A Week in Costa Rica with LSKD

 

Arenal Volcano (Volcán Arenal), La Fortuna, Costa Rica. January 2022

traveling through costa rica

Back in March 2021, I came across a clothing brand called LSKD. They started popping up everywhere. Their leggings, hoodies, beanies… you name it, they were there. On my facebook timeline, on friends in their Instagram profile photos, and in photos posted sporadically throughout my Instagram home page by creators I look up to. The brand immediately stuck out to me. Not because they were one of those fake-trendy clothing brands all the influencers were wearing, but because their products were actually nice. After seeing LSKD non-stop for a few days, I couldn’t help but dive into their website and learn about who they are.

I did my research, and I knew I wanted to work with LSKD. I decided to shoot my shot, and I sent an email to collaborate. Fast forward a crazy five months later, and I was sitting in Turkey as a WhatsApp message popped up from Nick inviting me to go on a sponsored creator trip to Costa Rica with LSKD. Needless to say, but I was stoked. A free trip? To a country I’ve yet to travel to? With a group of creators I’ve never met? It was a dream offer I never imagined happening right at my fingertips.

The Reality of Costa Rica.

  • No BS…were you safe? I felt extremely safe. I think it goes without saying that no matter where you are in the world, anything can happen at any given moment. It is up to you to make sure you are safe, and it is up to you to make sure you are aware of your surroundings and don’t leave yourself vulnerable. For the entire length of the LSKD trip, nobody from our group encountered any dangerous people or scenarios. Most of us entered Costa Rica before the trip start date, and one of us did get their belongings stolen. They mistakenly left things unaccompanied and in plain sight in their car, so it was an avoidable situation. In even the busiest cities in the safest countries, I would never recommend leaving anything valuable in an unattended vehicle.

  • Was there a language barrier? While Costa Rica’s first language is Spanish, a lot of locals do understand English. Personally, I didn’t find it that difficult to converse with anybody while our tour guide wasn’t present. I understand Spanish more than I can speak it, and we did have someone on our trip other than our guide who spoke Spanish fluently which helped.

  • How did you get around? I mentioned above having a tour guide, and our time in Costa Rica was made perfect by the help of Contiki. More specifically, though, by our tour guide, Jorge. Being tasked with a group tour around his country focusing on activities not so typical of the normal Contiki tour, Jorge did an incredible job of showing us Costa Rica’s pure beauty. We had a coach bus we used to travel throughout the country, and stopped in so many noteworthy places.

  • What didn’t you need to worry about? A lot! When I go on any type of trip focused around creating, I always stress. Will I get the shot? Will I have a good model? Will the spots be crowded? Will I be forcing my friend(s) to stay at these locations longer than they want to be? None of this mattered this time. It was a trip unlike any other I’ve been on. There were 12 of us total consisting of videographers, photographers, and models, and we all understood each other without anyone needing to say anything or ask anyone to do anything. It was so seamless. So perfect.

  • Be real, was it annoying being with so many people nonstop? Honestly, I thought it would have been. I’m not that much of a people person, but this was the trip of a lifetime. If you have never been on a group trip with creators (and you are one), I am highly recommending it. The only way for you to get better at anything is by surrounding yourself with people who are just as good if not better than you are.

San José to Jacó: A Week Long Itinerary

Costa Rica is not a big country. For comparison, it is similar in size to West Virginia. Traveling through the entire country in one week is doable, but I wouldn’t recommend as it will be tough to see all of its beauty. We stayed primarily on the west side of the country, never venturing east of San José.

  • Day 1: We spent our entire first day in San José. We had breakfast at our hotel, had a nice group workout session at Gold’s Gym, and walked around the city before having a group dinner with Jorge so we could all get to know him better & have a better feel for our trip expectations.

  • Day 2: This was probably the longest day we had, and it was packed with the most beautiful places. We left San José by 8am, and our end destination was Arenal/La Fortuna. We stopped at two waterfalls which were located on the side of the road, and then made a stop at a third waterfall called La Fortuna Waterfall. We could have (and probably would have) spent all day shooting here if Jorge didn’t remind us we were on a schedule. This waterfall is beautiful, and there’s so many cool comps to shoot over here. It’s a bit of a walk down (500 stairs), so definitely make sure you have everything you need before making your way down. After this waterfall, we made our way to our hotel to check in and then ventured off to the Baldi Hot Springs. These hot springs were the coolest hot springs I’ve ever been to, and would recommend everyone check them out. I’ve been describing it to all of my friends as a ‘hot springs waterpark resort,’ because there are water slides to go into different pools, and bars located in far too many other pools. It was pretty much an adult dream-park.

  • Day 3: When we got to our hotel the evening before, it was pretty cloudy. So cloudy, that when we all woke up this morning and saw we had a perfectly clear lineup to the Arenal Volcano we had a morning photoshoot. From La Fortuna, we made our way to Playa Tamarindo. On our way, we stopped at multiple views along the way to shoot some cool content with the volcano in the back, and also stopped at Llanos de Cortés Waterfall. If you’re looking for some advice for this waterfall, maybe don’t listen to the locals when they say you can go cliff jumping here. Probably not the move :) We also made our way to a nice group yoga session once arriving in Tamarindo.

  • Day 4: We spent our day in Tamarindo. We were offered surf lessons in the early morning with some locals, followed by an afternoon adventure on a Catamaran. Both are super dope excursions, and if you’ve never done either you should definitely look into them. Today was essentially a free day, so for those of us who decided not to do either excursion, we had our day to ourselves. Being a super cool beach town, most of us decided to venture off this night and see a little more of Tamarindo. Some more advice… maybe don’t go find Groot. Probably also not another smart move :)

  • Day 5: Today was more of a driving day as we made our way back East to Monteverde, which is roughly a 3-3.5hour drive from Tamarindo. Once we arrived in Monteverde, we were blessed with three or four different rainbows before the sun went down, which was super cool. Monteverde’s climate is similar to the PNW and is famous for their cloud forests.

  • Day 6: We started our day off with some extreme vibe chasing. We came to Monteverde to explore Selvatura Park, and we did not leave disappointed. This park has tons of things to do, but our focus was zip lining and the hanging bridges. For the canopy tour of the ziplines, there are 15 platforms, 1 tarzan swing (there is a weight limit), and a cable which is 1km long (just over half a mile). After we finished our morning/early afternoon at Selvatura Park, we made our way to Jacó where we caught sunset just in time right on the beach.

  • Day 7: Although this was our last full day on this trip, a couple of us (me included) needed to fly out early so we all woke up for a sunrise shoot on the beach, followed by breakfast and an afternoon Instagram Live workout session on the LSKD page run by Jil and Ben. If you do end up in Jacó, it is close to Manuel Antonio National Park and you should definitely make your way there. This park is the perfect place to spot wildlife, and has the perfect mix of rainforest, beaches, and coral reefs.

  • Something to always remember for all of your trips: Do NOT rush yourself. Enjoy wherever you are, and embrace the moment you’re currently in. Before you know it, you’ll be back to reality wishing you were still there.