We are planning to visit Costa Rica for the first time with my wife. I have heard it is a truly fantastic place to visit.

Even though it's exciting to plan a trip to a new country, it can also be intimidating.

Here are the steps I am taking to plan the trip:

• Do some Googling and asking around: I did some googling and asked friends that have visited to get a sense of the country and what we can do.

• Get Clarity on the style of our trip: Like anything else in life, if you are not clear on your goals, it's impossible to plan. In our case, we have decided we wanted a mix of relaxation at the beach, surfing, and seeing nature.

• Choose approximate dates and shortlist a few destinations: Since we are booking in advance, we have some flexibility with our dates and destination. Based on our goals and the duration of our trip, we have chosen to enter through Liberia and make a road trip on the north pacific coast. As for the dates, we are aiming for mid-January.

• Buy a book: I bought a Costa Rica book (Lonely Planet, but you can also try Fodor's or Frommer's) to study my options in more detail. Make sure you buy a recent book.

What's left:

• Reserve our Accommodations: You can usually reserver your accommodation without any advance prepayment and can also change the dates without any penalty, so I usually try to reserve the accommodation before booking the flight. Before doing that, though, I will check if there are suitable flights for my dates.

• Book our Flights: There is usually a penalty for cancelling flights, so I do this when I am more confident about the plan!

• Do the Micro Planning: Booking rental cars, day tours, some of the accommodation, daily activities, etc. I plan to use the information from my Lonely Planet book as well as an app called Wanderlog to plan the details of the trip.
  
  I will love to hear your ideas and experiences if you have visited Costa Rica before.