Tortuguero National Park

We arrived in San Jose in the evening, so it wouldn’t make sense to get a car right away and drive somewhere after a long flight and in the dark. One of the most important items on our bucket list was Tortuguero National Park, but you can’t drive there anyway, so we thought it might be best to start or end the trip with that so we wouldn’t pay for the rental car unnecessarily. Rental cars ain’t cheap in Costa Rica you must know.

So we booked 2 nights at Mawamba Lodge and fortunately they organised the transport for us. They picked us up early in the morning and brought us back to the same hotel after our stay, so we could pick up some of the luggage we’ve left there and drive to our next destination after picking up a rental car.

The transport started with a longer bus drive. After a few hours we made a stop for breakfast and continued afterwards until we arrived at a central transfer location. Then we got on a boat (all the luggage went onto another one) and drove to the lodge for another hour, stopping a few times in between for some animal sightings like crocodiles or caymans which was already exciting. On arrival we got a quick introduction, a Welcome Drink and check into our rooms. We had lunch and went on an afternoon walk that was led by our guide that would also lead the coming tours. That walk actually started with a boat ride to Tortuguero town where we had some time to explore and buy something if we wanted to, and then we walked back to the lodge alongside the Caribbean Sea. The rest of the day we spent some time at the pool, relaxed and had dinner.

The next day we had some more items on our itinerary. We started with a sunrise boat tour (had to book this extra) in the National Park which was amazing. We saw many animals and I didn’t expect to get this close not being able to leave the boat, but we did. After breakfast I joined a little garden tour learning a bit about plants at the lodge that was interrupted by heavy showers, but it already stopped raining at lunch time, which was followed by an afternoon boat trip into the National Park. We could have done that kind of safari all day every day to be honest. It was really exciting and again we saw quite a few different animals including sloths for the first time (but not the last!). This time I did not have a long break as I also booked the Night-Walk to explore the Park in the dark. We took another boat that brought us to a loop trail. It was a very interesting experience and we again saw a lot of animals, including different frogs, the deadliest snake in Costa Rica (though not the most dangerous), a deadly spider and bullet ants that fortunately did not get on the path or anywhere close to me. I was really careful about these ants because I heard about the pain they would cause, but everything was fine. After around 90 minutes the tour was over and it was time to get dinner after such a long day. Actually, it was New Years Eve, but there wasn’t anything special happening at the lodge, we had only heard some fireworks far away. Last round at the bar was at 10pm, so they really didn’t care about that day, but we thought it was a good thing and even went to bed before midnight.

The next day nothing special was on the agenda. We got up for breakfast, took a boat back to the transfer location and a bus back to San Jose, where we checked in to the hotel again. We went out for a little walk, had some dinner and called it a day.

Corcovado National Park

Again, we got up early. Kind of like what you do on vacation in Costa Rica. We took a cab to the rental car company, got a car and drove towards Puerto Jiménez, a small town just outside of Corcovado National Park. It was a 5-6 hour drive and we only made a stop in Quepos (we can highly recommend Tentación Smoothies y Café, if you’ll visited someday). There weren’t many sights or lookouts on the way, so we decided to get to Puerto Jiménez rather early. We decided to go to this park instead of Manuel Antonio as it’s less crowded and animals are not used to people as much. Because of it’s location, limited access and infrastructure it’s not nearly as touristy as Manuel Antonio and that’s what we like, even though it takes a while longer and is more complicated in general.

Talking about complicated: In order to actually get into the park, you have to book a guide for a tour. We’ve sent a request to one of the tour offices the day before, but didn’t get an answer, so we decided to go there directly on arrival. You can book a guide with car or without, though it’s easier if you have a car. We had 2 full days to spent, so we were a bit flexible and were lucky to get a guide for the park, although unfortunately we needed to provide our own car. It’s a 1.5 to 2 hour drive to the entrance of the park, and you’ll need a 4x4, so it’s a bit of a pain combined with a day trip into a tropical rain forest, but that’s what we got. After checking in we went out for dinner. There is one main road with some places, and also 1 or 2 restaurants at the waterfront, so choices are limited, but you’ll find something. We opted for pizza, so we walked to „Pizza Mail.it“ close to our accommodation and it was delicious. We even came back the other day.

The next day we took it a bit slow, had some breakfast at one of the few cafe’s and explored the town a bit. We decided to take a test drive towards the National Park entrance to see the road conditions and whether our car was suitable for that. Unfortunately, after 10min we had to cancel our first attempt because of a tree blocking the road, so we went back to Puerto Jimémez to kill some time. We’ve read that there is a path with some wildlife spotting opportunities near Corcovado Beach Lodge, so we took a walk there and saw a few animals. After a relaxing drink and ocean views at Los Delfines, we decided to try a second time and this time there was no tree anymore. The road was challenging, but doable, even though we had some river crossings on the way. We did not have a 4x4, but the people from the office told us our car would be fine because of its high clearing, and they were right. We drove to Matapalo, the outermost point of the Osa Peninsula, which is about half of the way to the park. We spent some time at the beach, had something to eat and drink at one of the lodges and went back to Puerto Jiménez to go for another swim at Playa Platanares. You can also do some other tours in the area, for example chocolate tours, but these were fully booked on that day due to a cruise ship, so it was a rather relaxing day for us.

The second day we went on a day trip to Corcovado National Park. We met in the city at around 5 in the morning to get something for breakfast and lunch as well as meeting the tour guide. Unfortunately, our guy wasn’t there. And nobody knew he did a tour that day. In the end, it all got sorted and we found a guide that was taking care of us. The drive was intense, at least for someone who is not used to driving through 5 rivers a day, but we made it to the entrance after 2 hours or so, including some stops on the way to see owls, monkeys and other animals. The park covers 40% of the peninsula, you’ll find over 600 species of animals and the biodiversity of this tropical rain forest is one of a kind. We hiked about 20 kilometres, it was over 30 degrees of celsius (luckily most of the time we hiked in the shade) which felt like over 40 and of course I brought my heavy camera backpack (though I left the wide angle lens and tripod at the lodge). But in the end it was all worth it and an amazing day, because we saw so many animals, like 4 different species of monkeys (spider, squirrel, howler, white faced capuchin), Scarlet Macaws, Jesus Christ Lizards, Three-toed Sloths, Northern Tamanduas (anteaters), Tucans, a White-nosed Coati, bats, many birds and more. Can’t recommend this park enough! It was amazing.

Monteverde

When you’re visiting Corcovado National Park, it also means you have to go back again, in case you are not going to Panama. Our next destination was Monteverde, so we had a long drive ahead of us. To get there while it’s still bright outside we decided to not do any bigger stops on the way, so we basically only stopped once to get food and drinks in Quepos (same spot as 3 days earlier), and I wanted to take some photos of the beautiful landscape there as well. Shortly before we got to Monteverde, we saw beautiful light on the landscape and even a rainbow, so we quickly stopped for some photos and continued to our accommodation where we only had dinner at The Open Kitchen next door.

We came to Monteverde to visit the well known Cloud Forest and we had heard they limit numbers to 150 visitors in the park at the same time, so we got up early again to be there before 7 am and not to stand in line or even wait to get in. We were some of the first people, so when they opened we got our tickets, took a map and started to walk into the forest. We did see some wildlife, like a monkey and some turkeys in the trees, but we came here for the special flora which includes around 3000 of the 9000 plants known in Costa Rica. The hike we did was the La Ventana loop which goes to the La Ventana viewpoint over the forest, via a little detour to the waterfall, Sendero Wilford Guindon, the suspension bridge (which was open at the time), Sendero Camino, and back via Sendero Bosque Nuboso. Can only recommend to visit this forest and do that short hike of maybe 4km and 1.5 hours in time.

We came back to the hotel in the afternoon and had dinner at the same spot because it was that good. And we did not have much time because I booked another night safari to see some more animals, like frogs, sloths, a keel billed toucan, a side striped pit viper, an Olingo or even a Tarantula, although it was hiding pretty good and we could only see some legs. Great tour! 

After some breakfast at The Open Kitchen again, we booked an awesome zip lining tour at Selvatura Park. It had 13 different lines of different lengths, with some of them being done as a couple, and a final line of 1 km length. All of them within the Cloud Forest which was just beautiful. 

Nosara & Montezuma

After the zip line tour we drove to our next destination: Nosara. It was a 4 hour drive with some awful roads along the way, but our hotel (Selina) made up for the drive even though the location could have been more pleasant. The staff was pretty nice, too, and gave us another room which was not facing the noisy and dusty street. 

Nosara was our relaxing part of the vacation. We don’t surf, but we went to the beach instead which was pretty nice and relaxing, and the sunsets here are beautiful. When not at the beach, we spent the time at the hotel pool and bar. Great place to do that!

We then drove to Montezuma which is coastal village on the Pacific Ocean south east of Nosara. The drive was even worse than going to Nosara, but the village made up for it. Montezuma is very popular around backpackers and eco tourists, and it’s known as kind of a hippie or nowadays more of an artisan town. 

After check in at the amazing hotel Amor de Mar with a garden and some hammocks next to the ocean. We took some photos at sunset and then drove into town to have some dinner. It’s not very big, basically there’s just 2 streets where you’ll go, but we found a great restaurant with some live music. Next day I got up for sunrise to take some more photos, and after breakfast we hiked to the Montezuma Waterfall (Cataracta de Montezuma) which was pretty crowded but there’s enough space for everyone. It is not just very photogenic, but you can actually swim in the pool in front of it, so that’s what we did. In the afternoon, we walked to a beach close to our hotel (Playa Las Manchas) to relax, swim and snorkel. On our way we saw a restaurant which looked very promising, so we decided to go there after taking photos at sunset again. The restaurant is called Soda Tipica Las Palmeras and it was really good and has great views, so don’t miss it if you’re in the area. I got up in the morning for sunrise again, and after another delicious breakfast at the hotel, we were headed to La Fortuna / Volcan Arenal.

Volcan Arenal

The drive was about 5-6 hours and we didn’t do much along the way. We stopped once for a (very distant) photo of the volcano, though, not knowing that this was the only time we could fully see it in the next 3 days. We drove to our hotel, which is called Hotel Casa Torre Eco Lodge. It offers great views of the volcano (if the weather is on your side), tasty food for breakfast and the friendliest host (and his dog Sponge) you’ll ever meet. 

We started our first day with a visit to a Nature Park close by (Arenal Natura Ecological Park) to see some animals and plants. It even has a Butterfly Garden which was pretty interesting, as you could see all the different types. We also saw some frogs, turtles, crododiles and sloths. We also saw some sloths close to the streets when we drove to the Park, as well as close to our accommodation, which was amazing. In the afternoon, we booked a chocolate and coffee tour which was pretty nice and informative. We made and ate our own chocolate, walked through their plantation and had some great coffee as well. Can only recommend doing such a tour when you’re in the area! We did ours with North Fields Coffee Tours and enjoyed it very much.

The next day it was supposed to be raining all day, so we decided to give us a treat and go to a hot spring. But not just any hot spring close to the streets or at hotels, we booked a full day at Tabacón Thermal Resort and Spa. I saw photos of their hot spring waterfall on Instagram and wanted to go there but didn’t know it wasn’t freely accessible, but when we decided to make that day a Spa day, I knew I wanted to go there and brought my camera to take some photos in between relaxing, swimming and drinking cocktails at the pool bar. Definitely not cheap, but it’s worth it if you want to treat yourself.

Still no full view of the Volcano the next morning, unfortunately, so we had to leave without seeing it completely and agreed on coming back some time. 

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

Another 5 hour drive took us to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. This stop was recommended to us by friends who went to Costa Rica a few years earlier, and I couldn’t be happier to follow their advice. We booked the Selina Hostel there as we liked Selina in Nosara so much. It wasn’t as great, but still a good place to stay and close to the ocean as well, though a little outside of town with no restaurants in walking distance. 

The next morning we visited the Jaguar Rescue Center, which rescues and heals animals until they are ready to go back into the wild. They do not get any support from the government, so they fully rely on donations. We went on a tour through the centre and saw many of their animals, learned about what they do and how they treat them, and what the reasons are that animals come there in the first place. It was really inspiring and I’ve been following their work ever since, as well as donating money to their cause on a monthly basis to help more animals getting rescued and being taken care of. After that, we went into town and walked around a bit. Wen then drove to Playa Manzanillo to go for a swim in the Caribbean Ocean for the first time, and stayed for sunset which might be the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. For sure one of the best ones! 

After taking photos at sunrise the next morning, we went to Cahuita National Park which is a beautiful mix of beaches, wildlife, palm trees and rain forest. We hiked up until Punta Cahuita, the northern tip of the park, as the path east to Punta Vargas was closed at the time. Still enough to see lots of animals and relax at the beach. For example, we saw several types of monkeys, raccoons, two snakes right next to the walking path (a Boa Constrictor and a brown vine snake), and a sloth really close to the path as well. 

Poas Volcano & Starbucks Coffee Farm

Before going back to San Jose and the airport, we had one night left that we did not book up front. Of course, it had to be somewhere in between Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and San Jose. Since we didn’t have much luck with Arenal, we decided to see another volcano as there were two on the way: Irazú and Poas. 

Based on accommodation, location and driving distances (it is close to the airport) we decided to visit Poas and booked a tour the next morning, so we booked a hotel close by to drive to, and visited Poas in the morning of our last day in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any visibility, so it was a bit of a waste of time and money in the end.

On our way back to San Jose and the airport we realised that there was a Starbucks Coffee Farm (Hacienda Alsacia) close by, so we decided to spent our last hours there instead of the airport, and it was a great decision. We had some coffee, cake, enjoyed the great views over the farm, and even joined a little tour about their process on the farm. A great way to end our trip!