Costa Rica packs an absurd amount of nature into a small country. I split my time between the cloud forest at Monteverde and the Pacific coast around Nosara, which gave me both misty highland mornings and warm barefoot evenings.
Monteverde is all about the canopy. Walking the hanging bridges at dawn, with the forest dripping and invisible birds calling everywhere, is the closest I've come to feeling truly inside a rainforest rather than looking at one.
Then down to the coast, where the rhythm changed completely. Surf lessons at golden hour, howler monkeys as an alarm clock, and the kind of sunsets that empty the beach of phones because everyone just stops to watch.
Trip highlights
- Dawn on the Monteverde hanging bridges
- Surf lessons at golden hour in Nosara
- Howler monkeys waking up the jungle
- Spotting sloths and toucans on guided night walks