Americas
Get a Personal Pick →Costa Rica
53 destinations
Legendary Destination
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Mountain Arenal & La Fortuna
"Hot springs steaming through jungle beneath a volcano's perfect cone at dusk."
Wilderness Barra del Colorado
"A roadless river delta where tarpon explode from chocolate-brown water and jaguars patrol the banks."
Mountain Barra Honda National Park
"Rappel into limestone caverns beneath Guanacaste's driest forest — stalactites gleam in headlamp light below."
Wilderness Boca Tapada
"A roadless northern frontier where endangered green macaws nest and the nearest town is in Nicaragua."
City Boruca
"Hand-carved devil masks and a three-day battle re-enacting indigenous resistance to the Spanish conquest."
Wilderness Bribri Indigenous Territory
"Indigenous cacao ceremonies deep in a rainforest territory where the Bribri have lived for millennia."
Wilderness Cabo Blanco Absolute Natural Reserve
"Costa Rica's first reserve — sealed shut for decades, its founder murdered defending another."
Wilderness Cabo Matapalo
"Scale hundred-foot strangler fig trees at the wild southern tip of the Osa Peninsula."
Water Cahuita
"Sloths dangle above a coral reef where Afro-Caribbean drums carry across coconut-fringed black sand."
Wilderness Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge
"A seasonal lake that appears and vanishes, stranding caimans and jabiru storks in shrinking lagoons."
City Cartago
"Two million walk through the night to a stone virgin who refuses to leave her rock."
Mountain Chirripó National Park
"Costa Rica's rooftop at 3,820 metres — dawn reveals both the Pacific and Caribbean below."
Wilderness Cloudbridge Nature Reserve
"Dead cattle pasture transformed into cloud forest in twenty years — quetzals returned before anyone expected."
Wilderness Corcovado National Park
"National Geographic called it the most biologically intense place on Earth. They undersold it."
Water Drake Bay
"Scarlet macaws wheel above your morning snorkel in a bay where boats outnumber cars."
Water Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge
"Manatees surface in tea-coloured lagoons backed by untouched Caribbean reef and jaguar-haunted forest."
Water Golfo Dulce
"A tropical fjord where dolphins nurse calves in bathwater-warm shallows ringed by primary rainforest."
City Guaitil
"Women shape pottery using thousand-year-old Chorotega methods — no wheel, no kiln, fired in open flame."
City Guayabo National Monument
"Pre-Columbian aqueducts still carrying water through a 3,000-year-old city the jungle tried to swallow."
Mountain Irazú Volcano
"An acid-green crater lake at 3,432 metres where both the Caribbean and Pacific shimmer below."
Water Isla San Lucas
"A prison island that held inmates for 118 years, now reclaimed by jungle and howler monkeys."
Water Islas Murciélago
"Descend into dark Pacific water where bull sharks circle — their territory, your privilege."
Water Las Baulas Marine Park
"Leatherbacks — two metres long, ancient as dinosaurs — haul onto sand in total darkness."
Water Manuel Antonio
"White-faced capuchins raid your beach towel while three-toed sloths doze overhead."
Wilderness Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
"Mist so thick it beads on your eyelashes, orchids breathing in the canopy above."
City Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone
"One of five places on Earth where people routinely live past a hundred."
Water Pacuare River
"Class III-IV rapids through a jungle canyon where oropendola nests dangle above the current like pendulums."
Wilderness Palo Verde National Park
"A quarter of a million waterbirds descend on seasonal marshes where crocodiles bask on every mudbank."
Water Pavones
"One of Earth's longest left-hand waves — ride for a full minute on a good swell."
Water Playa Conchal
"Not sand — millions of crushed shells crunching beneath your feet on a warm Pacific shore."
Mountain Poás Volcano
"An acid lake steams and shifts colour inside one of Earth's widest active craters."
City Punta Islita
"Every surface in this village became a canvas — walls, fences, even the trees."
Wilderness Rara Avis
"Four hours by tractor through mud to reach where Costa Rica's eco-tourism revolution began."
Mountain Rincón de la Vieja
"Volcanic mud pots belch and bubble through dry tropical forest like the earth digesting itself."
Water Río Celeste
"Two clear rivers collide and turn supernatural blue — no dye, no trick, just volcanic alchemy."
Mountain San Gerardo de Dota
"The resplendent quetzal's emerald tail feathers flash through cloud forest mist at 2,200 metres."
City Santa Cruz
"In Costa Rica's folklore capital, the bull chases the crowd — not the other way around."
Wilderness Sarapiquí
"Poison dart frogs glow neon on the forest floor while rapids thunder through lowland jungle."
Water Tamarindo
"Sunset surf sessions where pelicans dive-bomb the lineup and howler monkeys heckle from shore."
Water Térraba-Sierpe Wetlands
"Central America's largest mangrove system — root-tunnel corridors where caimans drift and roseate spoonbills flash pink."
Water Tortuguero
"Jungle canals where green sea turtles haul onto black volcanic sand under a moonless sky."
Water Uvita & Marino Ballena
"A sandbar shaped like a whale's tail emerges at low tide while humpbacks breach offshore."
Water Witch's Rock (Playa Naranjo)
"A volcanic rock rising from Pacific surf at a break so remote you arrive by boat."
City Zarcero
"Cypress hedges sculpted into elephants, arches, and dancing couples by one man for over sixty years."