The Best Things to Do in Costa Rica (2025 Edition)
Sloths, surf and volcano steam—Costa Rica turns every bend into an adventure movie. Our 2025 hit-list maps rainforest ziplines, secret waterfalls and the newest eco-lodges so you can build the pura vida itinerary of your dreams.
Costa Rica is tiny on the atlas, yet every road curve feels like you’ve crossed a border. Cloud forest one hour, lava-fed hot springs the next, Caribbean stew spiced with coconut just before Pacific ceviche. Park rangers protect a third of the land. “Pura vida,” they say—and they mean it.
Below are fourteen experiences that showcase that attitude. They aren’t written as an encyclopedia entry; think of them as notes passed across a hostel breakfast table, updated for 2025, sprinkled with first-hand shrug-of-the-shoulder advice. Some paragraphs run lean, others ramble like jungle lianas—just like a day on the road.
1. Share a moonlit beach with nesting turtles
Tortuguero sits on a long sandbar where roads give up and boats take over. Arrive at dusk, swap sandals for bare feet, follow a guide who whispers more than speaks. Green turtles emerge, dig with back flippers, and lay golf-ball eggs that tap like soft marbles. Cameras stay pocketed—red-filtered flashlights only.
The next sunrise belongs to hatchlings scrabbling toward foam, herons stepping slow-motion behind them, and the low chug of a canal boat carrying fruit to breakfast stalls. One night is enough to recalibrate city pulse to jungle tempo; two nights let you learn the names of the dogs that nap outside the bakery.
2. Ride the Pacuare River from roar to hush
Fog drifts through limestone canyon walls while guides inflate bright rafts. First rapid—Upper Huacas—hits like iced espresso. Water slaps faces, adrenaline crowds lungs. Then everything hushes. Basalt cliffs glow bottle-green, blue morpho butterflies float overhead, howler monkeys clear their throats in the treetops.
Camp options range from thatched platforms to solar-lit lodges accessible only by river. Evening entertainment: crackling driftwood, a pot of gallo pinto bubbling, and fireflies doing their best impression of a fairy-light string.
3. Scramble Arenal’s lava rocks, soak in starlit springs
Arenal looks like a child’s drawing of a volcano—perfect cone, single tuft of cloud. The Sendero Coladas trail climbs over jagged 1992 lava. Thirty minutes later you’re standing higher than toucans gliding level with your chest.
When daylight fades, everything flips. Steam curls over palm leaves above hot-spring pools. Some springs charge spa prices and offer champagne; others, like Río Chollín, cost nothing but a muddy path and the possibility of sharing the best seat with a local family. Either way, 38 °C water and a sky full of tropical constellations feel identical.
4. Zip-line the Monteverde canopy—or tiptoe it
Monteverde rewards speed and stillness in equal measure. Clip onto ten steel cables and fly a green gulf in ninety seconds or step onto hanging bridges that sway just enough to keep you humble. Zip-liners brag at dinner; bridge-walkers come back with micro-stories about orchids smaller than a fingernail and hummingbirds that sound like lightsabers.
Night walks turn the volume down again. Headlamps pick out kinkajous licking nectar. A guide once shone his beam on a bioluminescent mushroom—tiny streetlamp in leaf litter—and the group stood silent for a full minute, city chatter gone.
5. Paddle a neon lagoon on the Nicoya Peninsula
Wait for a moonless night near Paquera. Guides launch kayaks, ask for darkness and quiet. One stroke, then another—the water ignites electric blue. It’s only plankton, but your brain files it under “witchcraft.” Tours last an hour; the grin you paddle back with lasts far longer.
6. Surf two oceans without crossing a border
On the Pacific, Witch’s Rock hollers hollow tubes December through March. Intermediate riders cheer; beginners learn on Tamarindo’s forgiving beach break where wipeouts earn smoothie-bar applause. Two days later, pivot east. The Caribbean’s Playa Cocles serves gentle rollers, reggae beats, and dinners rich with coconut, ginger, thyme. One rented board, two seas, ten hours’ drive—bragging rights included.
7. Snorkel Cahuita’s pastel reef
Caribbean mornings feel slower, warmer. Hire a local skiff, float over nurse sharks napping under ledges, watch parrotfish graffiti coral in puffs of pink dust. Back ashore, order rondón—fish stew simmered in coconut milk—and let the spoon set the new pace.
Water clarity peaks August and September. Everywhere else fights rain; here the sea turns glassy, and the reef throws a full-colour party.
8. Hike a river that glows sky-blue
Two mineral streams meet in Tenorio National Park, swap ions and—boom—water flips to turquoise. The Río Celeste trail loops past bubbling pools, a waterfall straight from a fantasy film, and forest that smells like wet celery. Mud will claim your boots; Instagram will claim your battery.
9. Bird-watch Carara, then drift past giant crocodiles
Carara National Park blends dry and wet ecosystems; birds love the buffet. Scarlet macaws screech overhead, trogons perch like runway models, poison-dart frogs glitter on damp leaves. Late afternoon, board a boat on the Tárcoles River. Crocodiles longer than your rental car sun-bathe with jaws wide, teeth whiter than fresh surf wax. Boat railings suddenly feel thin; photos come out sharp.
10. Climb Cerro Chirripó for two-ocean dawn
Trailhead sign says 20 kilometres, legs say “yikes” halfway. Jungle gives way to páramo, frailejones stand like fuzzy sentinels, and night at the Crestones hut feels colder than travelers expect this close to the equator. At 2 a.m. hikers shuffle out, summit lamps flicker like a snake ascending. Sunrise sometimes reveals both Pacific and Caribbean horizons—gold edges on either side of the sky. Worth every blister.
11. Lose (and find) yourself in Corcovado’s wild south
National Geographic once nicknamed Corcovado “the most intense place on Earth.” You’ll agree when a tapir crashes into the sea five metres in front of you, or when a spider monkey steals your soap at Sirena ranger station. 2024’s new boardwalk keeps feet dry in former bogs, but river crossings remain knee-deep and warm. Guides are compulsory now; their jokes distract from the mosquitoes.
12. Dive under Nauyaca’s twin falls—or spend a night above them
Twin curtains plunge 45 metres into a jade pool south of Dominical. Day-trippers arrive by pickup shuttle, but hikers who start at dawn get the waterfall to themselves and the echo of swallow swoops. Push farther onto the Diamante Ridge overnight trek, and sunrise mists turn Pacific far below into molten silver. Breakfast: instant coffee, fresh pineapple, bragging rights.
13. Boat Palo Verde’s back-from-the-storm wetlands
Storms ravaged boardwalks in 2024; rangers rebuilt, added viewing decks, and reopened in time for this season’s bird mania. Spoonbills toss shrimp, black-crowned night herons hunch like old professors, and bats swirl from the research station roof at dusk. Bring binoculars and thank the park crew who hammered all those boards under sun no tourist would endure.
14. Sip wood-fired cacao with Bribri hosts
Just outside Puerto Viejo, cacao isn’t dessert—it’s ceremony. Bribri families roast beans on wood embers, grind nibs on stone, and whisk paste with hot water, chile and cinnamon. The first sip tastes earthy, spicy, alive. A short bike roll delivers you to Playa Chiquita for hammock digestion time. Waves hush, cicadas buzz, and you realise “pura vida” translates to exactly this moment.
When to go (super-short cheat sheet)
- Dry Pacific months: December through April—great for surf, rafting, easy roads.
- Green season bargains: May and June—quick afternoon showers, lush scenery, hotel discounts.
- Caribbean clarity: August and September—reef days at Cahuita, calm seas.
- Turtle peak: July to October up north, October to March down south.
- Two-ocean dawn on Chirripó: March or early April for the clearest skies.
Wallet-wise pointers (nothing fancy, just tested)
– Public buses cost a fraction of shuttles. San José to La Fortuna runs about five dollars.
– Order casado at a soda and you’ll pay six dollars for plate, salad and juice.
– Tap water is safe in most populated areas; refill, don’t rebuy.
– Near Arenal, the free hot-spring river feels as toasty as the luxury spas.
– Online park tickets sell out weeks ahead—don’t wing it for Corcovado or Chirripó.
Amanda
Amanda
