Classic Costa Rica Tour: Highlights in Two Weeks

After touching down at Costa Rica’s primary international airport, you will be transferred to your boutique hotel in the capital city’s most glamorous old neighborhood. Upon your arrival, a local guide will meet you for coffee to plan out a day of exploration. This can be an active tour with plenty of stops or something more laid-back if you are feeling a bit jet lagged from the flight. Mercado Central is a lively place to start experiencing San Jose’s style. You will continue to explore more of the downtown area, where you will wander to grand plazas and colonial mansions, many of which have been restored to their original grandeur. In the evening, you will dine at a small restaurant in the city’s downtown, which serves up feasts of traditional foods that are accompanied by dance and entertainment from different Costa Rican regions.

Today, you will have a three-hour road transfer to Manuel Antonio National Park. Soon the cityscape will be replaced by tropical forest and a salty Pacific breeze. Before you know it, you will arrive at Costa Rica’s smallest and most popular national park. If you leave the trees, you can discover exceptional beaches, where dolphins play and there are endless options for ocean adventures. Your hotel will be located on the beach and backdropped by forest, so you can start viewing wildlife from the moment that you arrive. Afterward, you will spend the afternoon with your local guide, exploring the interior and all the wonderful creatures that call it home. Many people visit this park to see the monkeys, and an excellent guide will help you seek bashful animals, such as the white-nosed coati.

During these two days, you can still walk the wildlife trails in the national park, but your guided activities will be focused on the coast. On a private snorkeling tour, you will cruise to two or three reefs that impress with their marine diversity. A private tour will mean that you can have time to snorkel without other boats, so there will not be many other people in the water with you. Also included in your stay will be a sunset catamaran cruise. These two days will also provide you with plenty of downtime, so you can relax on the beaches and allow your everyday stress to slip away. A customizable option will be to include a kayak tour in Las Damas Islands, where caimans and anteaters are among the highlights of paddling through giant mangroves.

Today, you will have a flight between Manuel Antonio National Park and Monteverde. A flight will save on travel time and can potentially mean that you can have an extra day elsewhere in Costa Rica. After a morning transfer to Tarcoles, you will spend the afternoon in Carara River National Park, where you will cross a bridge to admire giant crocodiles in the river. The national park also provides refuge for animals and birds who have lost their natural habitat due to encroaching agriculture. The national park is a place for exploring at your own pace while Tarcoles has plenty of charms that you can discover by indulging in its restaurants and strolling the streets at dusk.

Ziplining in Monteverde is one of Costa Rica’s most iconic experiences. If it is clear, then you can see for miles, especially on the higher cables that provide breathtaking views of the forest canopy. The morning transfer to Monteverde can include a number of side trips, including an organic coffee farm and a cacao plantation. Afterward, you will check-in to a cloud forest lodge that is surrounded by silence. Ziplining will fill your afternoon, and you can choose whether to try the Tarzan swing, which is a bungee-like drop that swings you high above the forest canopy. After you have had a chance to rest and refresh, you will return to the lodge on a night walk, which will provide you with the opportunity to discover nocturnal creatures and the ongoing mystique of this delightful destination.

On today’s customizable tour, you will hike through the reserve, following quiet trails that crisscross the park. In the park, you will search for the quetzal, which is a resplendent bird that epitomizes the country’s color and vibrancy. By having the choice of trails, you can spend a full morning or full day hiking, depending on how you feel. If you choose to have a free afternoon, then you will have a variety of options. You can visit a working coffee farm, where you can track the organic process from farm to table. A coffee cupping demonstration will also demonstrate how to grade coffee by smell and taste.

The journey to La Fortuna is spectacular, and it can be completed by road and boat as the country’s most iconic volcano looks down. There is so much to do in La Fortuna that the best approach will be to have a private guide who can tailor everything to your interests. You can hike across hanging bridges with wonderful views of the volcano and lake before searching for waterfalls that tumble from blankets of green flora. Hikes can also lead you up the volcano’s frame, but guided hikes can also allow you to roam around the foothills, where waterfalls hide. If you are feeling adventurous, then you should consider rappelling down waterfalls. After the day’s activities, you can lounge in natural hot springs as the therapeutic water works its magic.

Today, you will witness a waterfall as it surges out from moss and trees, tumbling more than 50 feet into a turquoise pool below. For 50 years, it was one of the hardest places in the country to reach because the roads were rough and steep tracks were barely navigable by a 4WD vehicle. Luckily, that hat has all changed, and a new road makes this area accessible. The national park limits the number of daily visitors, which will help to keep your experience pristine and free of hordes of tourists. By restricting visitors, the trails remain quiet, and you can spend the day walking in the unspoiled wilderness to waterfalls and places of rare wildlife.

Today will be flexible. Like Arenal, there is a variety of activities that you can enjoy in and around Tenorio Volcano National Park. Nature hikes are the primary activity, and there are enough trails to walk to different places each day. Another option for the day will be to spend the afternoon on the Rio Celeste River. Inflatable rafts will help provide white-water adventures with grade II and grade III rapids. Most of the rafting tour will be about drifting and admiring the scenery. Tenorio is a blossoming tourism destination, so there is not too much around other than your lodge. You should expect a beautifully quiet evening surrounded by the volcano’s forest enchantment.

Your two weeks in Costa Rica will end on the beach, hidden away on the Papagayo Peninsula. Calm waters will lap against the golden beaches, long surf breaks will stretch down the coast, and reefs hide strange fish and a few pelagic creatures. There are also catamarans for cruising into the sunset and more waterfall adventures if you choose a morning or afternoon trip to Rincon de la Vieja. As with almost everywhere in Costa Rica, there will still be many things for you to do, but these two days will mostly be about the beaches. After all the hikes and ziplines, Papagayo will provide you with a space that will allow you to rest and reflect on your journey.

Rather than backtrack to San Jose, it will be quicker to depart from Costa Rica’s city of Liberia. After a leisurely breakfast, you will be transferred to the Liberia airport for your outbound flight.