Costa Rica Tours have plenty to offer visitors in terms of cultural learning opportunities, natural beauty, intense biodiversity and fantastic resorts.
The one thing that you are sure to find when taking a tour of Costa Rica is variety. There are many different micro climates if what you want is a particular temperature. These micro climates play to all types of tastes when planning Costa Rica vacations. The beaches, mountains, coffee plantations, museums, cultural centers and many more give the traveler many choices.
Adventures in Costa Rica may consist of canopy zip-lining, river rafting, horseback rides, surfing tours, parasailing, guided hikes, canyoning (often consisting of a ropes course with rappelling, climbing and hiking involved) and so on. The incredible Pacific shoreline has world class breaks for any wave riders that want to ride the crest or cut through them via kite-boards, kayaks or other watercrafts. Sport fishing tours are also popular haunts for visitors to some of the beaches and bays that are found along the coasts of Guanacaste Province and Puntarenas Province.
You will find some very fine establishments in Costa Rica that seek to pamper their valued guests. Hotels and resorts such as El Establo in Monteverde, Baldi Hot Springs Resort in La Fortuna or the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cariari certainly fall into that category. These establishments carry various extravagances such as spas, hot spring retreats, in room masseuses, fine dining opportunities and the like.
If you already have your accommodations booked, but are looking for a little more, then day tours of river rafting adventures, cultural events and artistic workshops, canopy tours or more may be the way to go. Day tours usually start early in the morning when you are picked up from your hotel. The qualified guides, drivers and photographers will take you out for the day of various adventures, coffee plantation tours or cultural musings, and lunch and dinner are often a part of the experience.
The capital of San Jose or the old capital of Cartago have various attractions that can entice visitors. In San Jose, you will find many museums including the National Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, the Children’s Museum, the National Theater (a concert hall and museum) and many more. In Cartago, tourists can head to the Ruins of Cartago, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels or other important religious locations.
There are 1,290 km of coastline on the Pacific and Caribbean Coasts where one beautiful beach after the next meets the warm waters of Costa Rica. The proximity to the equator is at least part of the reason why the ocean water in Costa Rica maintains such a refreshing temperature. When looking at Costa Rica tours on Tripadvisor, beaches are sure to play a featured roll. A few beaches to put on your list of places that you simply must visit would look like this:
Playa Bejuco
Playa Conchal
Playa Samara
Playa Cocles
Montezuma
Manuel Antonio
There is plenty of forest to trek through in Costa Rica. Cloud forests and rain forests make up much of the topography, which are often found in tour reviews of Costa Rica, but there is still more than that. There are nationally preserved wetlands on both coasts where baby sea turtles are born and head out to sea from. The arid inland Guanacaste National Park is almost like a desert in the midst of lush tropical environments and volcanoes.
The National Parks in Costa Rica are some of the best places to get a glimpse of the grandeur that is biodiversity in Costa Rica. These are a few of the National Parks:
Manuel Antonio National Park
Arenal Volcano National Park
Rincon de la Vieja Volcano National Park
Tortuguero National Park
Palo Verde National Park
Santa Rosa National Park
For Costa Rica tours you will certainly want to bring some particular items. Sun screen, a bathing suit, a rain jacket, hiking boots and after sun lotion are items that you are likely to put on your list right from the start, but there are a few things that you may have missed when planning your trip. Take a look at some of our packing tips for more information.
You will need to have a passport and an outward bound ticket when visiting Costa Rica, so be sure to prepare accordingly. The outward bound ticket doesn’t have to be a return ticket. If you want to carry on with your journey via a cruise, a bus trip to Nicaragua or Panama or a flight to some other destination, you are free to do so.
The high season for Costa Rica Tours is from the end of December to around the middle of May, because the rains have all left Costa Rica. This is not the time of year to find the best deals, though. The beaches will be packed, and the volcanoes, wildlife reserves, national parks and mountains will have higher numbers of foot traffic, tour buses, rental cars etc. as people hustle and bustle about the country.
The low season begins as the rain starts to fall in Costa Rica, but it isn’t a constant deluge where you never see the sun. The rain seems to fall primarily in the afternoon for only a little while. After it passes, the rivers are full, the plants are lush, the animals are singing and the higher numbers of tourists are not found in such great numbers. The deals are better, as well. You might be able to find a price drop on hotels, tours, rental cars and more in the realm of twenty to thirty percent less than in the high season.
It depends on where you are coming from. If you are traveling from the middle of the United States to Costa Rica, your flight time could be about 6 to 8 hours depending on the number of stops you have. If you are traveling to Costa Rica from the west coast, you might be at Juan Santmaria International Airport or Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport in Liberia within three or four hours.
