Costa Rica: Volcanoes, Cloud Forest and Coasts

1. Day 1: Arrive in San José

   Juan Santamaría Airport to San José

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in San José
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), which sits in Alajuela about 20 km west of downtown San José, and drive you to your hotel in the capital. Land when it suits you: the group meets in the early evening, so there is time to rest, shower and change money if you need colones, although US dollars and cards are widely accepted. San José sits at about 1,150 metres in the Central Valley, so nights are mild even in the dry season. Your guide runs through the route, the effort level and what to pack for rain, mud and beach, then we walk together to a welcome dinner nearby, the first chance to meet everyone properly.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)
   • Welcome meeting with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free before the group meets

2. Day 2: Over Braulio Carrillo to Tortuguero

   San José to La Pavona by road, then by boat to Tortuguero

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tortuguero
   Day 2 details

   An early start takes us out of San José on Route 32, which climbs through Braulio Carrillo National Park, a steep, misty rainforest of tree ferns and waterfalls between the Barva and Irazú volcanoes. We stop for breakfast on the Caribbean side near Guápiles, then drive past banana plantations to the river dock at La Pavona, about 3 hours of driving in all. There is no road to Tortuguero: the last hour is by covered boat along the Río Suerte, and your boatman picks out herons, caimans and sometimes a sloth. After lunch at your riverside lodge, walk through the car-free village to the Sea Turtle Conservancy visitor centre and the black sand beach where the turtles nest.

   Included

   • Breakfast stop near Guápiles
   • Boat from La Pavona to Tortuguero
   • Sea Turtle Conservancy visitor centre
   • Walk through Tortuguero village with your guide

   Activity: The boat has a roof but no sides: keep a rain jacket handy.

3. Day 3: Tortuguero canals at dawn

   A day in Tortuguero National Park

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Tortuguero
   Day 3 details

   This is the morning the trip is built around. At first light, when the water is still and the animals are moving, a licensed local naturalist takes us by boat into the narrow canals of Tortuguero National Park, set up in 1975 to protect one of the most important nesting beaches for green turtles in the Americas. Look for howler monkeys, three-toed sloths, caimans, green basilisks, toucans and several kinds of kingfisher. After breakfast we walk a forest trail in the park, in rubber boots if it has rained. The afternoon is free: swim at the lodge, paddle a canoe or sleep. In turtle season, roughly July to October for green turtles, we add a night walk on the beach with a certified guide.

   Included

   • Dawn boat tour of the park canals with a local naturalist
   • Guided forest trail walk in Tortuguero National Park
   • Night turtle walk with a certified guide, in nesting season

   Optional experiences

   • Canoe or kayak on the village canals

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Rubber boots are often needed on the trail; lodges usually lend them.

   

4. Day 4: Lunch with a family in Sarapiquí

   Tortuguero by boat to La Pavona, then by road to La Fortuna

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in La Fortuna
   Day 4 details

   We leave Tortuguero by boat after breakfast, which is the second chance to see wildlife on the river, and meet our van at La Pavona. This is one of the two longer days, about 4 hours of driving in all, so we split it in half. Around midday we reach the Sarapiquí lowlands, a region of rivers, rainforest reserves and pineapple farms, for a long lunch with a farming family: home cooking, a walk around their land and time to ask about rural life in Costa Rica. The afternoon drive runs west through Aguas Zarcas to La Fortuna, where Arenal Volcano fills the view if the clouds allow. You stay here for three nights, so unpack properly.

   Included

   • Boat from Tortuguero to La Pavona
   • Lunch and farm walk with a family in Sarapiquí

   Free time: Evening free in La Fortuna

5. Day 5: Arenal at first light, hot springs at dusk

   A day around Arenal Volcano

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in La Fortuna
   Day 5 details

   Arenal is often clear early and cloudy by midday, so we go at first light to a viewpoint west of town where the cone stands over the forest, about 1,670 metres high. After an early breakfast we walk the trails of Arenal Volcano National Park, crossing old lava flows from the eruptions that began in July 1968, when the volcano woke after centuries of quiet and buried the villages of Tabacón and Pueblo Nuevo. It stayed active until 2010 and now rests. Your guide points out the plants that have grown back over the rock. Lunch is yours in town, then the afternoon is free. Late in the day we take you to a hot springs park, fed by water heated deep under the volcano.

   Included

   • Sunrise viewpoint of Arenal Volcano
   • Guided walk in Arenal Volcano National Park
   • Entry to a hot springs park

   Optional experiences

   • La Fortuna Waterfall, about 500 steps down to the pool

   Free time: Early afternoon free

   Activity: The park trails are about 2 to 3 hours on gravel and rough lava rock, with some climbs.

6. Day 6: Río Celeste at opening, then the Maleku

   La Fortuna to Tenorio Volcano National Park and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in La Fortuna
   Day 6 details

   We leave La Fortuna early to be at the gate of Tenorio Volcano National Park when it opens, ahead of the day groups. The trail to the Río Celeste waterfall takes about 45 minutes through rainforest and ends with a long flight of steps, about 250, down to a turquoise pool. Further on are the blue lagoon, bubbling hot vents and Los Teñidores, where two clear rivers, the Buenavista and the Quebrada Agria, meet and the water turns sky blue as minerals scatter the light. The colour is strongest after a few dry days and fades to milky after heavy rain. On the way back we have lunch with a Maleku community near Guatuso, one of the eight Indigenous peoples of Costa Rica.

   Included

   • Tenorio Volcano National Park entry
   • Guided walk to the Río Celeste waterfall and Los Teñidores
   • Visit and lunch with a Maleku community

   Easier option: Walk to the waterfall lookout only and skip the steps

   Activity: About 6 km return on a muddy, rooty trail with many steps; swimming is not allowed.

   

7. Day 7: Across Lake Arenal to Monteverde

   La Fortuna to Monteverde by road, boat and road

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Monteverde
   Day 7 details

   Instead of the long drive around the lake, we cross it. A short drive takes us to the dock near the Arenal dam, and a boat carries us across Lake Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica, with the volcano behind us on a clear morning. On the far shore a local four-wheel-drive van takes the gravel road up into the hills to Monteverde, about 3 hours door to door, while our own van brings the luggage round by road. The road climbs through cattle farms to the cloud forest, which sits along the Continental Divide. The afternoon is free in Santa Elena. After dark a naturalist leads a night walk to find frogs, tarantulas, sleeping birds and glowing fungi.

   Included

   • Boat across Lake Arenal, with a local four-wheel-drive transfer to Monteverde
   • Guided night walk in the cloud forest

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: The last stretch to Monteverde is a gravel road and can be bumpy.

8. Day 8: Into the Monteverde cloud forest

   A morning in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Monteverde
   Day 8 details

   We are at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve at 7 am, when it opens and the mist still hangs in the trees. A naturalist guide walks us through moss-covered oaks and strangler figs hung with orchids and bromeliads, crossing a hanging bridge into the canopy, and carries a telescope for birds such as the resplendent quetzal, best seen from about March to June, and the three-wattled bellbird. The reserve was set up in 1972, two decades after Quaker families from the United States settled here and began making cheese, which you can still buy in town. The rest of the day is free: coffee farm tours, ziplines and cafes are all close by.

   Included

   • Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve entry at opening
   • Guided morning walk with a naturalist

   Optional experiences

   • Zipline or canopy tour
   • Coffee farm tour

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours of walking on forest paths, cool and often wet: bring a warm layer.

   

9. Day 9: Down to the Pacific, by way of the crocodiles

   Monteverde to Manuel Antonio

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Manuel Antonio
   Day 9 details

   The second of the two longer days, about 4 hours of driving, broken in two. We drive down from the cloud forest to the Pan-American Highway, then south along the Pacific coast road to the bridge over the Tárcoles River, where American crocodiles, some more than 4 metres long, bask on the mud banks below. Scarlet macaws feed in nearby Carara National Park, and you often hear them before you see them. We stop for lunch near the beach town of Jacó, then follow the coast past oil palm plantations to Quepos and Manuel Antonio. You stay here for three nights. If the sky is clear, finish the day watching the sunset from Playa Espadilla.

   Included

   • Stop at the Tárcoles River crocodile bridge
   • Lunch stop near Jacó

   Free time: Evening free

   

10. Day 10: Manuel Antonio National Park at opening

    A morning in Manuel Antonio National Park

    • Drive about 30 min
    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Manuel Antonio
    Day 10 details

    We are at the gate of Manuel Antonio National Park when it opens at 7 am, before the tour buses, the heat and the crowds. Visitor numbers are capped and the park closes one day a week, so we book our entry and set the dates around it. A naturalist guide with a telescope finds what most people walk past: two-toed and three-toed sloths, white-faced capuchins, howler monkeys and the small Central American squirrel monkey, found only on the Pacific side of Costa Rica and western Panama. The trails end at white sand beaches where you can swim, and the walk to Punta Catedral looks back over the coves. Take your camera, not your lunch: food is limited to protect the monkeys.

    Included

    • Manuel Antonio National Park entry at opening
    • Guided morning walk with a naturalist

    Free time: Afternoon free

    Activity: About 3 hours on easy, flat trails, plus optional walking on the beach.

    

11. Day 11: A free day on the coast

    At leisure in Manuel Antonio

    • Breakfast
    • Stay in Manuel Antonio
    Day 11 details

    Today belongs to you, and we mean it: nothing is scheduled. After nine days of early starts, most guests are glad of a morning at the pool or on Playa Espadilla, the long public beach just outside the park, where surf schools give lessons on the gentler waves. Your guide stays close and can book anything you want, at the price the operator charges you. Popular choices are a kayak or boat trip in the mangroves of the Damas Island estuary, a catamaran trip along the coast with snorkelling, or simply lunch in Quepos, the small working town nearby with a waterfront marina. In the evening, the sunset over the Pacific is a good reason to be back on the beach.

    Optional experiences

    • Mangrove kayak or boat trip in the Damas Island estuary
    • Catamaran trip with snorkelling
    • Surf lesson on Playa Espadilla

    Free time: Whole day free

12. Day 12: Back to San José

    Manuel Antonio to San José

    • Drive about 3 h
    • Breakfast and dinner
    • Stay in San José
    Day 12 details

    An easy morning, then about 3 hours north along the coast and up Route 27, the toll highway that climbs from the coast back up into the Central Valley. In the afternoon your guide walks you through the centre of San José. The Teatro Nacional, opened in 1897, was paid for by a tax on coffee exports, and its marble staircases and painted ceilings show how rich the coffee trade made the young country. Below the Plaza de la Cultura, the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum holds hundreds of gold frogs, birds and figures made before the Spanish arrived. Then walk the busy aisles of the Mercado Central, open since 1880. We finish the trip with a farewell dinner together.

    Included

    • Guided walk in central San José
    • Teatro Nacional entry
    • Pre-Columbian Gold Museum entry
    • Farewell dinner

    

13. Day 13: Fly home

    San José to Juan Santamaría Airport

    • Drive about 45 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 13 details

    Your trip ends after breakfast. There is nothing scheduled today, so you can sleep in, walk back to the Mercado Central for coffee to take home, or visit a museum you missed yesterday. We drive you to Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) at a time that fits your flight, whatever the hour: the drive is about 20 km and usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, longer at rush hour. If you would like to stay on, for more beach time on the Nicoya Peninsula or a few days in the Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, ask us before you book and we can help with extra nights. Thank you for travelling with us.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)

    Free time: Free until your transfer

Wildlife and weather: Wildlife is wild: sloths, monkeys, toucans and crocodiles are seen on almost every trip, but we cannot promise any one animal, and turtle nesting is seasonal. Arenal's cone is often in cloud; that is why we look at first light.

• San José1 night
• Tortuguero2 nights
• La Fortuna3 nights
• Monteverde2 nights
• Manuel Antonio3 nights
• San José1 night