Casa Pura Vida

We had a WONDERFUL week long stay at Casa Pura Vida. A family of 5 with 3 teenagers. Location was fantastic- midway between (10min) Uvita and Dominical. Easy access to both towns with our rental car but quiet and isolated jungle setting. Woke to the sounds of howler monkeys every morning. Lots of bird sightings including toucans. The property was immaculate. Very unique style. The main house and monkey hideout were separated by a 50-100m walk through the pool area. Monkey villa had screened/barred open windows and an open bathroom/shower. The adults stayed here while the kids had the run of the house where there was ample room, sleeping areas. We loved the proximity of playa Hermosa (5min) where we enjoyed daily surfing (lessons and board rentals arranged at the beach itself), and beautify playa Dominicalita. Having our own place allowed for making our own simple breakfasts while we ate out at smaller nearby restaurants/sodas for most lunches and dinners. Property managers and staff were so helpful with checkin and quickly replied to any questions we had throughout our stay. We cannot say enough about how much we enjoyed our stay at Casa Pura Vida!

This place is amazing. The grounds are professionally landscaped. There’s beauty everywhere you look. We enjoyed long days and evenings on the deck and poolside even with extreme heat and/or heavy rain. The comfortable furnishings outside allowed us to feel at home. Toucans, coaties, butterflies, monkeys as well as other birds and animals were all sited on the property. Small bugs and lizards were rare even in the open-air bathrooms. The YouGetHere employees were incredibly responsive and pleasant to deal with. The kitchen is fully equipped. Fans, a cooler, flashlights, bug spray, etc. were all provided. The beaches that are within walking distance are beautiful and mostly vacant. They do require a short walk on a busy highway but should be seen! We also drove to several nearby beaches, each with a very different clientele. The locals were always friendly and welcoming. I’d recommend this home to anyone who appreciates nature but wants the comforts of home.

Thanks so much for all your help prior to and during our stay. Your hospitality made our stay incredible!

This is the perfect property to reconnect, recharge, relax, and experience life to its fullest! Our family loved exploring the property, enjoying the views, listening to and seeing all the wildlife, and chilling by the pool or on the beautiful deck. The Monkey Hideout was so cool! Felt like you were living in the jungle. Howler Monkeys, in the morning, get your day started! The house has all that you need for your stay. Full kitchen, laundry, and plenty of amenities to make the stay comfortable. Located between two amazing laid-back beach towns. Uvita and Dominical. Both spectacular. Close to great shopping and restaurants/bars. The supermarket is just up the road. Perfect for small families or 3 couples. Our two kids (18yr+) stayed in the main house and my wife and I stayed in the Monkey Hideout. The team at Yougethere was great to work with. They pointed us in the right direction for activities and made the check-in/out process easy. Pura Vida! We'll be back!

Before arriving at Casa Pura Vida I felt like I had already done my research and knew what to expect but you truly have to see to believe this beautiful "Costa Rican Castle" for yourself as it exceeded my expectations. Myself, my Husband and 2 other couples stayed for 10 days, 2 couples stayed in the main house and the other couple enjoyed a fun experience in the monkey house (I will let them write their own review!) We never felt divided as we always met for coffee in the mornings on the beautiful covered patio, cooked together in the well-equipped kitchen and spent most of the day by the amazing pool area. It was nice to have a washer and dryer and some extra beach towels in the laundry room. The groundskeeper did a great job on the property keeping the gardens tidy and pool nice and clean for us. I really can't think of anything negative to say other than we wish we could have stayed longer! Thank you to all the staff at YouGetHere, from the booking process, to check in, to check out, everything was fantastic!

We just recently returned from almost a month at Casa Pura Vida and have spent every day since wishing we were still there. We stayed here last year for about a week and loved it so much we rented again and decided we had to stay longer...and are already thinking about staying even longer next time. It's just an amazing property! Claudia & the team at You Get Here are terrific and always available- not sure we would ever want to rent with anyone else. My husband & I stayed in the monkey hideout and had family staying with us in the main house. Peaceful mornings started at sunrise with coffee & wildlife spotting. We saw many wonderful birds as well as coatis & almost daily visits from a couple of capuchin troops (usually later morning), a couple howler visits and even a possible jaguarundi sighting early one evening. Casa Pura Vida is perfectly located within easy driving distance to both Uvita, Dominical & the mountains. Access to the house is easy which we have not found at all locations in the area. We spent many nights having dinner at home grilling fresh fish & enjoying family & games on the patio of the main house which was set up perfectly for our group of 6 people. The kitchen of the house is better equipped than my house at home with everything we could have wanted. The pool is such a wonderful part of the property which offers a combination of shade and sun all day long so you can just cool off & relax. We loved Playa Hermosa beach which was about 5 minutes away and we actually saw Scarlett macaws there a few times. The northern end of the beach has a nice shaded area and you can swim in the freshwater river there that runs into the ocean. It gets pretty busy here on weekends so we just made our beach days during the week. We loved eating at Por Que No (sunset cocktails on their patio is amazing) and La Parcela- our 2 favourite restaurants in the area which are also only about 5 minutes away in Dominicalito. We also had the most wonderful experience meeting a small family of coffee growers at the farmers market in Uvita. If you have the chance stop on Saturdays and meet Danier from Cafe Don Emilio. They have a small coffee farm which is about 45 minutes away up a dirt road from Uvita and certainly worth visiting and doing the tour and of course buying their coffee. They really are a beautiful family and remind you how truly lovely the people of Costa Rica are. Loved every moment- Pura Vida

Myself and husband travelled from England to stay in the aptly named Pura Vida for two weeks.  The house and garden are beautifully maintained and cleaned to the highest standard.  The grounds were our personal nature reserve. Everything we needed was provided including well equipped kitchen, efficient and quick washing machine and dryer, fast and reliable Internet connection and extremely comfortable beds! Each morning we sat having our early morning coffee on the ocean view bedroom terrace, watching and listening to the wildlife.  From here we saw white faced capuchin monkeys, countless species of birds including toucans, macaws, hummingbirds, a variety of butterflies and much more.  The swimming pool area was great, equipped with loungers and hammocks and on some occasions we swam whilst watching the monkeys.  From outside the Monkey Hideout cabina we watched and photographed the Howler monkeys in the forest. The manager Neil was very helpful with his extensive knowledge of the area and he arranged some great tours for us; a boat trip with snorkelling to Cano island - this is a great fun day, stopping to watch the turtles and dolphins en route to great snorkelling in the warm waters, then a thrilling zip lining experience right down through the jungle. I'd highly recommend this villa for a romantic hideaway, for a family or group of friends.  Great value for money and our best holiday yet!

We had simply the perfect vacation to Casa Pura Vida for Spring Break 2015.  Our family of four (10 yo, 13 yo) spent 10 days at the house and could not bear to leave. It would be impossible to convey how amazing (and EASY) this vacation was.  Neil's packet of trip information was invaluable, and everything in there was accurate.  We arrived after dark, and still managed to find the house pretty easily. The house is stunning.  STUNNING!  It is more beautiful than the photos can convey, with a huge upstairs balcony and an enormous porch with outdoor dinner seating (both with ocean views).  There were more than adequate comfortable patio chairs for lounging after dinner.  And that pool!  We spent multiple hours a day at the pool, resting in the hammocks and playing with the kids.  Here are some of the bonuses (that I must have missed in the description when I booked):  outdoor charcoal grill, rinse-off station behind the house in addition to A FULL BATHHOUSE adjacent to the pool, a small hiking path on the property, a covered parking area, complete privacy, pool lighting that allowed you to use the pool area well past nightfall, a more than fully supplied kitchen (there were appliances that we don't have at our 'real' house), not one but TWO WiFi connections--the pool has it's own, a TV with ESPN --in Espanol -- which allowed our kids to see the Final Four and some NBA games.  I could go on and on! I don't think I realized initially how convenient the location would be.  It is a 3-3.5 hour drive from San Jose, but it is a gorgeous drive and there are infinite roadside restaurants along the way.  Once at the house, you are only 5 minutes from the surf town of Domenical and 5 minutes from Uvita with great grocery stores that were open long past dark.  Uvita was the start of the national beaches which we LOVED.  There were probably 30 restaurants within 15 minutes of the house and we did not have a bad meal in the lot.  The whole fish entree was a favorite of everyone in our party. We did the Nayauca Waterfall horseback ride which was worth every cent.  It was $70 USD per person, but included two full meals and was worth every penny.  Kids loved the cliff jumping/diving and we got some unbelievable photos. Our kids took private surfing lessons on the 2nd day, and loved it so much that we went back twice more for additional lessons later in the week.  I'm out of words, but it was truly a magical vacation.  Perfection!