My family and I were looking at the vast quantity of beautiful vacation rental houses in Playa Guiones, Pelada, and Nosara. However, when checking rates, we learned it wasn’t easy to find a vacation rental home that matched our expectations regarding capacity, comfort, location, services, and rates.
With the airlines charging more for tickets than ever before, a family vacation to Nosara in Costa Rica can be significant regarding your finances.
We found some large ornate houses that don’t match the character of Nosara, which is laidback, simple, and down-to-earth. This authentic character of Nosara is closer to our style, so we decided to look for more personal, practical, and functional rentals.
Our list of “musts” included:
- Walking distance to the beach (3 surfers in the family)
- Three or four bedrooms
- Pool (important for a sunny day)
- Concierge service (we like to try different restaurants, explore, and learn about the local culture)
- Secure and off-street gated parking
- Well equipped (we want to avoid supermarket runs for essentials, having to pack beach towels, etc.) with highspeed wi-fi
- A trustful host (there only when we needed them)
- Fairly priced
We started our search with property managers and vacation rental companies; we have discovered that renting from an owner of a single vacation rental home or from someone who rents their home while away often ends up in a disrupted vacation if anything goes wrong, like a broken pipe, insufficient a/c, or something as simple as providing clean sheets or a new light bulb. It could take days to attend to these items, and since generally we are only there for 7 nights, we want to get the most out of a worry-free environment.
We also learned that some rental companies may include all the items on our list, but charge extra for everything, which adds to the bill.
Additionally, our searches revealed that a few companies charge a sales tax while others do not. If the companies cheat the system with taxes (which they should be paying), they might do the same to us in other areas. Integrity and trust are essential.
While communicating with the reps of our rental shortlist, we were able to get a feeling for the kind of service we would receive once they had our money. This part reduced our list down to two vacation homes.
We finally decided on one that was a less than 5-minute walk to the beach! It had a sparkling clean pool (serviced daily), reliable wi-fi, it was super clean, and even included bicycles to get around town. The rental included many amenities, from soap, shampoo, and rinse to beach towels, a surf rack, and a welcome basket with personal items.
The considerable pluses were:
- Complimentary daily housekeeping service
- 6am to 10pm concierge service (via WhatsApp)
- A security guard for when we went to dinner
You can imagine how easy everything becomes with those services. We plan to book the same vacation home next year!
And yes, their rates were very reasonable. It pays to take the time to do your homework before renting the first flashy house you see online.
You can try any of these amazing vacation rental homes at https://nosaravacationrental.com/.
