Costa Rica Round Trip

Cartago is the former capital and oldest city of the country and can be used as an overnight station to visit the Irazú volcano.

Irazu is with 3432 meters the highest volcano of the country and with a little luck you can see the Atlantic and the Pacific from the volcano.

Tip: Visit the volcano in the morning, then the chances of a fog-free view are best

But we are also impressed by the mysterious atmosphere of the abandoned sanatorium "Sanatorio Durán". The former clinic building has been empty since 1973 and is an ideal "Lost Place" for taking exciting photos.

We relax in the afternoon at the Jardin Botanico Lankester.

The garden was founded in 1910 by the Englishman Charles H. Lankester and is maintained by the University of Costa Rica. It owns over 3000! different plant species and is famous for its incredible variety of orchids. The Japanese garden with its small lake and bridges is also enchanting.

We spend the night at "Hotel Grandpas", link to Booking.com, near Cartago. The helpful receptionist even gives us the idea to visit the Sanatorio Durán. The hotel consists of several beautiful wooden cabins surrounded by a well-kept garden. The location a little outside of Cartago not far from the access road to the volcano is ideal to be one of the first on the volcano early in the morning.

Note: At night it gets quite fresh, as we are here at 1400 meters altitude.

Tortuguero is known for its beaches where turtles hatch. The egg laying is from June to September and the hatching of the baby turtles can be observed about 40 to 60 days later. As we are here in April, we miss this spectacle. Nevertheless, we choose Tortuguero as our destination, because the fauna is special here even without turtles.

You can participate in one of the numerous guided night tours to see basilisks, frogs and other nocturnal animals. And besides the visit of the national park on foot, one should also book a canoe tour during which one can marvel at the fabulous birds of Costa Rica.

Near Pavona there is a boat slip to the village of Tortuguero. Our boat leaves at about 12.30 and takes 1 hour to reach the village. Arrived here we take a taxi boat (second picture) with which we are brought to our lodge. In Tortuguero itself (700 inhabitants) there are no cars. You don't need that either, because the national park borders directly on the main settlement.

Most spectacular pictures are taken during the canoe trip. Our guide can already see the animals from a distance and approaches carefully with our rowing boat.

I am impressed by a bird that first catches a fly, throws it into the water in front of it and then catches the tasty fish that was after the fly.

We spend the night at "All Rankins Lodge", Link to Booking.com. The lodge has a large garden where we can admire a lot of animals like monkeys, iguanas and also a kingfisher. All in all it is very quiet and relaxed in the lodge. The helpful owners bring you by boat to Tortuguero (travel time 10 minutes). The rooms are very simply furnished, but if you don't need luxury, you will feel at home in the lodge and can relax in hammocks on the terrace. The offered dinner and breakfast are also simple but quite tasty.

We see this fascinating creature on our way to our next station 'La Fortuna'. It crosses the street hanging from a supply line, then climbs down a tree and falls asleep right in front of our eyes. Quietly we move away from this most bizarre and cuddly of all possible animal creatures and continue our journey with a smile on our face.

La Fortuna (10.000 inhabitants), situated directly at the foot of the picture-book volcano Arenal, has made a name for itself as a starting point for adventure vacationers. The volcano last erupted in 2010 and is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The city itself is not really worth seeing but offers some shopping opportunities and a wide selection of good restaurants.

During a small circular hike at the foot of the volcano we hike through bamboo forests and in the evening we relax in one of the numerous "Hot Springs". These Host Springs are bathing establishments that are mostly attached to a hotel and offer various temperate outdoor pools. We are in the "Hot Springs Baldi" and enjoy it very much that we even have some smaller pools for ourselves.

We stayed at the "Hotel Secreto La Fortuna", link to Booking.com. The breakfast was excellent, the rooms large and very beautiful and the location in a quiet side street in Fortuna ideal. At the reception we were very helpful and could even book the Hot Springs for us.

Since the dry season is in April, the sight of the waterfall is not as impressive as in the rainy season. But the rainforest with the rising fog is mystical every day.

At the waterfall there is a small open butterfly garden which we love to use to warm up our cameras.

what Costa Rica is also known for: It rains. Fortunately for us not long and we leave La Fortuna again.

The city of Liberia offers practically nothing worth seeing. But we eat very tasty food in the "Social Club". You sit comfortably in the cozy inner courtyard and on the second evening we are greeted by the waitress like regulars and the owner joins us.

On the way to Liberia we see these cattle. And embedded in the colours of Costa Rica's nature they also look very photogenic.

Although this national park offers fewer animals than other parks, it is well worth seeing due to its fumaroles (volcanic steam interfaces). However, for our taste there were too many disturbing American school classes on the way. The circular path in the national park is very well fastened, sneakers are sufficient here.

Cañas is ideal to visit the Parque Nacional Palo Verde. In this national park there is very little crowd. Surprising for us, because there is a really good opportunity to see crocodiles here.

The National Park is a unique wetland and when the Tempisque River overflows its banks in the rainy season, it is a habitat for hundreds of thousands of birds.

We get very close to these primeval animals - at least if you have a camera with a large zoom range. If we fall below the escape distance, the monsters disappear immediately into the murky water. In order to organize this boat tour we stopped at the entrance of the national park at the guard's house and arranged a time for the tour by telephone with the organizer of the boat tour.

Admittedly, one should not expect much touristic infrastructure in this national park and we are almost alone here on this day.

meet one in this national park at every turn.

We spend the night at "Hacienda La Pacifica", Link to Booking.com. The hotel complex with pool is beautiful and there are a lot of animals like howler monkeys and agutis in the pedestrian area around the hotel.

Situated at 1500 metres above sea level, the world-famous cloud forests of Monteverde offer an incomparable backdrop. During our holidays in April we have the most beautiful sunshine and the best weather for taking pictures.

And we have a mission: To find the "Quetzal". This is a particularly impressive bird, whose magnificent tail feathers can reach up to 1m length. It is the heraldic animal of Guatemala and the beginning of April is the time of the nest building and with a little luck you can photograph it exactly there. So we set off with our guide.

... and we really feel like ornithologists. And our guide will find every bird in no time at all. Unfortunately we don't see a Quetzal on this day.

The 'Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve' is the famous park on Monteverde and more touristy than our one yesterday. And we get a tip at the cash desk where to go to see 'the bird'. And indeed we see our first Quetzal. The colours, the length of the tail feathers, the type of nest building - everything is special about this creature. Only the cameras struggle with the difficult light conditions and yet reach their limits.

The Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio is perhaps the most famous and most touristic of all the national parks of Costa Rica. The reason is that the wildlife is spectacular, there are probably nowhere else such good opportunities to see sloths. And the location directly by the sea invites you to relax after a strenuous visit to the national park.

We spend the night at "El Faro Beach Hotel", Link to Booking.com. The hotel complex with pool is located only a few meters from the entrance of the national park and from the beach and is therefore ideal. The view of the sea from the breakfast or restaurant terrace is spectacular. The hotel consists of stacked shipping containers, so it takes some time getting used to the cut of the rooms.

We do recommend to book at least the 2nd room category, then one gets a slightly bigger room and has a great view to the sea.

Admittedly, it is very humid in this corner of Costa Rica, but nevertheless we stay almost 4h in the park and can't get out of our amazement because of the diverse animals. Unfortunately, this is the last national park of our trip.

The last stop of our journey is the capital San Jose. The city is characterized by the hustle and bustle of the Ticos and unfortunately also by a lot of traffic.

But there are also quieter areas and beautiful museums, like the Museo Nacional, the Gold Museum "Museo de Oro Pre-Colombiano" or the Teatro Nacional.

We stay at the "Hotel Presidente San Jose City Center", Link to Booking.com. The hotel is located in the pedestrian precinct of San Jose, there are almost no parking spaces, so it is advisable to leave your car at the airport and take a taxi to the hotel. The ladies at the reception are incredibly friendly and helpful, the room is very nice and the rooftop bar offers spectacular tapas and cocktails.