monlor

My family of four is living in La Palma, El Salvador for a year working with a church here and we need to leave the CA-4 in April to renew our visas. We'd like to visit Costa Rica and enjoy a few days of vacation to do this. We're exploring the best way to do this without spending huge amounts of money. King Quality has a bus route from San Sal to San Jose but it's over $100 per person and that's a grueling 18 hour bus trip with 2 kids so we're looking for airfare deals as well as hotel deals. Someone told us there's a ferry from El Sal that goes to Costa Rica and we'd love to consider that option. We don't have a car, but we have a friend who we can pay to drop us off at the airport or a port, but we don't want him with us all week so road trip with him is out of the question.

What suggestions do you have for where to stay, what to do, how to get there for a family with a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old? And how to do it on a budget? Looking for 4 or 5 days of fun and relaxation. Our visas expire April 17 which hits right at Holy Week so we'll probably try to leave here on the 14th or 15th if possible.

My daughter is fascinated by the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua so we may try to do a day trip up that way--but since that's a CA-4 country, I assume we either need to do that our first day or after being in Costa Rica for 3 days. So many things we want to see/do on one trip and we're trying to narrow those down and keep this in budget. Any help/tips appreciated!
Thanks!
-Lori