Nature and Outdoor Activities in Costa Rica in 2026: The Best Ways to Explore

Costa Rica's outdoor landscape is concentrated within a country smaller than West Virginia but containing 6% of the world's biodiversity. Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula — described by National Geographic as 'the most biologically intense place on earth' — is a primary rainforest accessible only on foot or by boat with guides, where tapir, harpy eagle, and all four Costa Rican monkey species can be encountered in a single morning. The Arenal Volcano and its lake deliver a combination of lava-field hiking, thermal springs, and hanging bridges through cloud forest that cover most of the central highlands' outdoor register in a single base. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve was the forest that launched ecotourism as a concept, and the dawn walk through mist to find the resplendent quetzal feeding on aguacatillo fruit is still the defining Costa Rican wildlife encounter. Tours by locals who know the landscape beyond the obvious map pins reveal the hidden gems. It really hits differently.