Costa Rica's most famous beaches, rainforests and volcanoes
Costa Rica looks so small on a map. You can actually see both coastlines while flying into the airport in San Jose, and yet, when you plant your feet on the ground you realize just how immense the country really is. San Jose alone, the country's capital and urban center, is a labyrinth of urban sprawl inside a valley surrounded by vast green mountains with more than two million residents. Outside the valley, you'll find seemingly endless acres of rainforest, miles of untouched shoreline and a number of smoldering volcanoes.
read more closeBeaches
Between the two coasts, there's more than 900 miles of surf and sand. That's a lot of beaches to see. To get a feeling for the country, we recommend you visit at least one beach on the Pacific and the Caribbean coasts. While you'll find playa blancas, playa hermosas and playa negras on both coasts, you'll find that each side of the country has its own culture, attitudes, wildlife and cuisine.
Popular Caribbean beaches
Tortuguero Beach in Tortuguero is famous for its nesting green sea turtles from August through September.
Salsa Brava in Puerto Viejo is considered to have Costa Rica's largest, wildest waves. The surf season on the Caribbean runs from December to March.
Playa Blanca in Cahuita sits inside Cahuita National Park—the only free national park in the country. Just offshore, snorkelers will find more than 35 different species of coral reef as well as octopus, nurse sharks, rays, eels and zebra fish.
Popular Pacific beaches
Playa Flamingo in Papagayo is a mile-long white sand beach and considered to be one of Costa Rica's most impressive. Nearby, you'll find the country's largest marina and number of luxury resorts.
Playa Hermosa near Jaco is one of the Pacific's most famous surf spots. The waves at Playa Hermosa are known not only for their size and power, but also for their year-round consistency.
Uvita Beach in Punta Ballena inside the Ballena National Marine Park is famous for a peculiar geographic oddity known as the Whale's Tail. It's a long sand bar about a half-mile off the coast that's connected by a strip of sand that disappears when the tide rises.
Rainforests
Costa Rica has 26 different national parks and each is something special in its own right: It may be a towering waterfall, a naturally blue river, ancient primary rainforest or one of the last remaining empires of wild jaguars.
Tenorio National Park in northern Costa Rica is famous for Rio Celeste – an enchanting robin-egg blue river, lagoon and waterfall that runs through park. Truly a sight to behold.
Santa Elena Reserve in Monteverde gets less press than the Monteverde Cloud Forest but it is equally breathtaking. Hidden on the other side of the mountains from Monteverde Cloud Forest, the Santa Elena Reserve is even more green, pristine and magical.
Corcovado National Park in the Osa Peninsula is heralded as the biological jewel of Costa Rica. Ask any local and they will tell you that is a world apart, filled with towering rainforest trees and teeming with wildlife, Corcovado National Park is the wildest place in Costa Rica.
Volcanoes
Costa Rica perches perilously along the Pacific Rim of Fire. With more than 200 volcanoes on land and under the sea, no visit to Costa Rica is complete without staring into the crater or peering up at the cone of one of the country's seven active volcanoes.
Poas Volcano near Alajuela is the country's most popular volcano. It's famous for its close proximity to San Jose and its giant mile-long crater, boiling sulfuric lagoon and clouds of sulfuric gas and water vapor.
Irazu Volcano near Cartago is Costa Rica's tallest volcano at more than 11,000 feet high. On clear day atop Irazu, you can see both of Costa Rica's coasts.
Arenal Volcano in Arenal is the country's most famous volcano, known for its near perfect cone and for the slow eruptions that occurred almost nightly for decades, but stopped in 2011.
Best Hotel Deals in Costa Rica!
Get up to 30% off Hotels & Resorts worldwide compared to other major booking sites like Expedia and Priceline with our exclusive pricing ...