This list of destinations will give you a taste of all that Costa Rica has to offer.

Costa Rica is a small country with an incredible variety of flora and fauna, offering you volcanoes, pristine beaches, rain forests, dry forests, birds, monkeys, big cats, big waves and lots of fun. To list the top destinations is not easy. The best way is probably to offer a bit of everything!

So, we’ll start with a volcano…

1. Arenal is the obvious choice, although they are all awesome. Arenal is the only volcano in this country that will offer you the whole show. With eruptions going all day and all night long, it is hard to beat. Arenal throws fire, gases and lava in the air about every 45 minutes, making it the third most active volcano in the world. The best time to see the bright orange lava is is at night, as long as there is a clear sky. The show is indeed spectacular. The sounds transform it into an even more unforgettable experience. As it roars, the ground and everything around is shaking. It seems like the roars come from the center of the earth, very, very deep down, far away, powerful and invincible.

La Fortuna is where most people choose to spend the night to see this spectacle, with most hotel rooms offering direct views of the steaming volcano. The town has a perfect variety of places to stay and eat, and hot springs where you can laze about endlessly amid waterfalls and tropical vegetation. You may be too relaxed to find your way home once you have spent a couple of hours in these hot waters. Waterfalls, horseback riding, hiking, it is all there, and it is undeniably an important part of this wonderful country.

The beach is another main reason people choose to visit Costa Rica, and indeed there are plenty of these, to please every taste. For this reason, this section will be split in three…

2. On the Caribbean side, Puerto Viejo stands out from the rest. The pueblo itself offers a distinct Caribbean culture, including the music and the coconut rice and beans. Going south along the coastal road out of town, there is Punta Cocles and Punta Uva, two great beaches with pristine blue sea and white sand, surrounded by dense, green vegetation. Finally the road leads you to Gandoca Manzanillo, a wildlife refuge, which is excellent for snorkeling, scuba diving and dolphin watching. Everything else you have read about in your books is here too, Ocelots, Jaguars, Monkeys, Tapirs, and all sorts of incredibly colorful tropical birds and butterflies.

3. On the Pacific, there is of course Guanacaste, on the Northern part of the country in the Nicoya Peninsula. Again to pick one beach there is difficult. I will go for the beaches of Nosara; although it has gained recent popularity both as a surfing venue and a relaxing pristine beach, it has not developed in the same direction as other beaches have, like Tamarindo for example. No big hotels, no big restaurants are found here. Nosara is still a residential place. Many locals are foreigners who have been there now for well over 10 years. The main beach, Playa Guiones, offers great surf but it is also good for swimming. The sunsets at Guiones are without a doubt some of the best ones I have seen anywhere. They go on and on, until you find yourself sitting in the dark on the beach. The people there are friendly and very proud of their spot. It is always clean, always pleasant. There are excellent places to stay and to eat there, but especially, there is peace and beauty that is not to be missed.

3. The Central Pacific gives us Manuel Antonio, famous for its National Park featuring tropical forest, beach and a marine zone. The beaches in the park itself are protected and you will not be able to get in after about 4:30pm. Beware of the white faced monkeys while you are exploring these parts, they like to look into bags to see if they contain anything interesting! The view, as you approach Manuel Antonio, is simply stunning. You will find yourself going down towards the beaches and every corner offers a sight more spectacular than the previous one. Flamboyant restaurants including one made of an old airplane and a trolley car, and colorful hotels are everywhere, each claiming a view of the beautiful beach below. If you prefer, you may stay right on the beach. The wildlife spreads from the parks to the bars and dance clubs where you can dance the night away!

This brings us to the National Parks…

4. Braulio Carrillo is an excellent cloud forest encompassing the exact characteristics the name suggests: mysterious, mystical, eerie, magical. Prance through the clouds, hear the sounds of nature like you’ve never heard before, spot the quetzal and the blue morpho butterfly, and if you’re lucky, see a spotted ocelot. Here, the sounds of waterfalls mix with the scent of wood, chlorophyll and earth. If you wish to know what it is like up on top of the canopy, there is a canopy zip line to give you a whole new perspective of the forest below. All this can be found only 20 minutes away from the capital city of San Jose. Braulio Carillo is a top pick because it offers a glimpse of a textbook tropical rain forest and is so easy to get to.

5. Costa Rica, although known more for its natural wonders than its culture, still has some secret places that are well worth a visit. Orosi is one of them. Located near Cartago, in the Orosi valley, this little jewel did not gain its reputation as a tourist destination until quite recently. Its surroundings are extremely beautiful and the little town itself cherishes the Temple of San Jose Orosi, its main attraction. There is an old monastery that has been transformed into a small museum. While there, also visit Paraiso, a nearby charming little town famous for being the one and only organic growing place in Costa Rica, and if you can, visit the Lankester Botanical Gardens, home of hundreds of Orchids.

6. It would be a crying shame to leave Costa Rica without having seen one of these awesome turtle-nesting sites. Ostional is the most important one at this point, a 3-mile stretch of beach running from Punta Guiones to the town of Ostional itself, and the protected area goes five kilometers out into the sea as well. Ostional is the official site for the Olive Ridley or Lora turtles, as well as the huge and very impressive leatherback turtles. Guides will be happy to show you around at night when they come ashore during the season, usually between July and December. Ostional is located in Guanacaste, south of Tamarindo.

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Filed under: Travel on May 20th, 2008