Costa Rica is home to some of the best beaches in the world, and most visitors take full advantage of them, and I can’t blame. The star beaches are those located in the northwest of Costa Rica, on the Pacific coast and in the southeast, by the Caribbean Sea.
Of course, we live in Jamaica, which has a few beautiful beaches of its own, so when we visited Costa Rica, we focused our energy and time on the country’s true Pura Vida, well away from the coasts. And with such a rich biodiversity, fabulous landscapes and a wonderful culture, this worked really well, as we had a huge number of fantastic options from which to choose. Our only regret was that we didn’t stay longer and check off more from our wish list.
Nevertheless, we managed to pack a massive amount into our 10 days, and these are our top 7 recommendations for having an amazing time in Costa Rica without setting foot on the sand or dipping your toe into the ocean.
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1. Visit Arenal Volcano
If there is one thing that pulls visitors to Costa Rica away from their sun loungers, it’s Arenal Volcano. If you ever made a volcano for a school project, I bet that it looked exactly like Arenal, which is a picture-perfect classic. It was considered to be dormant until a sudden eruption in 1968 that led to the destruction of the town of Tabacón. It remained active until 2010, when it again become dormant, but who knows?
The volcano offers a fabulous photo opportunity from a distance, but it’s worth getting a closer look, even if you’re not allowed to go all the way to the top. The best way to get to know Arenal is to take a tour of the National Park.
There’s something for almost everyone and you can choose from hiking, biking, house-back, rafting, zip-lining, rappelling (abseiling) and vehicular tours. For us, a hiking tour was our choice. We walked through rich rainforests with hanging bridges, caves, canyons, waterfalls, and wonderful wildlife. Like almost every Arenal tour, we ended our day with a refreshing dip in a gorgeous spring.
We found our tour through Airbnb Experiences, but there are plenty of other places, such as Trip Advisor and Viator, to find and book a great tour. Alternatively, we saw plenty of tours advertised locally in the area or you can probably book something from your hotel.
2. Relax in the Tabacón Hot Springs
If you are going to visit Arenal, then you need to find time for Tabacón Hot Springs and the town of La Fortuna. While there are free springs just below the resort, it really is worth spending a little of your cash for a day pass at the stunning Tabacón Grand Spa Thermal Resort. For us an afternoon here with a few drinks was the perfect form of luxurious relaxation.
We also managed to take the short hike to the La Fortuna Falls. It’s definitely worth an hour or so of your time. You may even find that La Fortuna Falls are included as part of your Arenal tour.
3. Tour the Capital City of San José
Unless they use the airport, not many people choose to include Costa Rica’s capital city, San José, in their itinerary. While this is understandable as it pales against the magnificent beaches, rainforests and wildlife, we think that it’s worth a visit to get a feel for the real, every day country of Costa Rica.
It’s a bit like going to France and not seeing Paris or visiting England and missing out on London. Sure, you’ll have a great time, but do you really know the country?
Many large cities in Latin America, especially in Central America, are uninviting and unsafe, but San Jose is one place where you can stroll around and meet many lovely, friendly people, and still feel safe. The centre of the old town is a great place to start and there are guided tour options if you wish, both free and with a cost.
One of our favourite places was the National Theatre or Teatro Nacional, which is so lavishly decorated you could easily imagine that you are in Paris or Vienna. While we didn’t get to see a show, the $10 was definitely worth the money, just to take a tour, it’s beautiful.
Like many capital cities, San José has several museums that can really help you understand the country. The most obvious choice is the National Museum of Costa Rica, which is in an old fort called the Bella Vista Barracks, complete with old bullet holes in the walls. It exhibits Costa Rica’s history, archaeology, anthropology, and natural history, and after just a couple of hours you will have a much better understanding of a country, that previously you probably knew little about. It also has an indoor butterfly garden.
The Jade Museum is definitely worth some of your time, as it contains the world’s largest collection of pre-Columbian jade artifacts. For us, even more fascinating was the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. The sight of so much rich gold is something special and really appeals to anyone who loves art, history or both.
4. Be Awed by the Monteverde Cloud Forest
There are few places that can boast the biodiversity of Costa Rica, and you are spoilt for choice as a visitor. We decided to spend a very long day visiting the Monteverde Cloud Forest, and boy were we glad that we did. The variety and beauty were stunning and we were amazed at how much we packed into a single day.
Cloud forests are pretty rare, accounting for only 1% of the world’s forests, and the best way to experience the unique climate, wildlife and lush vegetation, is to take a hike. We recommend going with an experienced guide, this way you will see so much more.
We loved the hanging bridges of the Monteverde Sky Walk. It is a gentle 2.4km (1.5 mile) trail that takes about 2 hours where you will cross 5 bridges, the longest of which is 236m or 774 feet long. Looking down on majestic trees, colourful birds and noisy howler monkeys is incredibly special.
To get there, we took the Cloud Forest Sky Tram, which is a thrill in itself. It’s a relaxing way to get to the highest peaks and the views are breath-taking. We were told that from the top, on a clear day, you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Unfortunately for us, the cloud forest was living up to its name and while we could just about make out the Pacific, the Atlantic and Caribbean Sea were out of range.
You can also add to the thrills by taking some pretty long and quick looking zip-line canopy tours, although on this occasion we didn’t, again something that is widely available in Jamaica.
5. Take a Detour and Visit a Random Small Town
This was something that we enjoyed so much the first time that we did it twice. Our first detour was to Tilarán, a small town in central Costa Rica with a population of about 9,000.
The area is home to the most important wind farms in the country and, as we can attest from our climb up Parque Del Viento, it can be seriously windy. It was almost impossible to stand straight and there was no chance of having a conversation. That said, if you shelter behind the large cross the views were amazing.
A little larger, with a population of about 20,000, and a little busier was the town of Cañas. We enjoyed walking around this bustling little metropolis. We took in some local shops, enjoyed some great coffee and an incredibly cheap and tasty lunch. The people were so friendly, or so they seemed to me, the only one in our party who didn’t speak a word of Spanish.
If like we did, you have a rental car, we highly recommend that you take the time to stick a pin the map or follow signs to a small town that is just slightly off the beaten path. We guarantee you will enjoy yourself and take some almost unique photos.
6. Enjoy a Bird Watching Tour or Nature Walk
When it comes to an enormous variety of colourful birds is there anywhere quite like Costa Rica? We don’t think so. Sure, Colombia has a greater number of different species, but it’s a much larger land mass, while Costa Rica packs in 850 different species into a far smaller country. To put this into perspective, that’s 10% of the total bird species in the world and twice as many as the USA and Canada combined.
We booked a sloth and bird watching tour through Airbnb Experiences. We saw several sloths, howler monkeys and frogs, but it was the birds that stood out for us with their amazingly colourful plumage.
We took a gentle stroll around the farm, with our guide who was one of the farmer’s family and we were rewarded by an astonishing collection of brightly colourful birds.
Our guide had an incredible knack of spotting wildlife that we would otherwise have never noticed, especially the sloths. And sure, some birds were “encouraged” to show themselves by carefully positioned fruit treats, these were all truly wild birds, and we enjoyed every second.
7. Visit a Wildlife Sanctuary
Maybe it’s because of the vast biodiversity, that Costa Rica seems to have more wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres than anywhere else we visited. Visiting one can be super rewarding as you’re not going to a zoo, where animals are captured for human entertainment, but you will be supporting incredibly important work and having a great time too.
We spent a wonderful morning at Las Pumas Rescue Centre and Sanctuary. While the rescue centre is not open to the public, the sanctuary, which is home to the animals that couldn’t be returned to the wild, is a fabulous place to visit. All the animals here are either injured so that they wouldn’t be able to fend for themselves or were kept illegally as pets and, as such, are too comfortable around humans.
As you would expect from the name, there were graceful pumas, as well as Jaguars, turtles, ocelots, monkeys, birds and many other animals. My favourite was the jaguarundi, a wild cat that is twice the size of a domestic cat, and which is almost impossible to see in the wild
If you don’t live in the tropics, you will probably want to spend time on the beach during your visit to Costa Rica, and we don’t blame you. However, you really should find some time to experience what else the amazing country of Costa Rica has to offer: Pura Vida!
How did you find these 7 amazing things to do in Costa Rica? Drop me a comment below and be sure to check out more related articles listed below.
Author
Nick Abbott
Hi, I’m Nick. Visiting foreign countries has been an important part of my life since my parents moved to Kano in Nigeria in 1977. Since then, as both a military officer and in later jobs I have enjoyed the huge privilege of being exposed to many different countries and cultures.
I am delighted to be able to support my wife Monique and Yes2Yolo primarily by contributing travel articles, providing editing and proof-reading services and being a general sounding board.
