Two week tour of Costa Rica

Costa Rica | Jan 18 - Jan 31, 2026

We had a great time spending two weeks in Costa Rica

Highlights and best memories:

1. Frog night tour with Kendra our first night in country outside of La Fortuna.
2. Saw and heard 133 species of birds using Merlin ID app - highly recommend downloading the Costa Rica bird data
3. Saw 2- and 3-toed sloths, howler and squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, coati mundi, agouti, peccaries and skunk! Also crocodiles (at Tarcolos), iguanas, lizards, venomous snakes, tarantulas, mango crabs and wonderful small hermit crabs in all sorts of seashells at Manuel Antonio beach,
4. Excellent and memorable dinner at San Lucas Treetops in Monteverde. Also enjoyed the farm to table cooking class outside Quepos with Caesar and Crystal and the foodie tour in San Jose with Andrea. Dinner at Sikwa in San Jose and food at Hotel Guachipelin were also memorable.
5. Covered rain forest, cloud forest and dry forest habitats at La Fortuna, Tenorio, La Finca Farm, Monteverde, Santa Elena, Rincon de la Vieja and Manuel Antonio with excellent guides Kendra, Melany, Olman, Fatima, Olivier & Corey.
6. Orchid garden and hummingbird feeders at Cloud Forest Lodge and the hummingbird gallery in Monteverde; butterfly gardens in San Jose (Spirogyra and National Museum), El Jardin Orotina and Manuel Antonio.
7. National Museum, Jade Museum and Museum of Precolumbian Gold in San Jose
8. Seeing cloud forest canopy and epiphytes from a different perspective at Treetopia
9. Good choices of hotels overall with breakfast free and good dining options at almost all.
10. Good hike seeing waterfalls and hot springs on the grounds of Hotel Guachipelin with one of our favorite guides, Olivier. The Montezuma Orooendulas, Amazons and two different owls calling at night there were also memorable

Disappointing or not as enjoyable or memorable:

1. Overall, the fauna in the Cloud Forest (Monteverde, Tenorio, Santa Elena & Tretopia) was more disappointing and/or elusive than in other areas. Not sure if this was because of the time of year or our guides.
2. Snorkeling trip to Isla de Canos. The drive and boat trip took >2 hours each way and the snorkeling was not that much better than we could experience with less effort in Hawaii. Also, 1.5 hours in the water was quite tiring.
3. Not enough time to explore Papagayo beaches. Not sure that going to the coast from Rincon de la Vieja and then going back inland for a long round trip to Tenorio was the best planning.
4. Los Lagos Resort in La Fortuna was the hotel at the bottom of our list: too touristy, tired rooms and poor food. Birds on site and landscaping were good though. I think we would have enjoyed a smaller boutique hotel in town.
5. Lots of driving! Next time, we’ll stay in fewer places and drive less
6. It was REALLY, REALLY wet in La Fortuna.