Volcanoes, waterfalls, wildlife and beaches - the trips worth your time on Costa Rica's northwest coast.
Guanacaste is best known for its beaches, but the beaches are the part you do not need advice about. This is what is worth doing with the rest of your days.
An active volcano with a national park wrapped around it: bubbling mud pots, steaming vents, forest trails and waterfalls. Most people combine the park walk with a hot spring or a zipline in the afternoon. It is the single best day out in the region, and it is an easy day trip from anywhere on this coast.
A slow boat down the Tempisque river, and one of the highest concentrations of wildlife you will see anywhere in Costa Rica without hiking for it. Crocodiles, howler monkeys, herons, iguanas and - in the right months - an extraordinary number of migratory birds. It suits every age and fitness level, which is why families love it.
La Leona and the waterfall canyons near Rincon give you the Costa Rica of the photographs: blue-green water, jungle, and a swim at the end. Expect to get properly wet, and wear shoes you can walk a river in.
The coffee and chocolate tours are gentler days, and better than they sound - the good ones are working farms, and you finish understanding why Costa Rican coffee is what it is. A solid choice on a day when nobody wants to hike.
Both are outside Guanacaste, but both are reachable. Arenal - the volcano, the hanging bridges, the hot springs - is a long but very doable day. Monteverde's cloud forest is genuinely unlike anywhere else in the country. If you can spare the nights, they are better as part of a multi-day route than as a rushed day trip.
Costa Rica invented the canopy zipline and Guanacaste does it well. The best circuits are built around Rincon de la Vieja and combine a long run of cables with a waterfall or hot spring afterwards, so the day is not purely adrenaline. If you have never done one, this is a good place to start - the operators here are experienced and the safety culture is serious.
Volcanic ground means naturally heated water, and the springs around Rincon are the real thing rather than a heated hotel pool. Most people take them at the end of a hiking or zipline day, which is exactly when they are best.
South of Samara, Ostional is one of the few places on earth that sees an arribada - a mass turtle arrival, thousands at once. It is seasonal, tide-dependent and impossible to guarantee, but if the timing lines up with your trip it is the single most extraordinary thing you will see in Costa Rica.
Guanacaste tempts people into booking something every day, and the drives are longer than they look. Two or three big days across a week, with beach time in between, makes for a far better holiday than five back-to-back excursions and a family who need a holiday from the holiday.
Samara for swimming, Carrillo for the postcard, Conchal for the water, Tamarindo for the surf and the restaurants. You do not need a tour for these - just a way of getting between them.
Flying to Guanacaste? Here's how Liberia (LIR) and San José (SJO) airports compare on drive time, flights and cost - and which to pick for Samara, Tamarindo and Nosara.
Dry season vs green season in Guanacaste - a month-by-month guide to weather, crowds and prices, so you can pick the right time to visit Samara and the Pacific coast.
