COSTA RICA TRAVEL (NY TIMES) — Extra sunscreen, extra bathing suit, extra pots and pans? For strictly kosher families, planning a vacation in an exotic destination means making room in luggage for what seems like half the kitchen.
But for Bryna Landes and Eve Berman, the founders of Kosher Casas, those days are over.
“If you’ve ever overheard two people who keep kosher talking about their vacation plans, most likely the first question is going to be, ‘What will you eat,’ and not, ‘Wow, I’ve always wanted to go there,’ ” Ms. Landes said. “I dreaded packing for vacations because it inevitably involved packing my own food and cookware and knowing in advance my family and I would not exactly be eating gourmet food while on vacation.”
Eager to lose the extra luggage and expand their destination choices to regions outside Florida and Israel, the two women have started their service in Costa Rica, giving travelers access to more than 80 rental villas that come fully koshered, from cutting boards to patio grills, by a local team supervised by the chief rabbi of the Centro Israelita Synagogue in San Jose, Itzhak Prober.
Rentals come with two sets of toveled and koshered dishes, utensils, pots, pans and cookware and can be stocked to order with kosher meat, chicken, cheese and baked goods.
For those who want to stay out of the kitchen altogether, personal chefs are also available for hire as is a menu of prepared meals.
Any guests wishing to spend Shabbat near a synagogue can arrange to stay at a boutique hotel in San José near the Centro Israelita for a night. Torahs and prayer books can also be provided for special occasions and each time a guest vacates, the villas are koshered again.
The company’s rentals are currently limited to Costa Rica, though they do hope to expand to other countries in the next few years, the founders said. Kosher Castles, perhaps?
Source: The New York Times Travel
