Costa Rican Highlights

The vaporous clouds of this area were once said to hide a witch, a local princess whose angered father had thrown her husband into the volcano. The devastated princess retreated into the volcano’s shadow, where she spent the rest of her life concocting spells for the town’s residents. The volcano’s name, “The Nook of the Old Woman,” comes from this legend. View this haunting landscape of bubbling craters as you approach this 6,285-foot-high, very active volcano.

Had enough hot lava? Cool off with a leisurely ride on horseback to the hacienda’s waterfalls, where you can splash to your heart’s content.

Surrounded by lush vegetation, calming waterfalls and the awe-inspiring view of the Arenal Volcano, melt all of your worries away as you relax in one of the 30 pools at Baldi Hot Springs.

Glide along the still waters reflecting the perfect cone of Arenal Volcano and the surrounding rolling hills. Lake Arenal, the country's largest, is also among its most scenic, and the area has become popular area to kayak, windsurf, sail, fish, and hike.

Stop by a local farm to meet the family living and working there, and then join them in trying a local specialty known as "agua de pipa" --coconut water straight from a freshly picked coconut!

Because of its humidity and latitude, the entire city of Monteverde can disappear in a second under a massive cloud cover. Founded by Quakers in 1951, the city boasts the best in Costa Rican creatures. Observe a proud display of howler monkeys, revered quetzals and native frogs in the dense cover of the cloud forest.

Get your spider monkey fix as you climb into the clouds. The Santa Elena Reserve reaches high into the atmosphere, bringing the cloudy mists into its lush forests and letting you see all the way to the Arenal Volcano.

Take the opportunity to enrich a Costa Rican school with gifts of notebooks, pens, erasers -- all basic supplies that few students here can afford. Learn how rural communities are working to give their children educational opportunities in extremely difficult conditions, often with dozens of students in all different grades taught in a single classroom. We will stop to pick up supplies before visiting, but feel free to bring donations of school supplies like chalk or paper from home, too. (If schools are not in session, you'll be able to give gifts of t-shirts, socks, and other clothing to local children.)

Learn about the life cycles, diets and habitats of Costa Rica's native snakes and watch as they slither around in their simulated environments.

Mosey on through Costa Rica’s “Old West.” Cows, horses, and sauderos (Costa Rican cowboys) ride across the sun-struck landscape of this arid region. Seek out the local Guancaste tree, whose oddly shaped seedpods have given it the name “Monkey Ear Tree.”

Hop on this river boat for a cruise through the murky water and into the scraggly mangroves of the Palo Verde National Park. Keep a look out for American alligators sunning themselves on the banks, white-faced monkeys swinging through the branches and colorful macaws flying overhead as you make your way through the park.