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Costa Rica trip report - long
Hi ladies. We went to Costa Rica for the week of Christmas with DD and the ILs. I just thought I'd post the good and the bad, for those interested in traveling internationally with your LO. All in all, it worked out very well, but there are a few things I might change in the future (if I have control of them).
First, there's a direct flight from Houston to Liberia, Costa Rica, in the am. Given that, we decided to fly to Houston the night before, so we wouldn't have to get up super early and worry about missing the connection. I'm not sure why we didn't think about driving, but whatevs.
DD would not sleep on the plane at all on either flight, but she did much better on the morning flight to Costa Rica, as she had had a good night's sleep and we passed her around between us and the ILs to keep her entertained. Also, if you are interested in Costa Rica specifically, we flew to Liberia, Costa Rica. This airport is only about 45 minutes from the west coast. It was great to get there and not have to get in the car for several hours. We had a snafu with the rental car, but the rental car company drove us to Tamarindo (the town we were staying in), and we got the car the next morning.
One of the other things I wish I could change, but I'm not sure I could do much about, is the stroller situation. Instead of bringing our nice jogging stroller, we decided to buy a cheap umbrella stroller, so we wouldn't care if it got messed up. This was great for the airport, but when we got there, it would have been much easier to have the jogging stroller, as we walked a lot and the roads were mostly gravel. So the jogging stroller would have been a pain in the airport, especially considering that we were also taking this humungous Kelty carrier that doesn't fold up easily. But it would have been much easier when we got there. Although I must say that considering that, the cheap umbrella stroller performed very well, and she loved riding around in it.
Also, we did not take our own car seat, given that we had to take a suitcase, a stroller, and the Kelty carrier. We got a car seat from the rental car company. It took DH and FIL about 20 minutes to figure out how to get the car seat installed correctly, and they are engineers, and it was a toddler seat that would only go forward-facing. So we had her forward-facing for just the trip, which she enjoyed, but she has been fine going back to rear-facing since we got back. If you go with an itty bitty baby and want to ensure that your child is rear-facing, take your own.
Everywhere we went in Costa Rica they were very accomodating to children. All of the restaurants had high chairs, and some even had some other little things (kiddie plates and cups and spoons). A few even had playgrounds. DD did a combination of eating what we ate (fortunately she eats pretty much anything) and eating her standard fare that we bought at the grocery store (yogurt, fruit, cheese, bread, etc.). DD enjoyed it all - - seeing all the new people, waving, seeing cats and dogs, crawling around, etc. Also, the two places we stayed provided a pack-n-play she could sleep in, which was great.
The day we came back was probably the hardest. I booked our return flight out of San Jose, and it was in the afternoon. So we had to drive 3 hours from Arenal (the volcano, second area we stayed), drop the rental car off, get to the airport, wait in the airport, and then the flight. She was ok on the flight but she got bored much easier, wouldn't go to sleep, and melted down at the end for about 20 minutes. Everyone was so nice to us, told us how good she was considering it was such a long flight. I think a lot of people on the flight must have kids or they wouldn't be so understanding. She did finally pass out on the flight from Houston to Austin, and then went right to sleep when we got home.
Well, this was much longer than I had planned to write. 
I hope this is helpful. I'm sure a lot of people already know this from traveling with little ones, but I just wanted to share my story. If you have any other questions I'm happy to answer them!
Thanks, Amy
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Re: Costa Rica trip report - long
Looks like fun. I'm hoping to be able to go back to CR again sometime soon, it's one of my favorite places to travel and we went with the baby when she was 6 months old. I've not flown through Liberia yet but I'm definitely planning to if we go to any of those beaches on the nicoya peninsula.
For traveling, we always take our own car seat because I don't trust the ones at car rental companies. It was great when we had our infant seat but our current convertible seat is gigantic and even with checking it at curbside, it was still annoying, so I'm going to buy a lightweight one like the cosco scenera or evenflo tribute for travel. We have a nice travel bag for a car seat so I don't worry about it getting too banged up.
We bought a baby jogger city mini before our CR trip and it's now our grandma/travel stroller because of how easy it is to fold and unfold. It's not quite as good as a jogging stroller, especially on those rough roads but it's better than an umbrella stroller.
Glad you guys had a good time!
We have this stroller too and I love it, but I just can't imagine having to deal with it and the Kelty carrier. I think if we hadn't taken the Kelty carrier we would have taken it.