Updated October 2026
One of the questions I’m asked most often is how to spend a week at Peninsula Papagayo. With beaches, boating, golf, wildlife, restaurants, three luxury resorts, Prieta Beach Club, Papagayo Park and adventures throughout Guanacaste, it’s tempting to try to fit everything into one trip.
My advice after years of spending time here is actually the opposite: don’t over-plan Peninsula Papagayo. Some of my favorite days have very little on the schedule. A morning at the beach turns into lunch by the water, everyone comes back to the villa for the afternoon, the kids end up in the pool, and suddenly nobody wants to leave for the activity you thought you needed to book.
For a first visit, I like to combine a few memorable experiences with plenty of time to actually enjoy the villa and Peninsula Papagayo itself. The itinerary below isn’t meant to be followed rigidly. Think of it as a starting point for building a week around your family, your interests and the pace you want for your vacation.
If this is your first visit, you may also want to start with our First-Time Guide to Peninsula Papagayo, which covers the basics of staying here before you begin planning your days.
Day 1: Arrive, Settle In and Stay Home for Dinner
If you’re flying into Liberia International Airport (LIR), Peninsula Papagayo is conveniently close. We generally arrange a private airport transfer for our guests, so there’s no need to rent a car at the airport simply to get to the villa. If you’ve arranged grocery pre-stocking, you’ll arrive to a kitchen already stocked with the drinks, snacks and essentials you’ve requested, and your golf cart can also be waiting at the villa.
But I wouldn’t plan much exploring on the first day. Take some time to unpack, walk around the house, get in the pool and enjoy the view. After a travel day, especially with children or a larger group, there is something wonderful about realizing that you don’t have to go anywhere.
Arrival night is one of my favorite nights to arrange a private chef dinner. Instead of getting everyone dressed again and heading to a restaurant, you can have a drink on the terrace while dinner is prepared at the villa. It gives you a chance to settle into vacation mode and actually enjoy the home you’ve just arrived at.
Day 2: Prieta Beach Club and Your First Peninsula Adventure
After breakfast at the villa, make your first full day an easy introduction to Peninsula Papagayo. All of the properties we represent include access to Prieta Beach Club for registered rental guests, with the applicable guest fee, so this is a wonderful time to spend a few hours swimming, relaxing by the pool or enjoying the beach. Stay for lunch if everyone is happy where they are—there’s no reason to rush through the day just because there are other things you could be doing.
But a beach-club day doesn’t necessarily mean spending the entire day in a lounge chair. One of the things first-time visitors sometimes don’t realize is how much there is to do within Peninsula Papagayo itself. You don’t have to devote an entire day to leaving the resort every time you want an adventure or a closer look at Costa Rica’s natural side.
Papagayo Explorers offers guided experiences right here on the Peninsula, and you can add one to the day depending on your family’s interests and the current schedule. That might mean snorkeling, a guided nature experience, mountain biking or exploring the Palmares Preserve. More adventurous members of the family can choose something more active, while others can happily stay at Prieta.
I like incorporating an experience like this early in the trip because it changes the way you see Peninsula Papagayo. It isn’t simply a collection of beautiful villas, hotels, pools and beaches. There is a wild side to the Peninsula, too, and experiencing some of it early makes you more likely to notice the birds, monkeys and other wildlife around you for the rest of the week.
Later in the afternoon, take your golf cart out and start getting your bearings. Peninsula Papagayo is much larger and hillier than many first-time visitors expect, and exploring by golf cart is part transportation and part entertainment. This is also a good evening for your first restaurant reservation at Four Seasons, Andaz, Nekajui or elsewhere on the Peninsula.
[EXPLORE BEACH CLUBS & RESORT ACCESS]
Day 3: Get Out on the Water
If I were choosing just one major experience for a first visit to Peninsula Papagayo, I would make it a private boat day. The coastline is beautiful from land, but being out on the Gulf of Papagayo gives you an entirely different perspective—and for me, one of the best parts is never knowing what you might encounter along the way.
Over the years, we’ve seen humpback whales with their babies, dolphins, rays, sharks and all kinds of marine life while out on the water. Some trips are more eventful than others, of course, and wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. That unpredictability is part of what makes it so exciting.
I also love exploring the small beaches and coves around the Gulf of Papagayo that are best reached from the water. Rather than deciding in advance that you have to visit one particular beach, I prefer letting the captain recommend where to go based on the conditions that day. You might stop somewhere quiet for swimming, snorkel, paddleboard or simply spend time cruising the coastline and watching for wildlife.
A private charter works particularly well for families because the day can be shaped around your group rather than following a large tour schedule. If you have young children, teenagers and grandparents traveling together, not everyone has to do the same thing at every stop. Some can snorkel while others stay on the boat, swim or simply enjoy being out on the water.
And don’t assume you need to make it an all-day excursion. Depending on your group, a half-day on the water can be plenty, leaving time to come back to the villa and enjoy the pool in the afternoon. After a day on the water, this is also one of my favorite nights to stay home. Everyone can shower, change into something comfortable and have dinner prepared at the villa rather than organizing the entire group for another outing.
Day 4: Leave Peninsula Papagayo for an Adventure
You could easily spend an entire week without leaving Peninsula Papagayo, but for a first trip I usually recommend spending at least one day seeing more of Guanacaste. What that day looks like depends entirely on your group. You might choose waterfalls, ziplining, horseback riding, hot springs, wildlife or another inland adventure.
This is also why I don’t love creating a rigid itinerary before I know who’s traveling. A family with a 5-year-old, two teenagers and grandparents needs a very different excursion from four active couples traveling together. Even within one family, not everyone necessarily wants the same level of activity.
My preference is to choose one experience you’re genuinely excited about rather than trying to combine every possible Guanacaste activity into one exhausting day. You came to Costa Rica to enjoy it, not complete it. When you return to Papagayo, keep the evening easy with dinner at the villa or make this one of your restaurant nights.
[EXPLORE GUANACASTE ADVENTURES]
Day 5: Don’t Schedule Much
This may be the most important day on the itinerary: leave it mostly open. By the middle of the trip, everyone will have discovered what they want more of. Some people may want to go back to the beach, someone may want to play golf, the children may want another pool day, teenagers may want to sleep late, and someone else may decide that sitting on the villa terrace with a book sounds much better than another activity.
This is one of the reasons I love villas for families and multigenerational groups. You don’t need ten people to agree on the same plan every hour of the day. Some of the family can take the golf cart to Prieta while others stay at the house; a couple of people can play golf; grandparents can relax at the villa; and everyone can meet back at the pool later.
Everyone can be together without having to do everything together. If you’d like a little structure, this is also a good day for golf, tennis, pickleball, padel or spa treatments, but I wouldn’t fill every hour. Give yourselves permission to decide what sounds good once you’re actually there.
Day 6: Papagayo Park, Wildlife and More of the Peninsula
One mistake first-time visitors sometimes make is thinking that all of the activities have to be major excursions. Some of the most enjoyable experiences are right on the Peninsula, which is why I like devoting another day to things you may have noticed earlier in the week and wanted to come back to.
Papagayo Park is particularly good for families because it gives different ages plenty of options in one place. Depending on everyone’s interests, you can spend time around the lap pool and water features, playgrounds, pump track, basketball court, padel courts and other recreational areas. It’s another place where different generations can find different things to do without splitting the family up for the entire day.
And don’t forget the wildlife. Monkeys, birds, coatis and other animals are part of the experience here, and you don’t necessarily need a formal wildlife excursion to see them. Once you start paying attention, you’ll be surprised by how much you notice just moving around the Peninsula.
One of our own longtime family traditions is going out in the golf cart around dusk for what we call a night safari. We simply drive around Peninsula Papagayo looking for animals. It isn’t an official tour, and that’s precisely why we love it—you never know what you’re going to find. If you have children, bring binoculars, and if you hear howler monkeys before you see them, don’t be surprised by how loud they are.
Day 7: Go Back to Your Favorite Place
I deliberately wouldn’t save a major excursion for your final full day. Instead, go back to whatever your family loved most. Maybe everyone wants one more day at Prieta. Maybe the kids want the villa pool and absolutely nothing else. Perhaps you want another boat outing, a round of golf, spa treatments or lunch somewhere you discovered earlier in the week.
This is also a lovely day to enjoy the villa itself. One thing guests sometimes underestimate when planning a luxury villa vacation is how much they’ll actually want to be at the villa. If you’ve chosen a home because of its infinity pool, outdoor living spaces and Pacific views, give yourself time to enjoy them rather than treating the villa simply as the place you return to between activities.
For your final evening, choose whichever experience you didn’t get enough of during the week. That might mean dressing up for a special restaurant dinner, or you may decide that the perfect ending is another chef-prepared dinner at the villa with everyone around the table.
What About Breakfast and Lunch?
You don’t need to make every meal part of the itinerary. For many of our villa guests, breakfast is actually one of the easiest meals to plan. Most choose to have a chef prepare breakfast each morning, which means everyone can start the day at their own pace without leaving the villa. We can also arrange grocery pre-stocking so drinks, snacks, children’s favorites and other essentials are already at the house.
Lunch tends to be much more flexible. On a beach-club day, you may eat there; on a boat day, lunch may be part of the outing; and on a villa day, everyone may want something casual at home. There’s very little reason to lock yourself into seven days of lunch reservations before you know how your days will unfold.
Dinner is where most families combine experiences. Some nights are perfect for restaurants, while others are much better suited to a private chef at the villa. Some guests arrange only one or two chef dinners during a week, while others have a chef prepare dinner on most nights. There is also the possibility of arranging a chef on a per-diem basis for guests who expect to eat many of their meals at the villa, although those arrangements are more limited and especially difficult to secure during peak periods.
For a more detailed look at how our guests actually approach meals during their stay, see our guide to planning meals for a week at Peninsula Papagayo.
[READ: HOW TO PLAN MEALS FOR A WEEK AT PENINSULA PAPAGAYO]
What Should You Reserve Before You Arrive?
A relaxed itinerary doesn’t mean you should wait until arrival to arrange everything. Private boat charters, chefs, popular restaurants, golf, spa appointments, airport transportation and certain excursions are all things I would consider before the trip, particularly during Christmas and New Year’s, Presidents’ week, Spring Break, Easter and other busy periods.
The trick is to reserve the things that matter without scheduling every minute of the vacation. I usually start with the experiences a family would be genuinely disappointed to miss. If everyone has been talking about a boat day, reserve the boat. If there’s a restaurant you’ve been looking forward to, make the reservation. If you know you want chef breakfast every morning, arrange it.
Then leave some space around those plans. Some of the best vacation decisions are the ones you make after you arrive and discover that everyone would rather spend another afternoon at the beach than do whatever was originally on the schedule.
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Should You Rent a Car?
Many of our guests don’t need one. We can arrange private transportation from Liberia International Airport to Peninsula Papagayo, and once you’re here, golf carts are a convenient—and fun—way to get around much of the resort. For excursions outside the Peninsula, transportation can generally be arranged as part of the outing or separately.
Whether a rental car makes sense really depends on what you plan to do. If you intend to spend most of your vacation within Peninsula Papagayo with one or two arranged excursions, renting a car simply to have it sitting at the villa may not add much. Guests who want to independently explore Guanacaste, however, may appreciate having their own vehicle.
[READ: GETTING AROUND PENINSULA PAPAGAYO]
A Few Things I Wouldn’t Do
I wouldn’t schedule a full-day excursion immediately after arrival, and I wouldn’t book three consecutive days of major activities. I also wouldn’t assume that because you’re coming to Costa Rica, every day needs to involve leaving Peninsula Papagayo in search of something to do. Between the beaches, Papagayo Explorers, Papagayo Park, golf, racquet sports, boating, wildlife, beach clubs and the villa itself, there is plenty here.
Most importantly, I wouldn’t create an itinerary that requires every member of a multigenerational family to participate in every activity. The teenagers can sleep in while someone else plays golf. Grandparents can stay by the pool while parents take the children somewhere else. Some people can go to Prieta while others remain at the villa, and everyone can come back together later.
Part of the luxury of a villa vacation is having those options. The best itinerary has enough planned that you experience the destination, but enough unplanned that you can actually enjoy being there.
Planning Your Own Week at Peninsula Papagayo
No two groups should have exactly the same itinerary. A family traveling with young children will approach the week differently from a family with teenagers. Three generations traveling together may want more flexibility and downtime, while a group of couples may want more golf, boating and restaurant evenings. Some guests arrive with a list of activities they’ve been dreaming about, while others mainly want sunshine, a beautiful villa and nowhere they have to be.
When you book a villa or condo through Papagayo Luxury, we can help put those pieces together. In addition to helping you choose the right property, our concierge services can assist with airport transfers, golf carts, grocery pre-stocking, private chefs, restaurant reservations, boat charters, golf, spa services and activities. We can help you decide what makes sense to reserve before arrival and, just as importantly, where it makes sense to leave some breathing room.
The goal isn’t to fit as much as possible into seven days. It’s to come home feeling like you actually had a vacation.
