The Puntarenas province is a hop, skip and a jump from San Jose city, and Carara National Park awaits visitors with a picturesque tropical rainforest on the coast.

Carara remains one of the more popular of the national parks in Costa Rica thanks to its proximity to San Jose, and its number of tourist related opportunities in the park. It is easy to find guides that can take you to see just what Carara has to offer. Carara National Park is important, not only for tourism, but also for its historical significance. The park maintains two geological sites that date as far back as 300 BC, and are telling locales of the indigenous and pre-Colombian inhabitants.

The smaller towns of Tarcoles, San Luis and Carara encompass the park, and further out can be found Santiago de Puriscal, San Pablo, Orotina and a few more cities along the 137 and 27 roadways. The park can be reached via the Tambor Ferry from Tambor to Puntarenas, or the domestic airlines of Nature Air and Sansa Air. There are also a number of ways to find transportation to Carara National Park in Costa Rica on land, and the main entrances will need to be reached by vehicle.

You can expect to encounter a number of animals in the park. There will likely be bird enthusiasts traipsing about the park grounds. Of the avifauna in Carara, there is the scarlet macaw, the roseate spoonbill, darters, black-headed and purple trogons, the rufous-tailed jacamar, the guan, hummingbirds, the collared arcari, the black-crowned night heron and the boat-billed heron. The wildlife found on land and in the trees includes the giant anteater, the paca, the peccary, the mountain hog, the coati, armadillos, opossums, white-tailed deer, Central American agoutis, honey bears, tayras, raccoons, white-faced monkeys, two-toed sloths, gray four-eyed opossums, the puma, the jaguar and the ocelot.

Carara National Park has a transitional forest meaning that the forests can range from dry to tropical, and the flora associated with the varying ecological zones is diverse in the range of over 1,400 different plant species. A number of tree species in Carara include the ceiba, the Guanacaste, the Caribbean albizia, the red guacimo, the shortleaf fig, the guayabon, the sandbox tree, the lechoso, the purpleheart tree, the cork tree, the pochote, the blackberry tree, the goldenfruit tree and the ron ron tree. Carara National Park has many lagoons, swamps and rivers that are almost entirely covered by hovering water lilies and other water treading aquatic plants.

Among some of the items you might want to bring with you to Carara you should consider a pair of binoculars, hiking boots, a backpack, sunscreen and snacks. The park has a number of facilities nearby, so it wouldn’t be very difficult to find something that you may lack.

Location: Carara National Park
Items to bring:
Species of fauna: the scarlet macaw, the roseate spoonbill, darters, black-headed and purple trogons, the rufous-tailed jacamar, the guan, hummingbirds, the collared arcari, the black-crowned night heron, the boat-billed heron, the giant anteater, the paca, the peccary, the mountain hog, the coati, armadillos, opossums, white-tailed deer, Central American agoutis, honey bears, tayras, raccoons, white-faced monkeys, two-toed sloths, gray four-eyed opossums, the puma, the jaguar, the ocelot
Species of flora: the ceiba, the Guanacaste, the Caribbean albizia, the red guacimo, the shortleaf fig, the guayabon, the sandbox tree, the lechoso, the purpleheart tree, the cork tree, the pochote, the blackberry tree, the goldenfruit tree, the ron ron tree
Cities nearby: Tarcoles, San Luis, Carara, Santiago de Puriscal, San Pablo, Orotina
Ways to get here: Plane, Ferry, Tour Bus, Private Shuttle, Rental Car, Taxi