Best time to visit
The best time to visit is during the dry season from December to April, when you can expect plenty of sunshine and very little rain.
ATOL protected
- ATOL protected
- Free cancellation
- Customisable trips
- Prices incl. flights
Costa Rica round trips: Monteverde, San José and Santa Teresa
Top offers for Costa Rica
Costa Rica adventure: Jungle, volcanoes and dream beaches
Picture yourself standing in the misty cloud forest of Monteverde. The air feels humid, the ground springs softly beneath your feet, a howler monkey calls somewhere nearby and a hummingbird flashes out of the lush green jungle like a flying gemstone. Welcome to Costa Rica, where nature grips you with all your senses. Further north, the earth simmers in La Fortuna as if the volcano has only just exhaled. Along the Caribbean coast, the air smells of salt, pineapple and adventure, and when the sun sets in Puerto Viejo, the waves glow like liquid gold. In Santa Teresa, lose all sense of time and space as only ebb and flow and the rush in your head remain. In Tortuguero, the rainforest whispers its own stories, and all you have to do is stay still enough to hear them.
Tips and info for your Costa Rica trip
Currency
In Costa Rica, you pay with the Costa Rican colón (CRC).
Flight time
Direct flights to San José take around 11–14 hours.
Language
The official language is Spanish, but you’ll also get by well with English in tourist areas.
What are the must-sees in Costa Rica?
Costa Rica is full of highlights, but these must-sees belong on your bucket list.
San josé: Where street art meets coffee
San José is far more than just a springboard into adventure – the capital pulses somewhere between chaos and character. Street art peels from old walls, colonial buildings cast shadows over hip cafés and the irresistible scent of empanadas drifts out of the Mercado Central. While retro buses rumble through the traffic outside, pre-Columbian treasures gleam inside the Gold Museum, silent yet echoing with powerful stories. Just an hour later, you stand at the crater of Poás, where steam rises, the ground trembles and you realise just how much raw power lies within this land.
Monteverde and La Fortuna: Costa Rica’s wild heart
Here, the wild heart of Costa Rica beats loud, alive and untamed. In La Fortuna, steam hisses from the ground as Arenal towers like a sleeping giant that could wake at any moment. Below, hot springs bubble, a waterfall thunders through the jungle and hanging bridges stretch across a sea of leaves. Howler monkeys screech, frogs flash in neon colours and somewhere a sloth hangs upside down in a tree. Further west, Monteverde draws you into its mist, damp, dense and full of secrets. Race through the green void on a zipline as a hummingbird flickers past, and at the Río Celeste the water glows so surreal that it feels as if someone has poured paint into the river. Nature is pure action here.
Pacific coast: Surf vibes and jungle adventures
Costa Rica’s Pacific coast feels like a road movie playing out in real time – full of sweeping curves and that sense of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment. Santa Teresa moves to the rhythm of the waves, the light softens at sunset and somewhere nearby the next beachfire is already crackling. Montezuma hides between palms and waterfalls, and it is a place that whispers instead of shouting. The sea in Sámara shimmers so calmly that it feels as if it wants to keep you, while Tamarindo tempts you with untamed waves and nights that turn into days. Just when you think it cannot get any better, Manuel Antonio picks up the pace with dense jungle, sloths in the canopy and trails that open up to views of the bigger picture.
Puerto Viejo: Where reggae meets wildlife
Reggae drifts from the radio, coconut hangs in the air and tyres dig into the sand as Puerto Viejo makes one thing clear: everything runs differently here. Sloths dangle above the roads like living traffic lights, surfers chase their next rush at Playa Cocles and time blurs somewhere between smoothie bars and beachfires. The route to Cahuita follows the shoreline, barefoot and accompanied by the jungle as it whispers, rustles and sometimes shouts. Further north, the world dissolves into waterways, as Tortuguero is only accessible by boat and feels wrapped in mist, mangroves and a kind of magic stillness. When a turtle digs her nest on the beach at night, even the sea seems to hold its breath for a moment.