Exploring Southern Utah with an RV from Bryce Canyon National Park to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument for awesome views, Hiking & Boondocking adventures.
We kept our itinerary pretty loose for this trip, but our general plan was to head from Las Vegas, where we rented our motorhome, towards Bryce Canyon and Escalante in Utah. We ended up having no problem at all finding boondocking (free) options for all but our last day of RV camping.
Filming Date – Fall, Early October 2020
Day 0 (night before video starts)
Fly into Las Vegas Airport
Pick up the RV rental at the airport Walmart (we used RVshare.com)
Head west 2 hours to St George, Utah.
Do a quick boondock camp outside of town in the desert.
Exploring the Pacific Northwest with an RV for amazing views, hiking & boondocking adventures.
We kept our itinerary loose for this trip, but our general plan was to do an rough loop starting outside of Portland at Mount St Helens in Washington state, all the way down the Oregon coast to the Redwoods in northern California, back over to interior Oregon to Crater Lake and the Painted Hills, and ending at Mt Hood before returning our motorhome rental in Portland.
Filming Date – Summer, Mid July 2020
Day 1
Pick up the RV outside of Portland, Oregon
Head north 1.5 hours to Washington state
Mount St Helens Johnston Ridge Observatory
Boondock camp near Elk Rock Viewpoint (overnight parking is prohibited further up at the actual observatory parking area)
Join us as we Explore Sweden and the Fjords of Norway with a Motor Home.
For this hiking and travel adventure, we decided to rent an RV in Stockholm, Sweden with no set itinerary and just see where we ended up. An we ended up pretty far from Stockholm, all the way to the fjords of south western Norway to be precise.
If you’re wondering why we didn’t just fly into southern Norway via Bergen Airport etc, the reason’s pretty simple. We originally saw a great flight deal to Stockholm ($380 RT for all fees including baggage) so we scooped it up, no questions asked. The plan was to just go to Stockholm and make some memories happen with minimal planning. Our first major decision was transportation once we got there, so we booked a VW van. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the initial booking and it wasn’t available. But they did have some motor homes. Having never done an RV trip, we figured what better time to start than in Scandinavia! And so, a road trip was born.
For the final day of our Costa Rican adventure, we check out of our rainforest resort (Lapaz Waterfall Gardens), have an amazing breakfast at a local farm (Corso Lecheria), take a drive through the beautiful countryside, and return to the San Jose Airport for our flight home.
For our third day in Costa Rica we decided to leave rainforest the interior of the country and head west on a road trip towards the Pacific Coast. This not only rewarded us with a fun beach day, but it also gave us a great excuse to get out of the resort area and explore the rest what the country had to offer. After an early rise, we grabbed some sunscreen, a few towels, and hopped in our rental car for a cruise through Central America.
Itinerary for Day 3
Wake up around five thirty and admire the bright, tropical skies.
Skip breakfast, in the sake of time, and hope to find something along the way.
Hop in the rental car and head southwest from our hotel at the La Paz Waterfall Resort (about an hour north of San Jose)
Attempt to find a ATM / cash machine at a couple gas station and stores.
Fail at finding an ATM while slowly realizing that they aren’t very widespread in Costa Rica compared to Europe or the U.S. Oops.
Grab some oatmeal cookies and yogurt for breakfast at a small grocery store. They weren’t aware of any ATM’s nearby, but they did take Visa.
After some bumpy surface roads (quite barron of ATM’s I might add) we suddenly found ourselves at the entrance to the toll highway. To our relief and surprise, they happily took credit cards. Pretty cool, considering most tolls in the U.S. won’t even do that. They’ll also take American, although I would recommend avoiding that. We did that once at another toll, and realized later that the conversion the clerk gave us was waaay off. Probably an accident, but we learned our lesson a paid more attention on subsequent tolls.
Continue to drive through the mountains and towards the Pacific coast. In terms of general direction, the largest town near where we were head was the popular beach town of Jaco, although our actual goal was a white sand beach called Playa Blanca, 30 minutes north of Jaco.
Find some glorious ATM’s at a strip mall not too far from our destination and withdrawal some Costa Rican Colones. Finally, success for the unprepared travelers!
Grab some snacks and sandwiches lunch from the Supermarket at the strip mall for our upcoming beach picnic.
Arrive at the small parking lot at Playa Mantas This was a beautiful grey sand beach with calm waters, due to it’s cove shape. It wasn’t, however, our ultimate destination. By parking here, we were able to do a short walk and a slight climb over an embankment. This lead us to Playa Blanca, which is otherwise inaccessible, due to a resort blocking it from road access. Fret not though, all Costa Rican beaches are public land, so once you’ve made it over the embankment you’re all set to relax and enjoy the Costa Rican breeze. For detailed instructions on visiting yourself, check out this blog post that we found and used to get there ourselves.
Say hello to the friendly “security guard”. We knew in advance that we would need to pay to park here, although unofficially (around $3-$5 USD from what we read). I’ve read reports that people had to pay upon arrival, but we were told that there was no payment required, but we may “tip when we left” if we desired. Wink, wink.
Have an amazing Costa Rican Pacific coast beach picnic and afternoon of relaxation.
Tip our friendly security specialist $2,000 colones (which was around $4 USD at the time) on the way out. Seriously, though – he was quite friendly. I don’t want to know what happens if you don’t tip him though…
Head back in the direction of San Jose.
Stop for dinner at Soda el Guacimo, outside the town of Tarcoles, on the way home. Soda’s are small, family owned restaurants with delicious traditional Costa Rican food at great prices (because this is what the locals actually eat). This particular soda was had an open air layout (as many sodas do), friendly staff, delicious food and an amazing view. Here’s their Faceook page.
Dine on some tasty food. I had casado de bistek (beef) and Sara had casado con pollo (chicken). Casados are a traditional Costa Rican dish consisting of rice, black beans, plantains, salad, a tortilla, and often a protein as well.
Drive back home to our hotel for a nightcap of Cafe Rica (Costa Rican coffee liquor)
Today we decided to spend the entire day soaking up what the immediate area surrounding our rainforest resort had to offer, and save our driving adventures for the following day.
Itinerary for Day 2
Wake up around six and admire the bright, tropical skies.
Order a traditional Costa Rican breakfast consisting of Gallo Pinto (rice mixed with black beans), natilla (sour cream), eggs, fried plantain, tortilla and Mantequilla cheese (we saw this cheese paired with a lot of dishes and it’s pretty amazing).
Do a rainforest waterfall hike.
Dodge a mid-afternoon storm by grabbing some lunch we had a slighlty fancier than usual version of casados – a traditional Costa Rican dish consisting of rice, black beans, plantains, salad, a tortilla, often a protein as well (in our case, beef). It was very good, but we still had a visit to a local soda (small, family owned restaurants serving traditional dishes for super reasonable prices) where we could get the authentic experience of a Costa Rican meal with the locals.
Make friends with some monkeys, hummingbirds, butterflies, and cattle.
Get an amazing massage at our hotel.
Do a nighttime visit with some Costa Rican frogs and toads, including some poisonous frogs. Do a nighttime visit with some Costa Rican frogs and toads, including some poisonous frogs. Frogs shown: Tiger Frog, Red Eyed Tree Frog, Green and Black Poison Dart Frog, Poisonous Blue Jeans Frog.
