Playa Hermosa holiday house

12 of us spent a week in North West Costa Rica based out of the amazing Casa del Viento. This is a beautiful, clean, spacious home with a great pool and an amazing view of both the bay/ocean and the surrounding hills. You could sit outside in the early morning and watch the beautiful view at sunrise and listen to Howler Monkeys in the forests of the surrounding hills. Absolutely stunning!
We went out during the day and would come back to a clean home with clean folded laundry courtesy of the maid who would come 4 hours each day except for Sunday.
Guss, our concierge, arranged our arrival despite us arriving very late (about 10 p.m.) He hooked us up with Bernal (Tico Tours) who took us on two different full day tours. One to the Arenal Volcano which included many additions that only a seasoned excellent guide could know about. There were 7 teenagers in our group who were able to swim beneath a huge waterfall that was in the movie "Jurasic Park"! Then authentic food for lunch and then to a nature reserve and then Hot Springs and an authentic dinner. The clouds were low that night so we missed seeing the red lava flows from the Arenal Volcano but the tour was still perfect. Another full day tour included horseback riding, an amazing canopy/zip line experience, authentic lunch at a beautiful restaurant and then hot springs and mud bath experience. The zip lines were amazing. At the start there was a breathtaking waterfall cascading 250 to 300 feet to the canyon below. There were 10 runs with the first 7 going back and forth across the canyon over 300 feet below you. The safety features included a second cable and pulley and even my 86 year old father made the runs by himself!! My mother is 78 years old and went in tandem with one of the guides/operators. Safe, exhilarating but no butterfly/drop sensation. Absolutely an experience for everyone. I do not like heights or a sheer drop off but thoroughly enjoyed this. You left the platform secure and you could control your speed and if you wanted to you could go over 40 mph!! My teenage kids did that and then some! The longest run was over 2000 feet long. We even went through one area of the rainforest canopy with 20 or more Howler Monkeys. By their reactions as I zipped by, I am not sure who was more entertained, them or me!
The rest of the time we went to beaches and scuba dived one day. It was a wonderful stay and could not have had a nicer place to stay! On a scale of 1:10, a 12!!