Looking for the best places to visit in Costa Rica? This concise guide of the best places to go, things to see and food to eat in Costa Rica will help you plan and make the most of your trip!
La Fortuna/Arenal
Stay
Stayed at Casa Luna Lodge: pretty rooms with our own lush front garden,eco hot tubs powered by the local hot springs/volcano , amazing restaurant and it’s own mini rainforest.
Things to do
- Day trip to La Fortuna waterfall and Arenal Volcano
- Dinner at our hotel: steak and seafood platter.
- The local town was also nice for food and a couple of drinks- not exactly a “party” town but after a day of adventure you’ll want to be in bed by 10 anyway
Weather
Weather was lovely in April, spent a day round our hotel pool. Temperature is around 28-30 degrees Celsius you’re close to the equator so factor 50 it up.
Monteverde
Onto our second stop.
Stay
Stayed at Cala Lodge a super cute tree house with delicious breakfast on the terrace every morning.
Things to do
Sky tram trek and zip line was the scariest thing I’ve done but glad I did it. We also got to see a family of howler monkeys.
Eat
- Ate at Treehouse Restaurant (good for live music and cocktails)
- Sofia restaurant with yummy ceviche and yuca fries
- De Lucia restaurant
Weather
Monteverde is a cloud forest so much colder than other parts we visited- layers of t shirt jumper rain mac and leggings is your best bet (I didn’t have any jumpers so was a bit chilly for 3 days). At night the sky looked amazing really clear and so many stars
Manuel Antonio
Onto our 3rd stop.
Stay
Stayed at The Falls Manuel Antonio, where resident Robert the iguana chilled by the pool
Things to do
Manuel Antonio National Park: the butterflies are like something out of a cartoon they are huge. The monkeys are really cheeky so watch out for your food and phones. We nabbed a shady spot under a tree and enjoyed the beautiful beach.
Night jungle tour a lot of frogs but no snakes.
When travelling on the minibus from Monteverde our driver stopped to show us a river full of crocodiles and then another stop to see scarlet macaws which I much preferred.
Weather
Sun sun sun! Beautiful beaches to relax on whilst still seeing the amazing wildlife.
Uvita (Corcovado)
Our final and favourite destination/
Stay
Stayed at Tiki Villas. The room had an outdoor shower, at first I was a bit unsure but was lovely to wash my hair and catch a toucan or two fly past. From the pool we could see toucans, howler monkeys and what we think was a “hawk” all from our sun loungers! Amazing food and cocktails and really friendly staff.
Things to do
Cano Island, best snorkelling I’ve ever done we saw turtles and sting rays as well as a reef shark plus dolphins on the boat journey there.
Corcovado rainforest is the most biologically diverse in the world. One of the highlights was seeing a family of white nose coatis as well as a Tapir.
Also swam with baby crocodiles (it was so hot even I braved it)
We went to Dominical one night (a quiet surfer town )but at 9pm there was not a taxi to be seen so our waiter called his friend and he dropped us back to our hotel luckily.
Weather
Humid! This was my first visit to the Pacific Ocean. Cloudy but we didn’t mind and still got some sun by our pool.