By Samah Khan.
Islamic Travel Columnist

With the temperature dropping and seeing that winter is just around the corner, it’s difficult to not reminisce the warm summer sun and beautiful blue skies. Escaping the frigid winter air is on the minds of many during this time of year and planning the perfect tropical getaway seems to be priority, with Muslims being no exception. However, traveling to the Caribbean or the Central American islands might seem to put off some Muslims, as they conjure images of fancy alcoholic drinks, wild parties and beaches with bikini-clad women.

I have to tell you that this is not the case.

It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve returned from my ten day vacation in the beautiful island of Costa Rica. And the current weather in Toronto has me seriously yearning to be where the vast beaches stretch for miles and miles while the palm trees sway against the warm breeze.

Going to Costa Rica as a Muslim woman who adorns the hijab, along with four of her Muslim friends, three of them who wear the hijab, required a lot of planning. Not only did we have to do what the average person usually does before booking their flight, such as looking for reputable hotels and resorts, but my friends and I also had to conduct a thorough search of any halal restaurants in the area, as well as mosques. Needless to say, there were none.

BUT this should not make any Muslim hesitant to travel to these types of places.

Midafternoon, my friends and I made our way to Toronto Pearson Airport and went through the American side because were taking a connecting flight from New York, which was going to take us to Miami, and from there, to Costa Rica. As we were walking through security at the Toronto Airport, all five of us were pulled aside for being selected to go through a “random” security check. Female security staff patted us down hijab to toe (thankfully they hadn’t asked us to remove our hijabs) and let us go.

We continued on our way to the washroom to make wu’du and left for the waiting area, where the three of us prayed travelling salah (Salah Al-Qasr), while my other two friends watched over for people coming, and then switched places afterwards. Food was not served on the flight to New York due to the short distance, so there was not much to worry about. We arrived at New York’s LaGaurdia Airport and were required to stay the night because our next flight to Miami was at 6AM the next day. We spent the night exploring New York and visiting Times Square. We were also starving and made a visit to the famous Halal Guys – a halal food stand located on the streets of New York where we were served huge portions of rice and shredded chicken, prepared with Mediterranean spices. This indefinitely kept us full all the way to Costa Rica.

Our flight to Miami was pretty much the same as our flight to New York. We had prayed Fajr in the waiting area at LaGuardia Airport and boarded our plane to Miami. Once we landed in Miami’s Airport, we could not find a place to pray that was free from people . We decided to ask a nearby security guard if there was an enclosed space where we would be able to pray. He directed us to an isolated corner of the airport, where we gratefully prayed our travel salah. As we were again required to stay the night in Miami, and we visited a restaurant where we indulged in lobster ravioli and teriyaki salmon.

Something I’d like to bring up here is that everyone we interacted with in New York and in Miami was very hospitable and friendly and we did not experience any rudeness, or to put it blatantly – racism. In fact they were very accommodating to our needs, starting from the security guard who helped us find a quiet place to pray to the servers at the restaurant who aided us with finding solely vegetarian or seafood dishes as they were not halal.

Our flight from Miami to Costa Rica was only an hour long. we were greeted at Costa Rica’s airport by our taxi once we landed. We were famished with all the traveling. So we asked him to stop by at any restaurant before he took us to our hotel. He took us to Restaurante Liberia, where the menu was written solely in Spanish. This served as a huge barrier for us because the female servers only spoke in Spanish as well and we had a difficult time determining which dish was halal (or in this case, consisting of only vegetables and/or seafood). After much contemplation, we ended up ordering vegetarian linguini, fish and shrimp pastas. We were completely unfamiliar with the Costa Rican colón, their local currency. So we handed over an amount that we thought was correct to the server. Thankfully, our friendly taxi driver (who decided to eat with us) realized that the waitress had pocketed the extra cash we had given her and demanded it back.

Our taxi driver drove us to our Hotel. We decided to stay in the rural area of Costa Rica first, before moving to a resort in order to experience both sides of the island. We had picked the Magic Mountain Hotel located in the city of La Fortuna where we unpacked, prayed and prepared for our next 9 days in Costa Rica.

It won’t take you long to realize that Costa Rica is a Christian country. There are numerous churches located in the cities and you begin to notice the many billboards with phrases from the Bible written on them.

As far as activities go, we did absolutely everything that any average person would do, except we wore our hijabs throughout everything. From ziplining to horseback riding to visiting the Arenal volcano, we made the most out of every experience. The only thing that would affect a Muslim’s experience is the heat and the requirement to be fully clothed while doing water-based activities such as snorkeling and water rappelling. We hadn’t invested in any water resistant garb and wore our everyday clothes that were most suitable to be immersed in water and wrapped our hijabs very tightly. Being fully clothed may have made it a bit difficult to swim while snorkeling, but we didn’t take much notice and still had an amazing time. Before water rappelling, the tour guides did ask us a few times if we were sure that we wanted to keep our hijabs on.  Although we were drenched hijab to toe while walking through small waterfalls and ravines it was an absolutely unforgettable experience.

We spent 4 days in the rural area of Costa Rica, and spent the other 6 days at the Flamingo Beach and Spa Resort, where we enjoyed unlimited virgin Pina Coladas and margaritas. The next few days were spent tarzan swinging, white water rafting, ATV racing and sailing.

I have to mention that the thing I loved about the people in Costa Rica – curious locals and other tourists alike – was the fact that many of them came up to us an asked us questions about our hijabs and respected us for what we chose to wear. We were usually the only group of girls who were fully clothed for the activities as opposed to everyone else who wore swimwear. We did not, even once, feel socially isolated or discriminated against.

On our final day, we packed all of our belongings and headed towards the airport, taking the same connecting flights from Miami to New York and eventually coming back home to Toronto.

Many of you are probably wondering when and where we exactly prayed while doing all of those activities. We always went back to our hotel to do wu’du and pray travel salah in between. As far as food was concerned, yes we could not eat any meat since halal food is extremely rare to find on most of these islands. But there were plenty of delicious vegetarian and seafood options available. Taking these things into account, I have to say Costa Rica was an astounding experience for my friends and I and we would be delighted to visit again.