Costa Rica | Travel Guide | Around Costa Rica | Caribbean
Costa Rica Travel Guide:
Costa Rica's Caribbean side
East from San José, the road climbs into the mountains, passing volcanoes left and right, and descends through lush rainforest on the Caribbean slopes of the Cordillera Central.
These days it’s a short drive to the coast – just a couple of hours, but it was practically inaccessible from San José until the arrival of the railway at Puerto Limón in 1890.
This heralded Costa Rica’s banana boom, with plantations replacing swathes of forest behind the long sweeps of Costa Rica’s wild Caribbean shores. Jamaican workers brought a West Indian flavour and today Puerto Limón and beach communities in the south have an easy-going Afro-Caribbean feel.
Tortuguero
To the northeast of San José and the Cordillera Central there is a wide triangle of lowland running across to the Caribbean and up into Nicaragua.
By the coast the flooded forest of Tortuguero begins: one of the special places to see wildlife.
Turrialba
The small town of Turrialba, approached eastwards over the mountains from the Central Valley, is a popular spot for whitewater rafting on the Reventazón and Pacuare Rivers. Pacuare Lodge is a special favourite for us.
Soaring above the region stands Turrialba Volcano, with hikes up its forested flanks to the summit.
Nearby Guayabo NP is an archaeological site with 3,000 year old ruins and some of the last pre-montane forest left in the region.
The Centre for Tropical Agricultural Research, a world-renowned for research into tropical crops, offers landscaped gardens and trails that also make for some easy birding.
Visiting Costa Rica's Caribbean side
Tailor-made suggestions:
› Go Green
Selfdrive:
Add-ons:
Where to see wildlife
Beaches
› South Caribbean
