On the left Shane, center Pete and Josh on the right in Costa Rica I am not a resort guy! (I will be adding more pictures to every blog soon) I am not a resort guy, but it is nice to just relax at one, every once in a while. I find that I eat too much at the (food) trough and liquid libations are right in front of you at all times. I hate watching those people that get drunk every day and call it a holiday. Not everyone, as most people are there for a break away from their work. The tours cost more and some of the tour guides for some reason want people to be scared of the locals. I find that when I stay in a hostel that I have more freedom to go and see the country I am in even changing locations of where I am laying my head for the night. Whereas when I stay at a resort I feel as though because of the money I have spent and the amenities on hand that I am stuck there and feel almost guilty leaving the grounds. If you want better deals you can stay at a hostel or cheap hotels and bed and breakfasts. They are more personal and willing to help you and yes in most cases they do get the better deals as they are set up for budget travelers. For example a couple of years ago in the Calgary Tower the cost was $12.00 to go up and at the hostel it cost $2.00. Another way I find good deals is on the beach of the resorts as they can’t stop the locals from selling as it is all public or in the city’s or towns where you are staying, they will all be the same tours or places (tickets) and you will all end up in the same place anyhow. Now for my trip to Costa Rica, the resort was great but to me they are all the same with free food, free drinks and entertainment day and night. They also have all sorts of tours you can take. Anyways my nephew Shane and my sister Carols’ nephew Josh and myself had a great time in Costa Rica, the first two nights we stayed at the Resort and then we rented a car and went to Playa (beach) Del CoCo and stayed in a hostel for two nights. I think the guy’s liked it better even though we still had our resort . The hostel had more of what the guys liked because we were able to hang around town and we had a nice hostel for $15.00 a night with a pool as well. The resort was so secluded and far away from everyone and town. I did not see much of Costa Rica but I’m sure I will go back there sometime soon. It is a lot more expensive there than Panama for everything. I did find a good deal for kite surfing though which includes two nights’ accommodations and lessons for $100.00 as long as I have three people to take the course. No problem because for that price I will find people. Now for what I may do this spring and summer, I have some travel through work. I will also try to get away on weekends to Banff, Kelowna, Edmonton and L.A. You may be asking yourself why Edmonton and Kelowna. I have heard the Centre for Spiritual Living in both locations are worth checking out and in L.A I want to see Michael Beckwith from the movie The Secret. Banff is more for a weekend getaway and I will mainly stay in hostels either private or shared rooms. I have been living life to the fullest over this past winter, loving life and a few people have come up to me and asked how can you Iive the way you do? My answer to that is life is so easy just some people make it hard as they worry too much and are afraid to go out of their comfort zone, afraid to take a chance and most of all afraid of change. If you’re like that then just ask yourself? Are you ready to live life to the fullest!! What helped me get to where I am in life is that I thank the Landmark Forum and the magic of Spiritual living Calgary as it just feels so good. Both Landmark Education and The Centre of Spiritual Living are now around the world and for the people that I have met around the world even if you live in Sweden and you do take the landmark course I will try my best to go there for your final Sunday night as it is an open invitation to the person that told you about Landmark and that would be me. I love watching people change from their old ways to their new way of thinking. Just like they say, 95% of the people will get something out of Landmark and yes they will love it and thank me big time. Live your dreams and just do it! Plans for the future, I’m a person that does not like planning, just live life and enjoy the surprises. For some reason I know something big is going to happen soon, I know this stuff as I feel it big time. From Travel Cheap With Pete Never anytime to write, always on the go!
Panama again and what a great deal through Air Transat. I got it for $2.00 plus $197.00 in taxes for a total of $199.00 round trip, let me say thank you. I met a couple of guys on the plane that got the same deal, Sean from Calgary and Ralph from Edmonton. So we got talking about splitting a cab to Panama City and I told them it´s about $30.00 to down town so that makes it $10.00 each. First we came to my hostel and Ralph ended up staying there too so we split a room for a couple of days. Ralph also ended up renting a car so I ended up having someone to split the cost with again. The second day in Panama I was walking down a tourist area and ran into a friend from Calgary her name is Jill and than about an hour later Sean who I met on the plane walked by too, talk about a small world. A couple of days later Jill was telling me that she had bought a place on the Caribbean side about 20 minutes from Colon. Wow what a beautiful place over looking the beach and forest. Jill is traveling with a couple of her girlfriends and thanks to Ralph renting a car we had a chance to go visit them. The hostel I ended up in was fantastic and I was able to get a private room for $30.00 a night. I was in a rich area of town I think they call it the banking part of the city three blocks from Donald Trumps tower and of course while I was there I had to drop over to Donald’s hotel and try and get a room with my website Travel Cheap With Pete. They did take my card to the manager and they said the best that we can do for you Mr. Montgomery is $169.00 for the night and I said I have to get it for $99.00 and then I will take it. The reason that I wanted to get it for that price was I had a $5.00 bet with the owner of the hostel I was staying at. They came back and said how about we give you a tour of the hotel and I could have the use of the pool area in the morning for free and I said thanks that was greatly appreciated and I did take them up on their offer. Unfortunately I lost the bet but I got to use the pool! Thanks To Dan from the hostel I stayed at the last time I was in Panama City for sending me to this other hostel as his hostel was full and Dan said that since Oswald’s hostel does not have a pool I could come over to his hostel anytime to use his pool. What a trip to Costa Rica! The travel agent my sister Carol booked me on would not allow me to make my own way to Costa Rica and said that if I didn't show up for my out going flight from Calgary that I would be a no show and that they would cancel my whole trip to Costa Rica. So in 20 hours I flew from Panama City to Winnipeg to drop off some people and than to Calgary to go through immigration. I even had time to have a coffee with a friend that I met on my first flight to Panama over a month ago his name is Arg. We hung out a couple of times while we were down there and man he travels more than I do, lucky guy! Arg is now house sitting my place while I am here in Costa Rica. Then on the same plane I took from Panama we went from Calgary to Edmonton to pick up more people and then finally on our way to Liberia, Costa Rica. It made for a real long day. Air Transat was great with this little problem as it had nothing to do with them. They even tried to help me on something that made sense to them too as they did not understand why I had to come all the way back to Calgary since I was already down there. It was the rules of the travel agency, that should be allowed to be broken and use common sense but I digress. I will not mention the agencies name as I don’t want to put any negative stories on my website, I just want the travel people to know what is going on out there. Ralph and I went to a under 20 women’s soccer game, Canada against Panama and our Canadian girls won 6-0 it was great and the people down there have a great time with their families. It only cost $4.00 to get in and $1.00 for a beer and home cooked food (barbeque) outside of the stadium. I have met a lot of real good people that are willing to help everyone out. Thank you everyone I love you all and your Country. Till next time, TravelCheapWithPete.com Go to yycdeals.com for the best deals out of Calgary. I am off to Panama tomorrow for an unbelievable price through Air Transat for $2.00 plus $197.00 in taxes for a total of $199.00. The funny thing is that the flight I come back to Calgary on is the same flight I go to Costa Rica on. I fly back here at 3:00 am on the 15th and my flight leaves to go to Costa Rica at 6:00 am. I will see if I can figure it so I don’t have to come back and I will just make my way to Liberia and Costa Rica on my own. My Sister Carol bought me an all-inclusive trip to Costa Rica for my birthday in April with her air mile points she had to use up and I get to hang out with her son Shane and her Nephew Josh, hope those two guys can keep up to me.
I took Carol, her daughter Shelby and son Shane to Cuba last November while they were going through some hard times after the loss of her husband, you did not have to pay it back girl. Thank You for the gift, I will look over the boy’s we will all get into trouble together and have some fun too, lol… TravelCheapWithPete.com |