Costa Rica: Rainforests, Volcanoes & Wildlife

Fly to Costa Rica and settle in at your hotel in San José. Enjoy a light dinner this evening.

Please note: If you arrive after 9pm, dinner will be served in your hotel room.

Get comfortable on your group’s private coach and follow the scenic Guapiles Highway through Braulio Carrillo National Park. This vast, protected area features rugged mountains, lush forests, extinct volcanoes, and pristine waterfalls and rivers. Then, climb aboard a boat bound for your eco-lodge in Tortuguero. As you cruise along the Sucio River, keep your eyes peeled for caimans, a reptile similar to alligators, lurking below the surface. You might also spot crested Jesus Christ lizards, named for their ability to run atop water—upright, on their hind legs!

Enjoy an included lunch at your eco-lodge in Tortuguero, then get settled in your room.

Later, get to know your group during a welcome dinner served with beer or wine at your eco-lodge.

Travel tip: From July through September, you can book a guided evening beach walk through your Tour Director for an additional cost. During the walk, you’ll learn about the threats facing green sea turtles, whose global population has declined, and observe them in their natural habitat.

Why seeing green sea turtles here is special: Tortuguero is home to one of the world’s largest green sea turtle nesting populations, with 30,000 females nesting here per season on average.

This morning, get to know Tortuguero National Park on a guided tour. Situated along the Caribbean coast, the expansive park is home to one of Central America’s largest remaining tropical rainforests.

• Learn about the park’s diverse habitats, including mangrove forests, swamps, and beaches, on a walk led by your naturalist guide
• Board an open-top boat (ideal for peering into Tortuguero’s tall trees) and cruise through the park. It’s early in the day, so keep a lookout for nocturnal animals who are still stirring, and diurnal animals for whom the day is just beginning. Wildlife to watch for: caimans, toucans, green macaws, and howler, spider, and white-face monkeys
• Float along the park’s freshwater creeks and placid lagoons, which are home to endangered turtles and more than 50 species of fish
• Enjoy an included lunch featuring simple yet flavorful local cuisine, such as rice, beans, and plantains

Spend a free afternoon in Tortuguero or add an excursion.

Sit down for an included dinner of traditional Costa Rican food, served with beer or wine, at your eco-lodge in Tortuguero.

Journey by boat through Tortuguero National Park’s jungle canals. Then, continue by bus to the Arenal region, making stops along the way.

• Sit down at a local restaurant for a family-style, Costa Rican lunch
• Spend the afternoon exploring an organic pineapple farm in the Sarapiqui region and learning what makes its sustainable and eco-friendly practices unique to the area
• Climb aboard a tractor for a guided tour of the farm and its sprawling pineapple fields
• Learn how the farmers grow pineapples using eco-friendly methods, such as compost fertilization, natural herbicides, and crop rotation
• Nibble on just-cut pineapple and sip fresh pineapple juice or a homemade piña colada (enjoy yours virgin or with an added splash of rum)

Check in to your Arenal Region hotel and enjoy free time for dinner. This evening, trade your hiking boots for dancing shoes and meet with a local salsa instructor in a private studio in Arenal. Find out how Costa Rica’s most popular dance was introduced to the country, then hit the dance floor for a lesson in basic steps and spins set to traditional salsa music.

Join your Tour Director for a guided hike through Arenal Volcano National Park, named for the nearly 5,500-foot-high volcano that towers over the pastures and hillsides that surround it. Though Arenal hasn’t erupted since 2010, you might still spot steam snaking skyward from its caldera.

• Marvel at the mile-high volcano, a near-perfect conical shape that emerges from the Sierra de Tilarán mountain range

Travel tip: During Costa Rica’s rainy season, which lasts from May through November, clouds and mist can obscure the volcano’s peak from view.

• Try to spot slow-moving sloths, snakes coiled around tree limbs, and spiders resting in their webs
• Gaze at placid Lake Arenal—Costa Rica’s largest lake—and watch for birds such as northern jacanas, woodpeckers, and kingfishers, wading and soaring along its shores

Please note: In some places around the park, terrain can be uneven and formed by hardened lava. Travelers should be able to navigate these surfaces and hike for around two miles.

This afternoon, visit an eco-friendly ranch in La Fortuna.

• Enjoy a farm-to-table lunch featuring fresh ingredients harvested on-site, as well as local dairy products
• Explore the ranch with a local guide, and learn how it became the first carbon-negative community of its kind in Costa Rica

Spend a free evening in the Arenal region or add an excursion.

Start your journey to Monteverde with a boat ride across Lake Arenal, spotting iguanas and birds as you cruise along. Then, enjoy dramatic mountain, valley, and cloud forest views as you make your way to Heliconia Ranch aboard your coach.

• Talk with a rancher to find out what circumstances have led to deforestation in Costa Rica
• Make your own contribution to reforestation efforts by planting a native tree at the ranch
• Enjoy lunch at the ranch, with dishes featuring lamb, chicken, rice, beans, coffee, and other items and ingredients grown or produced on-site
• Watch traditional Costa Rican dances performed by the ranch’s staff

This afternoon, head to a nearby coffee plantation to learn about the history and production of coffee, as well as chocolate and sugarcane, in Costa Rica.

• Get to know different kinds of coffee beans and roasting techniques, and sample a freshly brewed cup made from the plantation’s own beans
• Discover how cocoa is cultivated and transformed into various types of chocolate treats
• Try your hand at making drinking chocolate, and sample ready-to-eat chocolate made on-site
• Watch a farmer or plantation worker cut and press stalks of sugarcane to extract fresh juice, and enjoy a refreshing taste

Join your Tour Director for a hike through Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve, a haven for birdwatchers. Be on the lookout for 30 hummingbird species, as well as toucans, great green macaws, three-wattled bellbirds, resplendent quetzals, black-faced solitaires, and other hard-to-spot bird species.

• Learn about, and keep a lookout for, the forest’s array of flora and fauna, including orchids, ferns, millipedes, tarantulas, and more
• Walk through the misty forest as you explore this rare ecosystem, which gets its name from the constant cloud coverage

Please note: Travelers should be able to hike around two miles over wet, and potentially slippery, pathways.

Enjoy free time in the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve or Monteverde, or add an excursion.

Later, head to a local restaurant for an included dinner served with beer or wine.

Travel to San José, stopping along the way to tour a wildlife sanctuary

• Learn about the company’s mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and release Costa Rican wildlife
• Set off on a walk around the property with a local guide to see jaguars, ocelots, monkeys, tapirs, white-tailed deer, and macaws
• Discover the importance of conservation in Costa Rica as you hear the stories of how the animals arrived at the ranch

Head to a local restaurant to enjoy live music, dancing, and scenic vistas as you celebrate your trip during a farewell dinner.

Transfer to the airport for your flight home or extend your stay in Costa Rica to explore Manuel Antonio.