Hidden Gems of Costa Rica Vacation

Today, you will keep your hiking boots in the room and set off on horseback. Horses allow you to cover relatively large distances. You will weave upon hilly and muddy trails before they open up to flatter, lowland pastures. Traveling on horseback also allows for more wildlife encounters, especially with the hundreds of bird species that call the national park home. After a morning on the forest floor, you will spend the afternoon ziplining about the forest canopy. The high wire course is relatively new and far off-the-beaten-track. When returning to the hacienda by road, you will stop at a set of hot mineral springs.

You can call today’s adventure spelunking. In reality, a trip to Barra Honda National Park and Terciopelo will be a genuine caving expedition. After descending, you will walk with flashlights and continue to the waterfalls of La Cascada, where you will emerge from the darkness to be met by Costa Rica’s hot and humid midday climate. Midday can be a challenging time to be outdoors in Costa Rica, so it will be a great time to be traveling between destinations. It is better to keep the cooler morning and afternoon hours for the activities. From Barra Honda National Park to Montezuma, it is a three-hour drive. After checking into your beachside lodge in Montezuma, the rest of the afternoon will be at your leisure.

The Montezuma area will be your off-the-beaten-track alternative to Manuel Antonio National Park. Today’s private tour will lead you inland to Montezuma Waterfall. You can hike to the waterfall, but the canopy tour is better. Similar to day two, you will zipline through the trees and enjoy spectacular views across the changing landscape. This morning activity will be followed by some downtime at your lodge before a short afternoon horseback ride to El Chorro Falls. This tour will be all about timing, and your guide will aim to have you back on the beach just before sunset.

On a private and customizable day-tour in Cabo Blanco, you can choose to hike the park’s main trail that weaves and winds toward Playa Balsita, which is a beach that hardly ever sees footprints. Another means of accessing remote beaches is by kayak. Your guide will bring snorkeling equipment with the kayaks, and you can paddle along the reserve’s coastline. With a full day, it can be possible to combine both hiking and kayaking, although this will not allow too much time to savor the beaches. Most visitors prefer to choose one or the other of these activities.

Traveling to Playa Zancudo will be an adventure, and you may initially think that the journey is not worth the effort, but venturing off-the-beaten-path usually means that the journey is more memorable than the destination. You will fly in a light aircraft from Tambor to Golfito before switching to a boat for a charming transfer through saltwater mangroves. Playa Zancudo is remote, and it will take some time to get there; however, your boat transfer will be more like a boat tour, and you will arrive at an open lagoon, where your lodge will be tucked away beneath a rainforest landscape. The afternoon will be at your leisure.

Playa Zancudo remains an undiscovered beach town. You will be staying on the water, but this entire, 8-day adventure is completely customizable, so you can opt for staying further south at a jungle lodge. You can also choose to extend your stay with more nights in Playa Zancudo. This day will be left free, so you can have a guide arrange activities locally. After six busy days, you may choose to do nothing other than lazing on a beach and swimming in the saltwater lagoon. Sportfishing will be one option for the morning or afternoon. This area is also a haven for surfers with four consistent breaks that offer something for a variety of ability levels.

From Playa Zancudo, you will transfer back to Golfito by boat, which is a journey that will provide you with a final memory of your time in Costa Rica. Ten years from now, all your destinations may be busy with tourists, but over the last week, you will have explored parts of Central America that are yet to gain popularity despite their beautiful appeal.