Costa Rica

Costa Rica made a bet decades ago that its wilderness was worth more alive than logged, and that bet has paid off with a generosity that borders on the absurd. This is a country that contains roughly five percent of the world’s biodiversity in an area smaller than West Virginia. Sloths hang from cecropia trees. Toucans cross the road like commuters. Humpback whales breach off both coastlines. The density of life here — per square metre, per hour spent looking — is unmatched anywhere I have traveled that does not require a bush plane to reach.

The cloud forests of Monteverde are the headline act, and justifiably so. Walking through a cloud forest is an experience that resists description — you are inside the cloud, the trees are draped in epiphytes and orchids, the resplendent quetzal flashes iridescent green through the mist, and the whole ecosystem operates on a frequency that feels ancient and fragile and defiant all at once. But Costa Rica has range beyond the famous reserves. The Osa Peninsula is raw Pacific jungle, home to scarlet macaws and tapirs. Tortuguero, on the Caribbean side, is a maze of canals and nesting sea turtles accessible only by boat or small plane.

The two coastlines offer genuinely different experiences. The Pacific side — Guanacaste, Nicoya — is drier, sunnier, with surf breaks and beach towns that range from developed to delightfully scruffy. The Caribbean coast — Puerto Viejo, Cahuita — is wetter, wilder, culturally Afro-Caribbean, with reef snorkelling and a rhythm that operates on its own generous interpretation of time.

When to go: December through April is dry season on the Pacific side and the most popular window. The Caribbean coast follows its own weather logic — September and October are often its driest months. Green season (May to November) means afternoon rain, lower prices, and lusher landscapes. The wildlife does not check the calendar.

What most guides get wrong: They overpack the itinerary. Costa Rica is small on a map but slow on the ground — mountain roads wind, gravel tracks demand patience, and the distances between coasts involve more driving than you expect. Pick two or three regions and explore them properly rather than racing between six.