Americas
Get a Personal Pick →Costa Rica
46 destinations
Mountain Arenal & La Fortuna
"Hot springs steaming through jungle beneath a volcano's perfect cone at dusk."
Wilderness Barbilla National Park
"No trails exist — Cabécar guides navigate by river and memory through virgin rainforest."
Water Barra del Colorado
"A roadless river delta where tarpon explode from chocolate-brown water and jaguars patrol the banks."
Mountain Barra Honda National Park
"Descend by ladder and harness beneath a hill of ancient coral to stalactites gleaming by headlamp."
Wilderness Boca Tapada
"A muddy northern frontier where endangered green macaws nest in wild almond trees."
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
"Strangler figs tower over the Osa's wild southern tip, where forest runs unbroken to the sea."
Water Cahuita
"Sloths dangle above a coral reef where Afro-Caribbean drums carry across coconut-fringed black sand."
Water Caño Island Biological Reserve
"An island of pre-Columbian stone spheres, ringed by reefs where sharks trace slow arcs."
Water Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge
"A seasonal lake that appears and vanishes, concentrating 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 Cerro de la Muerte Páramo
"Frost at dawn, eight degrees north of the equator, on the Mountain of Death."
Mountain Chirripó National Park
"From Costa Rica's rooftop on a clear morning, the Pacific and Caribbean both lie 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."
City Diquís Stone Spheres (Finca 6)
"Perfectly round stone spheres weighing fifteen tonnes scattered across a landscape nobody can explain."
Water Drake Bay
"Scarlet macaws wheel over a rainforest bay where the day's traffic is boat wakes."
Water Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge
"Manatees shelter in tea-dark lagoons; the reef grows an oyster known nowhere else."
Water Golfo Dulce
"A tropical fjord of bathwater-warm calm, ringed by primary rainforest and cruised by dolphins."
City Guayabo National Monument
"Pre-Columbian aqueducts still carrying water through a city the jungle tried to swallow."
Mountain Irazú Volcano
"From Irazú's 3,432-metre rim, two oceans glint on opposite horizons at once."
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."
Wilderness La Amistad International Park
"A borderless wilderness where North and South America's wildlife met — and never left."
Water Laguna de Hule
"Three volcanic crater lakes, each a different colour, hidden inside old rainforest."
Water Las Baulas Marine Park
"A turtle without a hard shell hauls ashore in darkness, her lineage 100 million years old."
Mountain Los Bajos del Toro
"A river hurls itself into an extinct volcanic crater; six turquoise falls hide nearby."
Water Manuel Antonio
"Capuchins patrol the sand beneath dozing sloths where rainforest walks into the ocean."
Wilderness Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
"Mist so thick it beads on your eyelashes, orchids breathing in the canopy above."
Water Pacuare River
"Class III-IV rapids through a jungle canyon where oropendola nests dangle above the current."
Wilderness Palo Verde National Park
"Ten thousand hectares of marsh erupt with waterbirds while crocodiles bask below limestone hills."
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."
City Punta Islita
"Every surface in this village became a canvas — walls, fences, even the trees."
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
"A bird the Maya held sacred flashes emerald through one cold valley's mist."
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 tunnels where caimans drift and 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 where real humpbacks come to breed."
Water Witch's Rock (Playa Naranjo)
"A volcanic rock rising from Pacific surf at a break so remote you arrive by boat."
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Legendary Destinations
Little-known places, unlike anywhere else, that leave you awestruck and full of stories.
1 destination
