A father treats his daughter to a Costa Rica adventure

I’m AAA Explorer editor in chief Jim Benning, and I recently traveled with my daughter, Lucia, 12, to Costa Rica. I hoped it would be the perfect way to introduce her to traveling in Latin America.

After a five-hour flight from Southern California, we landed in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, on a sunny morning.

We soon headed to La Paz Waterfall Gardens outside of San José and spent a few hours exploring the misty waterfalls.

We also spent time with the gardens’ rescued wildlife, including friendly toucans.

Then we headed west to Quepos, on the Pacific coast. We stayed at Villa Punto de Vista (villapuntodevista.com), a six-story, 10-bedroom luxury villa. It’s available for rent to groups of up to 27 people and offers jaw-dropping views of the Pacific.

We used the villa as a base to explore Manuel Antonio, a national park with white-sand beaches, three-toed sloths, and a variety of very curious monkeys. 

Then we headed north to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. The highlight: two nights at Tabacón (tabacon.com), a resort set amid thermal hot springs that are heated by the volcano’s magma. We spent most of an afternoon soaking in paradisiacal pools alongside waterfalls.

We loved soaking in the pools even when the sky opened up and a warm, tropical rain fell.

From La Fortuna, we took a boat across Lake Arenal and looked back at the cone-shaped volcano rising behind us.

At Lucia’s insistence, we also went zip lining nearby at Sky Trek (skyadventures.travel/skytrek).