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We spend 7 nights at a Spanish Colonial Style Luxury Villa called The Pura Vida House near Tamarindo, Costa Rica in the Guanacaste region.  The villa is a private house in a gated community that has shared living, dining, and an outdoor eating and lounging area by a pool.  There are two sides:  one side has 2 bedrooms with a small kitchen, while the other side is a four bedroom, four bath house with the main kitchen and indoor living area. 

The villa is a modern, beautifully styled villa located about a five minute golf cart ride to the beach (there are two 4-seat golf carts in the garage that we can use at any time).  We currently have both sides of the villa with full services from our hosts, Mani Barajas-Alexander and his wife Sindy!  They were former guests at the villa and just recently purchased the villa and will be our available for our stay, including our tennis.  They currently own a successful tennis club in the Washington DC area called Top Notch Tennis.

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This is a small tennis and adventure group trip, as the villa has 4 bedrooms on one side and 2 bedrooms on the other side, each bedroom with its own private bathroom.  We have our own living and kitchen area and outdoor eating and entertainment.   Some rooms have a king size bed for couples, while other rooms have two queen beds.  The bathrooms are gorgeous, with a modern but very Costa Rican style. We are booking the entire villa (minus our room), so we now have 2 more double rooms available.  That will make 12 tennis players total.

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The price includes breakfast and dinner each day prepared on sight by local Costa Rican cooks (lunch is not included).  What we do for lunch depends on what we are doing each day.  Most days, we are out and about, so we usually eat at a local bar or restaurant. Other days, we may be chilling out by the pool at the villa, so we might just eat snacks or leftovers, or go get some items for lunch from the local market.  Local drinks are provided with each meal, however, alcohol is not included (there is a local market nearby where you can purchase beer, wine, etc.)

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Our villa includes a beautiful swimming pool. You can choose to be as active on this trip as you want, or you can chill at the villa, by the pool. The villa includes a kitchen so on days we want to chill by the pool, we can eat and drink all we want. At the start of the trip on the ride from the airport, we usually stock up the villa with snacks, beer and wine (not included in price).

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Mani and Sindy are the new owners of the villa and Mani is our tennis pro and instructor for our groups. He is the current owner of Top Notch Tennis in Washington DC.  Sindy is also an avid tennis player and will join in the group for tennis too! 

The villa is in a private gated community that includes two hard courts set among the trees of Costa Rica.  A family of monkeys usually hangs out in the trees overlooking the courts.  We do daily tennis drills and play each morning for 2 hours (sometimes longer!), so that in the afternoon we are free to enjoy Costa Rica. 

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The price of this vacation includes unlimited access to the private beach club that serves the gated community that the villa is located in. The beach club has a beautiful infinity pool as well as a gorgeous beach.  The club has a workout facility, beach bar, and restaurant also. Although we have a pool at our villa, we usually spend a couple of days hanging out at the beach club as well. The beach here is popular with local surfers, so this is a great chance to try surfing as the beach club will arrange for lessons. 

We also have access to the JW Marriott beach and pool during our stay.  We can arrange rides to the club if you want to spend time there also.

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Jo and Devin Johnson, the owners of ACE Travel Pros, will be coming on this trip as group coordinators. We have been on this trip several times. We love the region and love the villa, and our hosts. 

They provide us with access to local knowledge, off-the-beaten path places, waterfalls, rain forests, volcanoes, hot springs, giant turtles, rodeos, massages, and help to get you whatever you are interested in.  Our hosts also join us each day for our meals to go over our day and to help plan anything else we may want to do while there.

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We typically go on extra group excursions, depending on requests from the guests, to enjoy the beautiful country of Costa Rica.  The excursions can be arranged in advance or by our hosts once we arrive.  These excursions are NOT included in the price but are optional extras. 

On a previous trip, our group did two excursions:  one daytime excursion to a swimmable waterfalls then hike a magnificent trail to the Rio Celeste waterfalls, and a night excursion to watch sea turtles come on shore in the middle of the night to give birth.  You can do more excursions on your own if you desire and there are plenty to choose from.

To see a list of excursions (prices may change for Feb 2020 and I will update as I get a new list), Click Here.

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The villa is located in the private gated community of Hacienda Pinilla, that has an 18 hole golf course located on the ocean.  Golf is NOT included in the price, but is an optional extra.  Golf pricing is listed on the Excursions list and may be more once we get current pricing.