Costa Rica spans overs 19,700 square miles and is roughly the size of West Virginia. You can easily spend two weeks traveling in Costa Rica if you wish to hit all ends of the country. If you only have about a week or a little more, here are some ideas of what you can see/do in that time. My boyfriend and I recently traveled to Costa Rica in June 2022. Due to our trip being only nine days, we decided to focus our itinerary on the northern and central regions of Costa Rica. Therefore, this blog post will share everything we saw during our nine day trip, and does not include things to do in the southern and Caribbean regions of the country.
The Regions of Costa Rica
Costa Rica is comprised of seven different regions or provinces: Guanacaste, Alajuela, Heredia, Limon, Puntarenas, Cartago and San José. Each region offers varying climates, scenery and landscapes. While it isn’t impossible to see all of the regions during a nine day or even one week trip, you would be missing out on some things and most likely having to rush your activities and sightseeing. We personally wanted to focus on doing more in the northern half of the country for this trip, but if we had a few more days here, definitely would have checked out some attractions in the southern and Caribbean regions.
When is the Best Time to Visit Costa Rica
The best time to visit Costa Rica is during their dry season, which is December through April. We visited in June which is during their rainy season, and it definitely rained a lot! We dealt with rain everyday of our trip, although noticed that it tends to be dryer in the morning and early afternoons, and rainy in the late afternoon/night. Overall, the rain didn’t stop us from sightseeing or partaking in activities, although we did get wet sometimes during our walks to dinner, around towns, and hikes. I recommend packing a light raincoat, umbrella, and waterproof hiking shoes or sneakers when traveling to Costa Rica.
Day 1
Arrive to San José & Pick Up Rental Car
We flew into the Juan Santamaría International Airport located in San José, the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. We arrived very early in the morning and began our trip from here. I recommend renting a 4×4 SUV as the roads are not the best in some parts of the country. We dealt with very rocky roads, steep ascents, lots of intense potholes etc…
We found a relatively affordable (about $350 for 9 days) rental car from Green Motion, which is owned by Toyota. If you plan to rent a car from Green Motion’s Alajuela Airport location like we did, I would call prior to see if they can shuttle you from the airport to their office, so that you can avoid paying a taxi fee to get there. Their office where you will pick up the rental car is not directly attached to the airport and is a 5-10 minute drive away. I also want to note that they shuttled us for free to the airport after returning our car.
Once you’ve picked up your rental car, you can begin your exploring! Here is how we chose to see the country over the next nine days. This itinerary allows you to see a lot of the main points in the northern and central regions of Costa Rica, and is mainly discussing things to do in the San José, Guanacaste and Alajuela Regions.
Drive from San José to La Fortuna
The drive from San José to La Fortuna is about 2.5-3 hours, and this is the first stop we made on our trip. Since we prefer budget travel, we stayed at hostels during our vacation. We got a private room with private bathroom for two nights at the Arenal Hostel Resort (also called the Arenal Poshtel). We enjoyed this place and it is conveniently located in the heart of downtown La Fortuna where you can find restaurants, shops, a pharmacy etc… They offer free wifi, AC, a bar with a small pool and more.
Eat in La Fortuna & Visit the Hanging Bridges
We arrived to La Fortuna around 1pm, ate lunch at Jungle Bowls and checked into the hostel. I recommend Jungle Bowls for breakfast/lunch if you like smoothie bowls, and it is only a few minutes walk from the hostel. The bowls are sizable and delicious, and gave us great energy for a day of hiking and exploring! Around 2pm, we drove from La Fortuna to Mistico Park for a self-guided tour of the Arenal Hanging Bridges. The entrance fee to walk the hanging bridges at Mistico Park is $26/pp.
We chose to do the hanging bridges at Mistico Park over Sky Adventures Park because it is less expensive. You can take a look at the Sky Adventures website here and see which park you prefer to do the hanging bridges at. Sky Adventures seems to be very popular for families with younger children, and also offers other activities such as ziplining, a sky tram and more.
Doing the hanging bridges at Mistico Park will take roughly 2-2.5 hours, and the views are incredible. I highly recommend checking this place out, and think it is worth the money! We saw monkeys swinging from tree to tree above us which was a cool bonus! There is also a little waterfall here, and overall, this place is beautiful and offers great photo opportunities.
Dinner in La Fortuna
After finishing our self-guided tour at Mistico Park, we drove thirty minutes back to the hostel in La Fortuna, cleaned up and went to dinner in town. We had incredible sushi at Kappa Sushi, and I highly recommend this restaurant in La Fortuna. Grab a sweet treat at Chocolate Fusión, a local bakery with ice cream, fresh pastries/cakes, and chocolates.
DAY 2
Breakfast & Hiking to the La Fortuna Waterfall
I recommend getting an early start to the day and grabbing breakfast in La Fortuna before heading out to explore the Arenal Volcano. We got smoothie bowls again at Jungle Bowls. After breakfast, drive less than ten minutes to the La Fortuna Waterfall (Catarata La Fortuna) and begin your adventures for the day.
Admission to hike to La Fortuna Waterfall is $18/pp, and I recommend wearing a bathing suit and water shoes if you plan to go swimming. The trek up and down to the waterfall is an intense workout as it is all stairs. After walking down the roughly 500 steps, you will enjoy a picturesque view of the La Fortuna Waterfall. There is also a more calm area for swimming down there if you do not want to climb on slippery rocks to get into the water. I took a lot of photos here and got pretty wet from the sidelines as the force from the waterfall is intense and creates a splash zone. The rocks are slippery near the water, which is why you may prefer water shoes, but it is totally up to you. Give yourself at least 1-2+ hours here as the hike to the waterfall will take on average 15-20 minutes each way depending on your pace, and you will probably want to swim and take photos.
Hiking at Arenal Volcano National Park
After hiking the La Fortuna waterfall, you can drive 20-30 minutes to the entrance of Arenal Volcano National Park (Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal), where you will be asked to pay $15/pp to enter. There are two sectors of the park that you will have access to park in and hike from: the Lava Fields sector and the Peninsula sector. Your ticket is for a one-time entry only, so if you want to visit both sectors of the park, you will need to go within the same day or pay again the following day to return.
The Lava Fields sector is the most popular and easy to drive to. We parked in the lot and began our hike. You can do the Lava Flow Trail (Coladas de Lava) which is an easy hike that takes you to a beautiful vista of the Arenal Volcano and Arenal Lake in the distance. This trail took about an hour to complete round trip and if you are lucky like we were, you will get a nice clear view of the volcano with no clouds. Read more about the trails here.
After hiking back to the parking lot, we drove on a very rough and difficult road to the Peninsula Sector. You definitely need a good 4×4 car for this drive! There is a small lot here and facilities, and we did an easy, relatively quick hike to Arenal Lake, which has some nice view points along the way. After hiking at Arenal Volcano National Park for a few hours, you can unwind at the Tabacon Hot Springs Thermal Resort for the evening.
Dinner & Hot Springs at Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa
We booked a night pass at the famous Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa which costs $75/pp and includes a nice dinner at their restaurant. This is a nice way to unwind after a day of hiking and experience some of Costa Rica’s natural hot springs. If you want to splurge on accommodations, you can also choose to stay here during your stay in La Fortuna/Arenal, but we were fine with just going for the day.
The night pass gives you access to the hot springs from 6-10pm and dinner is included during that timeframe. You need a change of clothes for dinner and they provide showers, towels and lockers here. The food we ate was delicious, and we were able to choose an appetizer, entree and small dessert. Due to the sun setting very early in June in Costa Rica (around 6pm), it was unfortunately very dark at the resort when we visited, so we didn’t get to see what it looks like during the day. None-the-less, it was still very cool and relaxing. Day passes with lunch are also available to purchase if you prefer to go during the day and maybe get some pictures.
DAY 3
Breakfast in La Fortuna
Grab breakfast in La Fortuna; we went to a local soda for a typical Costa Rican breakfast of gallo pinto and eggs. After breakfast, you can drive about 1.5 hours to Tenorio Volcano National Park, where you can enjoy another beautiful hike.
Hike to Rio Celeste at Tenorio Volcano National Park
There is a parking lot at Tenorio Volcano National Park where you can access the visitor center to purchase tickets for the hike, as well as use the facilities. Tickets to enter Tenorio Volcano National Park are $12/pp. Here you can hike to the vibrant blue Rio Celeste, the Blue Lagoon, and more lookouts. The hike is moderate and I recommend wearing hiking shoes. The terrain is rocky at times, and tends to be wet/muddy from the constant rain.
I would give yourself around 2-3 hours to be here if you want to hit all the viewpoints and go to the end of the trail. The view of the waterfall at Rio Celeste is beautiful and the colors are very vibrant, making it a unique photo opportunity. There are a good amount of stairs you need to walk down to get to the waterfall and then back up to continue on the trail, so this may feel like a more intense workout.
Drive from Tenorio to Accomodations
We chose to stay at a hostel in a very remote area for the night as we were in between major towns we wanted to visit. We drove about 1.5 hours on some pretty rough, rocky and steep roads through the mountains to get to our hostel for the night. The drive was extremely scenic and it was raining while we did it, and we were definitely thankful for our 4×4 car. We stayed at the Paraiso Volcano Lodge for the night and overall, didn’t do to much sightseeing this day. Between the hours of driving and hiking at Tenorio, this took up our whole day three. We grabbed dinner at The Volcano restaurant which is about a ten minute drive from the lodge.
The Paraiso Volcano lodge is not in a downtown area and there are no restaurants or stores in walking distance. You will need to drive 10-15 minutes to get into the nearest town which is called Guayabal.
DAY 4
Drive to Tamarindo Beach
On day 4, we departed the Paraiso Volcano Lodge and started our 2.5+ hour drive to the beach town of Tamarindo. We were going to hike at Rincón de la Vieja National Park in the morning/early afternoon this day, but decided not to. This roughly 34,000 acre national park is about an hour drive from the Paraiso Volcano Lodge, and offers hiking trails and scenic vistas. It is a highly rated park that seems to be worth checking out, but we were tired and wanted to just go straight to the beach instead. I recommend looking into this if you plan to visit.
We made a pitstop on our way to Tamarindo, about an hour and fifteen minutes into our drive, at Ticoffia Cafe for a late breakfast. This cafe has very friendly service and delicious food. They classify themselves as more of a health food establishment, and we really enjoyed the food here. This is some of the best avocado toast with eggs I’ve had – so delicious! They have coffees and blended drinks, and make for a great breakfast/lunch spot. From Ticoffia Cafe, the drive to Tamarindo is about another hour and fifteen minutes.
Check into Accomodations in Tamarindo
We stayed at the Villas Macando located in the heart of Tamarindo, and enjoyed our unit. This place is affordable and you are in walking distance to many restaurants, shops, and the beach. Villas Macando features free wifi, AC, a private bathroom, and access to their pool. Tamarindo is a more touristy area and a nice place the relax in the middle of your trip.
Lunch & Dinner in Tamarindo
We stayed in Tamarindo for two nights and it is a pretty chill beach town. After checking into your accommodations, I recommend looking into all the restaurants in the area to see which cuisine you would prefer. There are a lot of options for dining here, and we chose to grab smoothie bowls for lunch at Costa Juice, which were yummy and refreshing. After lunch we walked along the beach and noticed quite a few people riding horses on the sand which was interesting.
For dinner, I recommend Lucha Libre for Mexican food and tacos. The churros are also delicious here, and perfectly crispy!
DAY 5
Relaxing Beach Day in Tamarindo
Unfortunately it was raining when we visited, so it was a little hard to have the perfect beach day, but if you visit in the dry season, you should be set for a relaxing beach day. We still made the most of it and enjoyed having a more chill vacation day. I recommend grabbing breakfast or lunch at Breaking Bread, which is a cafe inspired by the famous TV show Breaking Bad. The food is amazing, especially the bread. They have sandwiches, focaccia, smoothies, shakshuka and more.
For dinner we checked out El Mercadito de Tamarindo which is home to numerous eateries and food options such as pizza, pasta, poke bowls, sushi and more. We chose the poke bowls and they were pretty good.
DAY 6
Drive to Monteverde
On day 6, we drove about 3.5 hours to Monteverde where we spent the following two days exploring the cloud forests, doing a chocolate tour, and doing more hanging bridges/hikes. I highly recommend checking out the Monteverde area as it is truly so cool with the low clouds and views. We stayed at the OutBox Inn which is an affordable hostel with both dorm-style rooms and private rooms. The hostel is very clean and we were satisfied with our stay here. We chose a private room with a private bathroom, and the location of this hostel is in the main downtown of Monteverde. You can walk to nearby eateries and stores within the relatively small town.
Do a Chocolate, Coffee & Sugar Tour
We grabbed a quick lunch at The Choco Café and then headed off to our next activity. We booked an afternoon (around 1pm) chocolate, coffee and sugar tour with Don Juan Coffee Tours. This 3-in-1 tour lasts around 1.5 hours and is very informative. We had a tour guide and just a few tourists in our group. During the tour, you will be able to sample different forms of fresh cacao and chocolate, coffee and sugar cane. You will also be shown, hands on, how they create and process the beans. I found the experience to be very interactive and fun. Not to mention, the chocolate tastes amazing and super fresh! Tickets for the 3-in-1 tour can be purchased here.
Dinner in Monteverde
Due to the torrential rain following our chocolate tour, we decided not to do much or find any nearby hikes after, but you can definitely look into this. We hung out at the hostel, walked around the town, and then got dinner at a local restaurant. If you are looking for a juicy burger, I recommend dinner at The Green. They also serve up some yummy churros with ice cream.
DAY 7
Breakfast in Monteverde
We grabbed breakfast at Orchid Coffee which is a very quick walk from the OutBox Inn. They offer a decent selection of breakfast foods such as eggs, pancakes, french toast, waffles, breads, typical Costa Rican food and more. They also offer salads, sandwiches etc… for lunch.
Ziplining in the Monteverde Cloud Forest
If you are an adventure seeker, I highly recommend doing a ziplining tour in the Monteverde cloud forest. There are a few different places that offer packages for this, and we loved our tour with 100% Aventura Park. Since it tends to be sunnier in the morning and rainy in the late afternoon/evening, I recommend booking a morning tour. The tour start times are either 8am, 11am or 2pm, and they last 2-3 hours. We did the Monteverde Zip Line Canopy Tour which costs $54/pp, and includes nine regular ziplines, two superman ziplines, 1 hammock bridge, 1 rappel, 1 mega Tarzan swing.
We felt very safe the entire duration of our tour, and the people working here are super friendly. If you have a GoPro, I recommend bringing it as they can attach it to your helmet. You will need to use both hands for this, so don’t expect to take videos on your phone while on the zipline. Unless you have secure pockets that zip closed, you will need to put personal belongings in a locker or in your car.
Lunch and Dinner in Monteverde
After ziplining, you’ll want to refuel with some food. If you want to keep it affordable and simple, you can get a quick meal of rice and chicken dishes and/or empanadas from Raulito’s Pollo Asado. The portions are massive and the prices are pretty cheap. There are other eatery options in town if you prefer something different.
We were still full from the lunch this day and didn’t go out to dinner this night. Instead we got a few snacks from the grocery store in town and chilled in the hostel room. Due to the rain and us feeling tired after ziplining, we didn’t do any other activities this day. You can look into adding a hike in this day, especially if you do the 8am ziplining tour.
DAY 8
Hanging Bridge & Hiking at Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve
Another recommended activity to do while in Monteverde is to check out one or more of the hanging bridges/hikes. We went with a self-guided tour at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve which costs $25/pp, plus $5 to park the car in their lot. We parked the car and they shuttled us up to the main area where you can purchase tickets and begin the hike.
This park features one iconic, red hanging bridge and many hiking trails. The views are unique and at times we couldn’t see in the near distance due to being in a literal cloud. You can easily spend 1.5-3 hours here depending on how much you want to hike and your pace. Check out this blog post on all of the hanging bridge options in Monteverde. I recommend choosing at least one of them.
Drive Back to San José & Dinner
The drive from Monteverde to the city of San José will take over 3-4 hours depending on how bad the traffic is in the city. The drive is mostly on a main highway once you are out of Monteverde and the surrounding area. We arrived to San José in the evening and went straight to dinner at Pasta Pronto Express y Catering which serves delicious Italian food. I recommend this restaurant if you are looking for some decent pasta in the city. I enjoyed the carbonara and they gave us a few complimentary dishes as we were waiting for our entrees to come out. The staff are super friendly here, and the prices are reasonable.
Check into Accommodations in San José
We stayed at Eco Stay which is a relatively new hostel in the city of San José. We booked a private room with private bathroom and found it to be clean and generally comfortable. They also have a private parking lot to park your rental car. We had no problems with this place and found it to be great for the price.
DAY 9
Breakfast in San José
Day nine was the final day of our travels in Costa Rica, and we had a red eye flight that night around 10pm. We began the day with a delicious breakfast at Franco; a cute and trendy breakfast/lunch cafe in the city. It is about a fifteen minute walk from Eco Stay hostel, and the food is very fresh tasting. They serve egg dishes, breads, fresh pastries, smoothies, and more. I highly recommend coming here while in San José.
Walk Around the City
After getting a bite to eat, there is plenty of walking you can do around the city. I recommend checking out the National Museum of Costa Rica (Museo Nacional de Costa Rica). Tickets are $11/pp and you can easily spend over an hour walking through this property. It features a butterfly garden, historical artifacts and most of the informational signs are in english and spanish. You can really learn a lot about the history of Costa Rica at this museum, and it’s especially great if you are looking for a rainy day activity in the area.
Another popular spot you can tour is the National Theatre of Costa Rica (Teatro Nacional). Both of these buildings are beautiful from the outside if you just want to walk by. Tickets are $10/pp to enter the theatre. Check out this blog post on 25 Exciting Things to do in San José.
Return Rental Car and Head to the Airport
After a day of exploring the city’s streets, restaurants and museums, it’s time to head back home. We returned our rental car to Green Motion and they gave us a free shuttle ride to the Juan Santamaría International Airport. The airport is small and we got to our gate pretty quickly. There are limited food options in the airport and a few shops where you can buy some last minute gifts. I purchased some chocolates to bring home. Overall, we had a great trip to Costa Rica! It is a truly scenic country that is exciting to explore, and great for those who enjoy some outdoor adventure!
