - and your view! Hope you and Randy enjoy your stay. Have a blessed day filled with unlimited possibilities! …
Thank you for sharing
How we are enjoying your posts!
The casita you are staying in is perfect, especially being 2 stories to catch the breeze.
We feel like boarding a plane …
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