Affiliate Disclosure: Melissa's Travel Addiction has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Melissa's Travel Addiction and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

We just returned from seven days in Costa Rica! It was a truly amazing experience and one of our favorite trips so far! We’re already planning our return visit with the whole family. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, the food is delicious and inexpensive, the people are so friendly, it is clean and it felt very safe! We were able to travel there for under $300 for the cost of flights and hotels. I’ll show you how we did it and how you can do it too!

This trip was booked only a couple of months in advance. My husband and I were supposed to be in Phuket, Thailand! However, after canceling and rescheduling Thailand more than once due to the country’s closures, we decided to go to Costa Rica.

Qatar Airways Free Tickets for School Staff

Our original flights to Thailand were booked on a special deal that Qatar Airways had offered in late 2020. Qatar Airways offered teachers and admin staff a free round-trip ticket to anywhere that they fly! Plus after booking the free flight, Qatar Airways was giving a 50% off coupon for a friend. Since my husband is a school principal, I was able to snag one of these tickets and coupons for him.

This made our flights for two tickets to Phuket around $500. However, we had to cancel and were not able to book before the tickets expired. Since we had not originally planned to spend more than $500, I was determined to book our new trip to Costa Rica with miles. Qatar Airways is one of the world’s best airlines and we flew them to the Maldives in business class in 2018. It was very sad to let these tickets go to waste.

Where we stayed ($113)

Back to Costa Rica, we booked two nights at the adults-only Amor Arenal Hotel in the La Fortuna area. The Arenal active volcano was on our bucket list, so we wanted to stay in this area, which is in northern costa rica. We definitely could have spent more time around the volcano. There is so much to see and do!

I found the luxurious Amor Arenal hotel online and fell in love with the modern design villas (pictured above & below). This was one of the best resorts we have ever stayed at and we would definitely return.

Read our full review on the Amor Arenal Here

All of the luxury rooms have private hot tubs. I have received a lot of questions about this place and I definitely recommend you stay here if you can!

The service is incomparable to anywhere else and the resort is beautiful! Another reason that we could have spent more time here. This luxury resort included a free full breakfast and minibar.

Although I was able to secure a discounted rate, since I am a certified travel agent, I used my credit card miles to erase the majority of the cost of this hotel. The remaining balance we paid was $113.00. This is a great card for general travel expenses. You can use certain credit card miles to erase the cost of travel.

Using miles and points in the Arenal Area

If you are wanting to stay in the Arenal area with miles and points, the Tabacon Thermal Resort can be booked with Hyatt points for 20,000/night. 

Day Pass at Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa

We purchased a day pass with dinner at Tabacon so that we could check out the natural hot springs. We loved the hot springs and the grounds were beautiful. We chose a day pass with the dinner option since the cost was not significantly more. The cost was $85 per person.

At first, I thought the day pass was a bit overpriced, but after we ate our dinner, I thought it was a great value for a couple (probably not a family). The dinner includes a three-course meal and drinks. The food was delicious and the service was great. Dinner alone could have cost as much as the day pass!

After leaving the beautiful Amor Arenal, we drove southwest for a four-hour drive to the Hotel Punta Islita. We stayed here for five nights and booked the hotel with 180,000 Marriott points. There are around ten Marriott properties in popular destinations of Costa Rica. There were about five to six that were on beautiful beaches in the Guanacaste Province. To be honest, it was a hard choice. I had originally booked an amazing property in Phuket with these miles and at first, nothing could compare.

When I book a hotel with miles, I usually base my decision on cost and of course hotel ambiance. I like to find the most expensive hotel so that I can get the most value from my points. The price varies greatly at this resort depending on the time of year but was around $400-$500 a night for a suite here at the time of our booking.

Choosing a Marriott in Costa Rica

The reason we chose the Hotel Punta Islita is that they had great suites with your own plunge pool and free breakfast. Since we have Marriott Platinum status, we can be upgraded to suites and also receive free breakfast. The free breakfast (pictured above) included fresh fruit, fresh juice, coffee, and pastries, as well as the main dish.

Another reason we chose this hotel is that they offered free activities, which we thought included zip-lining and horseback riding (according to their website). Although that turned out not to be true, we still enjoyed other complimentary activities. These included nature hikes, dusk hikes, cooking classes, keychain making, and many more.

We ended up loving the Costa Rican vibe at Hotel Punta Islita, which is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. I will be writing a detailed review later. The hotel is a bit remote as it you have to drive 30 minutes on a dirt road to get there, but it was beautiful once we arrived and the people were so friendly and kind.

We also loved that this resort was located on the beach but we had amazing views from the top of the resort. The resort did provide shuttle services to the beach and a restaurant. That made for very easy access down to the beach as it was just a quick shuttle ride or walk away. They had two pool areas, one at the resort and one down by the beach.

Another great thing about this hotel is that there is no resort fee! When booking with points, you pay nothing besides the cost of your food, tips, and activities. Like I mentioned, breakfast (pictured above) was included for us, and mid-stay we were upgraded to a one-bedroom junior suite with a private plunge pool.

How we flew there ($160)

We flew American Airlines from Phoenix to Liberia International Airport. I was hoping to use our Southwest companion pass, but at the time Southwest Airlines was not flying to Liberia, Costa Rica, or San Jose, Costa Rica. However, eventually, they did start flying to San Jose, but by that time, it did not work for us to fly there.

Using American Airlines Miles

We ended up booking the flights with AA miles, We found a great deal for 10,000 miles each way. Earlier this year, I had very few AA miles but I received an offer from Citi Bank to open up savings account with at least $10,000, and in return, I would receive $20,000 American Airlines miles! Just doing this one little task got me one free flight to Costa Rica.

Transferring Miles

Since I only had 20,000 AA miles. I put my flights on hold for free while I transferred 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points over to my AA account since they transfer at a 3-to-1 ratio. This was a decent value because, at the time, flights for Costa Rica were around $600-$700 (for terrible flights!). I also didn’t mind giving up some of my Marriott points, since I have quite a few! Since I transferred 60,000 miles to AA, I received 5,000 bonus miles with American Airlines.

Although it’s not always the best value to transfer points from hotel programs to airlines, it can be done. It’s great to have that flexibility for times like these. I didn’t want to spend money on flights since I had planned to go to Thailand and spend only $500 total.

Total Cost of Flights

One downside to booking these flights with miles is that we had to pay taxes of $80 for each ticket since they were international flights. However, paying $160 for two flights to Costa Rica is still a great deal and usually, the taxes cannot be avoided for international travel. The total price for flights came to $160.

Using Miles and Points

As you can see, we spent a total of $275 for two round-trip flights and seven nights at luxury hotels. We even received a gourmet free breakfast at each resort! Are you using miles and points to book your vacations? If not, what are you waiting for?

Affiliate Disclosure: Melissa's Travel Addiction has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Melissa's Travel Addiction and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.