Grand Tour of Costa Rica: From the Caribbean to the Pacific

Welcome to Costa Rica! Touch down in San José and transfer to your hotel. Settle in, then meet your group in the evening over a light dinner, served with your choice of beer or wine.

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

Make your way from your hotel to a local farm and discover one of Costa Rica’s finest exports—coffee. Regarded as some of the best in the world thanks to a Goldilocks combination of growing conditions, Costa Rican coffee accounts for close to 8% of the country’s gross domestic product.

• Tour a family-owned estate to learn how coffee cherries yield coffee beans, and how those pips—after a multi-step process of cleaning and roasting—eventually become the flavorful drink in your mug each morning.
• Learn how the estate protects and preserves the biodiversity of the area, and how it employs traditional methods to cultivate its crop.
• Indulge in a tasting of some of the farm’s coffees, then sit down to a welcome lunch and continue getting to know your fellow travelers.

Afterward, continue on to the Toucan Rescue Ranch. Dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of native wildlife, this nonprofit organization looks after toucans, sloths, and other animals. Join a rancher for a guided walk of the grounds, hear the stories of the various creatures in their care, and come to a better understanding of the importance of conservation in Costa Rica.

What better way to get to know authentic Costa Rica than through its traditional food and dance? Kick up your heels with an optional excursion that highlights the local folklore. Or, if you’d prefer, use your free time this evening to explore some of San José’s modern and colonial architecture.

Today, journey to the 16th-century city of Cartago—the first colonial settlement successfully established on Costa Rican soil. Upon arrival, join your Tour Director for some guided sightseeing.

• Visit the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, a uniquely designed Roman Catholic basilica that combines both colonial and Byzantine elements. Built in 1639, it predates the founding of Costa Rica by almost 200 years.
• Explore the Santiago Apóstol Parish Ruins—a half-completed, 150-year-old church that now anchors a public park—and end with a walk through the bustling Central Market.
• Make your way through the Central Valley, Costa Rica’s stunning heartland, to Irazú Volcano National Park. Then, set off for a leisurely trail walk around its namesake attraction. Called “El Coloso,” or “The Colossus,” by the locals, Irazú towers over 11,000 feet above sea level, making it the tallest active volcano in the country.
• Stop at viewing platforms to soak in the beauty of the volcano’s massive main crater and the brilliant green lagoon at its center.

Continue to your hotel in the Turrialba region, an area known for its pre-Columbian ruins, volcanic activity, and beautiful rural countryside. After settling into your hotel, sit down with your group for an included dinner, served with your choice of beer or wine.

Costa Rica has tirelessly worked on reforestation projects and environmental conservation in an effort to reverse the mass deforestation activity from 1940 to 1989, which resulted in the loss of half of their mature forests. Today you’ll have the opportunity to take part in planting native species of trees in partnership with a local organization dedicated to revitalizing the country’s forests.

Please note: Travelers should wear clothes that they don’t mind getting dirty during today’s activity.

You don’t have to have a sweet tooth to join the optional excursion to a cacao-producing farm. You’ll tour the family-owned property to learn about the harvest, enjoy a fresh, farm-to-table lunch, and, of course, a hands-on opportunity to craft your own chocolate delights.

Alternatively, use your free afternoon to visit local markets to shop for handicrafts or pack a lunch and head toward one of the area’s manicured parks such as the CATIE Botanical Garden.

As you make your way to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, stop at the mysterious Guayabo National Monument—a significant archaeological site containing ancient ruins—to learn more about the area’s pre-Columbian history. (And there’s plenty of history to take in: First discovered in the 1800s as the land was cleared for coffee cultivation, the site dates back more than 3,000 years.)

• Examine the remnants of an early Costa Rican civilization—petroglyphs, tombs, and impressively engineered infrastructure—only a fraction of the wonders that still lay hidden in the fertile rainforest soil.
• Hear from your Tour Director how, once upon a time, this site may have been a key regional center. Founded in 1000 B.C., it abruptly fell in 1400 A.D., when its inhabitants abandoned it for reasons that remain unknown to modern archaeologists.

Continue to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a town on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, where you’ll meet with locals who will introduce you to their culture and musical traditions.

• Find out how salsa, Costa Rica’s most popular dance, was introduced to the country. Then, hit the dance floor to learn some basic steps and spins to the tune of traditional salsa music.
• Trace the roots of Afro-Caribbean music back to West and Central Africa and discover how it arrived in Latin America via the transatlantic slave trade. Then, play some beats of your own during a hands-on drum lesson.

Tonight, gather with your group for an included dinner, served with your choice of beer or rum punch.

Use your free day today to head to one of the nearby beaches like Playa Cocles or Punta Uva for surfing or snorkeling—you can always ask your Tour Director for a great recommendation—or join an immersive optional excursion to the Salamanca Mountains. Here, you’ll get to immerse yourself in the culture of one of Costa Rica’s indigenous peoples—the Bribri.

Head back north to the Sarapiquí Region, an important ecotourism destination replete with lush nature preserves, thriving wildlife, and flourishing farms. Upon arrival, savor an included lunch before visiting an organic pineapple plantation and learning about sustainable and eco-friendly practices unique to the area.

• Climb aboard a tractor for a guided tour of the farm and its sprawling fields.
• Learn how the farmers grow pineapples using eco-friendly methods, like compost fertilization and crop rotation, and why they use natural herbicides to protect their harvest.
• Nibble on freshly sliced pineapple and sip fresh juice or a homemade piña colada. (You can enjoy yours virgin or with an added splash of rum.)

Transfer to your hotel and enjoy free time for the rest of the day to relax or explore the area.

Today, head towards the Nicaraguan border and disembark at the Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. Encompassing an area of over 25,000 acres, this wetland preserve plays a key role in the annual migration of birds like storks, ibis, and cormorants.

• Hop aboard a boat with an expert guide and set off through the wetlands, keeping an eye out for endangered species like the anhinga bird, the guapote fish, jaguars, and the emerald basilisk.
• Cruise the peaceful Caño Negro wetlands as your guide points out some of the 200 bird species that call the refuge home, as well as the other flora and fauna that populate its rainforests and pastures.

Later, enjoy an included lunch at a local restaurant before enjoying free time in the Sarapiquí Region for the rest of the day.

Before departing the Sarapiquí Region, head to the 850-acre Tirimbina Biological Reserve for a morning walking tour. Classed by the Costa Rican government as a Private National Wildlife Refuge, this nonprofit organization conducts environmental research and stresses the importance of conservation.

• With a naturalist guide, set out along part of Tirimbina’s nine-kilometer (5.6 mile) trail network. Learn how the reserve was specifically created as an eco-lodge and research station, and why it provides free environmental education to local communities.
• Spot toucans, howler monkeys, sloths, and more wildlife as you walk. Then, cross over the longest suspension bridge in Costa Rica, spanning a 650-foot gap over the Sarapiquí River below for a heart-stopping view of the rainforest canopy.

Continue to the Arenal Region, a place known for its dazzling volcano, ample hiking trails, rushing waterfalls, and beautiful scenery.

Soak the day away in hot springs kept warm by the Arenal Volcano on an optional excursion that includes dinner with volcano views, naturally. Prefer to spend the free evening on your own? Ask your Tour Director about any local festivals or cultural events happening during your stay, or wait for nightfall and enjoy epic stargazing—the Arenal area is known for its dark skies and celestial views.

Enjoy a free morning to explore the Arenal Region at your own pace, or add an optional excursion to get even closer to the iconic Arenal Volcano, this time from Lake Arenal. Board a kayak and join your guide for a paddle through magical coves and lagoons as wildlife hums all around you.

This afternoon, visit an eco-friendly farm in La Fortuna, a picturesque town with a jaw-dropping view of the Arenal Volcano, for an included lunch.

• Dig into a farm-to-table meal, created using fresh ingredients harvested onsite as well as local dairy products.
• Explore the grounds with a guide and learn how it became the first carbon-negative community of its kind in Costa Rica.

Continue through the country’s volcano region and set out on a guided walk through Tenorio Volcano National Park. The nearly 5,000-square-mile park boasts astounding biodiversity within its rainforests, such as white-faced monkeys, pumas, orchids, palm trees, and other flora and fauna.

• Join your Tour Director for a walk along the milky blue Rio Celeste, and see where two mineral-rich volcanic streams come together to give the river its distinctive turquoise color.
• View the famous—and powerful—Rio Celeste waterfall from above, or walk down a series of stairs for a closer look from a dedicated viewpoint.

Settle into your hotel on the Guanacaste coast: a mecca for surfers, hikers, and sunbathers that’s home to some of Costa Rica’s most sought-after beaches and landscapes.

Spend a free day relaxing along the Guanacaste coast or add an excursion to log some time on—and in—its gorgeous waters.

This evening, celebrate your trip with your fellow travelers at a farewell dinner, served with your choice of beer or wine.

Transfer to the Liberia airport for your flight home, or experience an unexpectedly different side of Costa Rica by extending your trip to Rincón de la Vieja where Costa Rica’s northeastern region can continue to enchant you with an unparalleled landscape, inviting hot springs, and a resort stay you won’t want to leave.