CENTRAL VALLEY

San José

A very busy, capital city there are a few museums, some art galleries but in all honesty little else. It is a good base for day trips but many people simply use it as an overnight base when they arrive and depart, preferring to spend their time in Costa Rica away from the bustle of city life.

Arenal Volcano

Incredible to look at but inadvisable to climb - Arenal is the most active volcano in Costa Rica. At night you can watch the orange glow of lava light up the dark, as it blows out of the top and courses down the side of the volcano. The small sleepy town of La Fortuna is a good base with distant views of the volcano whilst there are also lodges nestled much closer. You can do a night tour ending up relaxing in the Tabacon Hotsprings or various day hikes up and around the volcano, as well as visits to the nearby waterfalls (75m drop). A must for all wildlife lovers, is a visit to the remote Wildlife Refuge of Caño Negro on the Nicaraguan border. It is amongst the best places in Central America to view wetland river wildlife.

Poas Volcano

You can actually look into the crater of this volcano - it has been erupting for 11 million years and is an incredible sight. Any one of the short park trails take you past the fizzing steam vents and charred trees of this strange, eerie landscape. A wonderful way to see the volcanoes is to take a sky tour. This spectacular flight over the coffee plantations to the volcanoes surrounding San Jose swoops low over boiling craters, grey ash dunes, and green algae-filled lakes. It continues on towards the Caribbean lowlands, over banana plantations and to Tortuguero to land, or returns to San Jose.

Chirripó National Park

Most people visit this Park to conquer the peak - at 3819m. The varied terrain within the National Park ranges from rocky mountain tops to cloud forest, between which you will find páramo (high moorland) and oak forests. It is also the only place in Costa Rica where you can see a visible glacial impact on the landscape: U shaped valleys, glacial lakes and moraines (30 000 years old). The wide variety of fauna, flora and terrain make it a must for any semi-serious trekker.

Monteverde

The area of Monteverde is home to one of the last sizable pockets of primary cloudforest in Mesoamerica' . Three hours up a bumpy potholed track, this is an area for those who are looking for outdoor adventure. With four National Parks to choose from (Monteverde Reserve, Reserva Santa Elena, Reserva Sendero Tranquilo, and the Bosque Eterno de los Niños) the cloud forest is rich in every aspect of living life - 2500 species of plant, 100 different mammals, nearly 500 types of butterfly (including the Blue Morpho) and 400 bird species. The Skywalk (a walkway) allows wanderings through the forest canopy (binoculars essential), whilst the Sky Trek whizzes you through the canopy on a system of zip wires making bird spotting more difficult! These are alternatives (we think better) to the sadly overcrowded Aerial tram. The small settlement of Monteverde founded by American Quakers in the 1950’s, is famed throughout Costa Rica for its production of delicious cheeses. There are a myriad of tours to choose from ranging from horse riding to remote waterfalls to tours around the cheese factory.