Beyond the 48: a Family Adventure to Costa Rica with Exodus Adventure Travels
The RV Atlas Podcast
RVFTA Podcast Network
4.6 • 584 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
As part of our new “Beyond the 48” podcast series, we’re stepping outside the lower 48 states and sharing stories from recent international travel experiences. While The RV Atlas will always be focused on RV and campground travel in the United States, we also know that many of our listeners love to explore beyond where the family RV can take you. In this episode, we’re sharing details from an unforgettable family trip to Costa Rica with Exodus Adventure Travels.
We went on this trip as part of the Good Housekeeping Family Travel Awards, where Stephanie served as a tester. The goal was to evaluate this guided group adventure and see how it stacked up as a family-friendly travel option. Spoiler alert: it more than lived up to expectations.
This trip, called the Costa Rica Family Escape, was specifically designed for families with older kids and teens, and every moment—from rainforest hikes to beach relaxation—was crafted to be educational, engaging, and just the right amount of adventurous.
A Family Escape to Costa Rica with Exodus Adventure Travels
The Costa Rica Family Escape is an eight-day guided tour operated by Exodus Adventure Travels, a long-established UK-based travel company with a strong reputation in Europe. The trip was designed for families with kids ages 9 and up and includes a range of outdoor adventures in Costa Rica’s most iconic regions. While Exodus is still gaining name recognition in the U.S., we quickly learned why their trips have earned a loyal following overseas.
We traveled with a group of four other families from the UK—five teenagers in total—and stayed in comfortable local lodges and hotels throughout. With an “easy to moderate” activity rating, the trip balanced downtime with exciting excursions and offered enough variety to keep everyone in our group engaged.
The Costa Rica With Exodus Adventure Travels itinerary moved through three major destinations in Costa Rica:
La Fortuna (Arenal Volcano area)
Monteverde (Cloud Forest region)
Carrillo Beach (Pacific Coast near Sámara)
We started in San José and ended in Liberia on the West Coast, traveling by minibus, boat, and foot with a fantastic local guide named Jorge.
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in San José
We flew into San José and stayed at the Studio Hotel, a modern, boutique-style hotel that offered a great overnight stay near the airport. That evening, we met our group and guide for a welcome briefing.
Day 2: Arenal Volcano & La Fortuna Waterfall
We traveled north to La Fortuna, where we explored the area surrounding the Arenal Volcano, which was active until recently. A hike down to La Fortuna Waterfall gave us our first taste of Costa Rica’s natural beauty—lush rainforest and a powerful waterfall. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to swim at the bottom of the waterfall because of flash flood warnings, but it was still a beautiful experience.Â
Overnight: Arenal Paraiso Hotel, with natural hot spring-fed pools and views of the volcano.
Day 3: White-Water Rafting & Farm-to-Table Lunch
We tackled Class II and III rapids on the Balsa River, an exhilarating but beginner-friendly white-water rafting trip. Along the way, we spotted toucans, monkeys, and other wildlife.
After rafting, we visited Vida Campesina, a small country estate where we enjoyed a traditional wood-stove-cooked lunch with ingredients harvested right on-site.
Day 4: Boat to Monteverde & Night Walk in the Cloud Forest
We crossed Lake Arenal by boat and continued by road to Monteverde, famous for its cool temperatures and misty cloud forest. That night, we ventured into the forest after dark for a night hike,
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Didn't you lose West momentarily? Yes. And at the very beginning, he just popped right off that raft. |
| 0:08.0 | He bounced. He's... Bounced right off that. Like, we hit, and he just boom. Because you have to |
| 0:14.5 | like tuck your feet down under. Our guide scooped him out of that water so fast. |
| 0:39.1 | That you didn't have time to panic? They were so good. I mean, he had him out of that water in seconds. We were all in it together, which was really nice. And everybody was checking on him for the entire. He probably hated it. But I was like, Wes, are your feet tucked in? Wes is a little bit on the shy side. He's also very light. So he probably, you know, he skips like a stone. |
| 0:40.8 | The way he just boom. Bye. feet tucked in. Wes is on the little bit on the shy side. He's also very light, so he probably, |
| 0:37.5 | you know, he skips like a stone. The way he just boom popped right out of that. |
| 0:47.2 | Hi, everyone. I'm Stephanie. And I'm Jeremy. And we are the authors of the best selling |
| 0:52.3 | where should we camp next series of guidebooks and camping journals. |
| 0:55.9 | End of the brand new children's books, Tara Babies on the Go, My First Book of Hiking, and Tara Babies on the Go, my first book of camping. |
| 1:03.0 | Last year we celebrated season 10 of the RV Atlas, and now we're back for brand new RV and camping adventures in 2025. |
| 1:11.3 | Join us now as we cover the best campgrounds, the best RVs, the best food, and the best gear and gadgets to bring with you when you go. |
| 1:18.6 | So pull up a chair and join us around the digital campfire. |
| 1:21.8 | This is season 11 of the RV Atlas. |
| 1:29.2 | Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of the RV Atlas. |
| 1:33.7 | Today, we're doing something very different, and we're kicking off what looks to be a four |
| 1:39.1 | or perhaps five-part series that we're going to do throughout the spring and the summer. |
| 1:45.0 | Definitely a four-part series, possibly a five-part series. And this was Stephanie's idea. It's something you've been talking |
| 1:49.6 | about for quite a while, and we finally decided to dive in and do that on the RV Atlas. And there's |
| 1:55.9 | going to be some months this year where we do two podcasts a week. So we'll do this mini-series |
| 2:00.7 | during some of those weeks where we're doing two podcasts. do two podcasts a week. So we'll do this mini-series during some of those |
| 2:01.7 | weeks where we're doing two podcasts. And this is a series that Stephanie has named Beyond the 48. |
| 2:09.5 | And this first episode in the miniseries is going to be beyond the 48 Costa Rica. Because as we've |
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