Traveling on a budget, of sorts

The reason we are going to Costa Rica is that we had a $99 Alaska Air companion fare that was due to expire. This is similar to the reason we went to China when I found the $700 nonstop fares to Beijing and Shanghai.  Experience would indicate that these cheap airfares do not benefit me financially (or Poor Ron!) in the end  but I am un-impacted, from a decision making point of view, by my previous experiences and Ron just always rubber stamps my plans and packs his bag.

The budget was particularly tight when I set out to plan this trip last February and so I figured a total cost of about $1100 per person, which would cover airfare, hotels, internal transfers by shared shuttle and most activities.  This is quite doable in Costa Rica – for example, our hotels are $100 per night so $700 for the week and therefore $350 each.  Air was $350 each.  Internal transfers at $180 each.

It was a nice budget but then, as the months passed, I decided I did not care about keeping to it.  The first thing to go was the airfare.  I’m psychotic about leg room on an airplane.  If you recline your seat towards me,  I will mull over hurting you. And so one weak night, we upgraded the seats to Alaska’s new Premium Economy…up to FOUR more glorious inches and a little box of almonds that I am allergic to, and I will report back on this later.  Add $200 per person.

Shortly after that, I decided, for a variety of reasons, that the shared shuttle was out and we booked private transfers throughout our trip with Morpho Vans.  Add $160 per person but all the people on the shared shuttles should give thanks because I struggle with carsickness a lot lately and our $160 each additional cash outlay is going to make their Costa Rica trips much more pleasant.

We’ve been US-bound since Egypt in January of 2017 and so we are excited to get out there. We’re gearing up for a big year and already have a second trip planned in June – – 17 days – Oxford, Krakow, Budapest and Taormina, Sicily.  Original budget of about $2500 per person eradicated by 1) date change from off-season October to high-season June, 2) upgraded air charges when I fell victim to Premium Economy on Norwegian and 3) pending decision to transfer from Krakow to Budapest via 5 dollar 7 hour ride on Polski Bus vs. 350 dollar private transfer.

Goals for Costa Rica?  This is a return trip for me – I already know how amazing it is.  But pineapple and lots of it, get Ron somewhere else in Central America besides the Cancun hotel zone and try not to have panic attacks about the monkeys.  They were a real stumbling point for me last time, those crafty monkeys.  Perhaps I’ve grown enough as a person to cope with them better!!