10 Days in Costa Rica Itinerary: Wildlife, Beaches, and Jungle, Oh My

If you’re planning to spend 10 days in Costa Rica, I have the perfect itinerary for a first-time visitor. This itinerary will take you to three of the top destinations in Costa Rica including beautiful waterfalls, scenic cloud forests, and tons of opportunities to see wildlife.

Costa Rica is the perfect destination if you are looking for a tropical vacation with gorgeous beaches and forests with plenty of activities. You will never be bored in Costa Rica!

This 10-day itinerary of Costa Rica focuses on La Fortuna, Monteverde, and Manuel Antonio. With two full days in each place, you have enough time to get a good idea of the highlights without rushing around too much. I have a lot of hiking included in this itinerary, but all of these destinations are great places for relaxing as well.

Your time in Costa Rica is only going to leave you wanting more and wishing you could extend your time for more of that pura vida.

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10 Day Costa Rica Itinerary for First-Time Visitors

• 1 Night close to SJ0 Airport
• 3 Nights in La Fortuna: Mistico Hanging Bridges, Arenal Observatory, El Silencio, Sloth Tour, Night Tour, La Fortuna Waterfall
• 3 Nights in Monteverde: Ziplining, Santa Elena Reserve, El Tigre Waterfalls
• 3 Nights in Manuel Antonio: Manuel Antonio Park, Espadilla Beach, Rainmaker Reserve

Top 5 Experiences to Have in Costa Rica

1. Spot sloths hanging in the trees of La Fortuna
2. Journey through the hanging bridges of El Tigre to discover waterfalls
3. Uncover the beauty of Manuel Antonio’s jungle beaches
4. Zipline through the clouds of Monteverde
5. Hike Rainmaker’s bridges over treetops

Renting a Car in Costa Rica

While you can get around Costa Rica using shuttle services and tours, renting a car gives you a lot more freedom. I rented a 4WD SUV while in Costa Rica from Adobe Rental Cars. I was very happy with Adobe Cars. When I had a nail in my tire, they told me exactly what to do and which repair shop to go to within minutes of me messaging them on WhatsApp.

If you are not visiting Monteverde, I think you could get by in a regular car. Because the roads are quite rough around Monteverde, I would recommend an SUV to have higher clearance. I didn’t find that 4WD was necessary and probably would have been fine without it on this itinerary.

One big difference with renting a car in Costa Rica versus other countries is that Liability Insurance and Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) are mandatory. When getting your car rental quote, make sure you factor these in as they can be quite expensive. If you typically use a credit card that covers CDW, you may be able to avoid paying for this extra cost if you get a letter from your credit card company stating your name, credit card number, and that you have coverage with your card.

I highly recommend downloading the Waze app for navigating Costa Rica as it has the most up-to-date information. WhatsApp is also a good app to download in advance as hotels, Adobe Rental Cars, and tours all sent me information in advance through it.

Getting a SIM card in Costa Rica

While most restaurants and hotels offer Wi-Fi, it’s useful to have data for navigating while driving. If you have a newer phone, many models offer the option to use an e-SIM, which can be purchased in advance. I purchased a data e-SIM through Airalo.

Alternatively, you can purchase a physical SIM card at SJO Airport next to the baggage claim from Claro. The physical SIM card was 3x cheaper than the e-SIM. If you are landing late at night, I would recommend purchasing the e-SIM as Claro closes at 9 pm or occasionally 11 pm on weekends.

When to Visit Costa Rica

I visited in mid-May and even though it’s the beginning of the rainy season (green season!). The weather was sunny in the morning, and late afternoons or evenings often had rain. It’s a great time to see wildlife, enjoy lush green forests and seasonal waterfalls, get deals on accommodation, and avoid crowds.

I would happily visit Costa Rica in May or June, July and November. For drier weather, visit from December to April. Peak rainy season is August through October so I would likely avoid travelling then unless I had extra days built into my itinerary for heavy rain days.

Ten Days in Costa Rica Itinerary

This itinerary has you flying round-trip through San Jose Airport (SJO). If you are arriving to Liberia Airport (LIR) instead, I would rearrange this itinerary to visit Monteverde first, then Manuel Antonio, and end in La Fortuna.

Day 1: Arriving in Costa Rica

Depending on your arrival time in San Jose, you may not have to stay overnight. La Fortuna is 2.5 hours away so if you arrive at 2 pm or earlier, you may be able to head directly to La Fortuna. My flight arrived at 4:20 pm. By the time I went through immigration and got my rental car, the sun was setting as it was 5:40 pm.

The Fairfield Marriott was a very convenient hotel as it was less than 10-minute drive from Adobe Rent a Car. It is also within walking distance to Walmart so you can pick up snacks and water easily. My room was quiet and had everything I needed. The hotel has a restaurant on site so you can check in and relax until the next morning.

Day 2-5: La Fortuna

With two full days in La Fortuna, you have enough time to do some of the best hiking in the area as well as wildlife tours and hot springs. La Fortuna is also referred to as Arenal as both areas are right next to each other.

La Fortuna is also a great destination for activities, ziplining, rafting, and canyoning are popular. If you want to fit in an activity instead of a hike, I recommend adding in canyoning with Pure Trek on Day 4 of this itinerary instead of the morning hike at El Silencio.

Day 2: Hanging Bridges and Night Tour in La Fortuna

The drive to La Fortuna is 2.5 hours but the scenery is quite beautiful and takes you through winding roads and small villages. I loved how, as you approach La Fortuna, you drive through rainforest and can hear the birds and insects if you roll down the windows.

Drop your luggage off at the hotel before heading to Mistico Hanging Bridges. I stayed at La Fortuna Natural Green and they had no problem with storing my luggage for me. I was very impressed with the hotel as the cabins are very private.

Mistico Hanging Bridges

At Mistico Hanging Bridges, you can either do a self-guided tour or a guided tour to have a naturalist spot wildlife. Book your Mistico tickets in advance as time slots do sell out.

I did a self-guided tour and spent about 2 hours at Mistico. It’s a very easy 3 km walk as the trails are well maintained and there are no major inclines. Without a guide, I was able to spot some Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs, a few birds, butterflies, and a snake. The hanging bridges here offer beautiful views of the rainforest and are a lot of fun to walk over as they have a bit of swing to them.

Night Tour at El Silencio

After Mistico Hanging Bridges, head back to the hotel and grab a snack or early dinner to be ready for your pickup for the Night Hike at El Silencio with Wildlife Tours Costa Rica. I loved that this night tour had pickup included and is a small locally owned company.

For the night tour, I was lucky to have Brandon as a guide. One of the first things we spotted was the yellow eyelash viper sitting up high on a leaf. After, we spent a lot of time walking around the ponds and spotting the iconic red-eyed tree frog as well as hourglass frogs. We did a short walk through the forest, which had tons of wildlife, including a cloudy snail-eating snake, sleeping toucans, plenty of moths and butterflies, interesting insects and spiders, and a striated salamander. I highly recommend this night tour in La Fortuna as it gives an opportunity to see a wide variety of species here.

After the night tour drops you off, head out for some late dinner if you haven’t eaten yet. I recommend El Chante Verde as it is near La Fortuna Natural Green Hotel and serves up some seriously delicious food. I ate there twice and I’m still thinking about the veggie burger and tableside guacamole.

Day 3: Arenal Observatory Lodge

I started my day by having breakfast at the hotel and then made the drive to Arenal Observatory Lodge. You can purchase day entry at the gate for 20 USD or day entry including lunch for 40 USD.

Arenal Observatory Lodge ended up being my favourite hike in La Fortuna.

There are plenty of hiking trails to choose from at Arenal Observatory and I did most of them. There are several seasonal waterfalls and hanging bridges. Highlights for me were the Danta Waterfall and the Los Cangrejos Trail. Close to the lodge is the Observation Tower has amazing views of the forest and Arenal Volcano.

Arenal Observatory Lodge was fantastic for wildlife watching, and I saw a yellow-throated toucan, Great Curassow, Crested Guans, tons of Oropendolas and their hanging nests, coatis, and howler monkeys. It’s considered one of the best places in the area to go birdwatching. I spent about 6 hours exploring the grounds here and easily could spend more.

After hiking at Arenal Observatory Lodge, you should have time to visit one of the hot springs like Tabacon Hot Springs. There are also free hot springs at El Choyin or the free El Salto rope swing, however, the rope swing river is not a hot spring. I ended up skipping the hot springs on my visit as there was a thunderstorm.

Otherwise, head back to the hotel and grab dinner. I ate at La Street Bistro which is right on the main street of La Fortuna. It had great tacos and plenty of vegetarian options.

Day 4: Hiking El Silencio and Sloth Tour

I started my day by heading to Mirador El Silencio for some hiking. Your other option is to visit Arenal 1968 for lava trails, however, it is more expensive.

At El Silencio, I did the entire loop, which took about 3 hours. If you are short on time or energy, I recommend driving to Parking Lot #2 and hiking Trail #6 Sendero Lava 1968 as this was the highlight of El Silencio for me. In good weather, you would have views of Arenal Volcano. When I visited, it was very cloudy, but I enjoyed seeing the black lava field and orchids. On the way down, I was also lucky enough to spot a three-toed sloth.

If you have more time, I would also add on Trail #2 Sendero Los Sainos. This trail led through the most beautiful rainforest including trees with massive buttress roots.

After hiking for the morning, head to Soda La Palma for lunch. The prices are very reasonable and the quesadilla I had there was delicious.

Sloth Tour

Now, for one of the highlights of La Fortuna, an afternoon Sloth Tour with Papa’s Place. I did quite a bit of research on sloth tours before choosing this one, as some of the tours or “sloth trails” in the area seemed to have unethical practices like relocating sloths, using calls to get the sloths to move, and laser pointers that can damage their eyes.

At Papa’s Place, I had Emilio as a guide and Javier as a driver/spotter. Emilio describes the tour as more of a wildlife safari, and I have to agree. Emilio brought along a spotting scope so you can see the sloths up close and use it to get photos. We ended up seeing around ten sloths including two-toed and three-toed sloths. In addition, Emilio and Javier spotted howler monkeys, green and black poison frogs, strawberry poison frogs, toucans, and hawks. It was a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it as it ended up being my favourite tour I took in Costa Rica.

Night Tour at Papa’s Place

For the evening, I intended to relax at the hotel or head to the hot springs, but after the fantastic Sloth Tour, I ended up doing a Night Tour at Papa’s Place as well.

The night tour here is a different experience as you are walking through the gardens and ponds at Papa’s Place. There is a great variety of frogs here, including glass frogs, as well as a resident fer-de-lance snake, giant stick bugs, and bats that feed from a hummingbird feeder.

I finished up the night by heading back to El Chante Verde for dinner.

Day 5: La Fortuna Waterfall and Driving to Monteverde

I saved the La Fortuna Waterfall for my last morning in La Fortuna. The waterfall is a 5 minute drive from La Fortuna Natural Green Hotel . Entry is 20 USD to the waterfall, so it isn’t cheap but it is well-maintained. You can purchase your entry to the waterfalls in advance to make sure you get the entry time you want.

While a lot of people recommend La Fortuna in the afternoon for swimming, to me, it would have been miserable to walk back up all those stairs in the afternoon heat. There are about 500 steps and it takes about 45 minutes round trip, not including time at the bottom. When I visited, the lifeguards were very strict about which areas people could swim in. La Fortuna Waterfalls has everything you need including bathrooms and change rooms at the top as well as a small restaurant.

After visiting La Fortuna Waterfall, check out of the hotel and grab some snacks and gas for the drive to Monteverde!

Driving to Monteverde

The drive from La Fortuna to Monteverde takes about 3 hours. The first part of the drive is forested and very windy but the road is easy to drive. Unfortunately for me, this combination made me very carsick. By the time I got to Café & Macadamia for lunch I couldn’t wait for the drive to be over!

After Cafe & Macadamia, the road opens up a bit and you get views of Lake Arenal. The last hour of the drive is pretty rough, as you will be on unpaved roads that have a lot of potholes so it is slow driving. It was in this section that a toucan flew right in front of the car, so keep your eye out for those.

Upon arriving, it will likely be just enough time to check in and have dinner at the hotel. Monteverde is quite a bit cooler than La Fortuna, so I recommend packing a sweater and pants for this part of the itinerary.

I stayed at Koora Hotel in the town of Santa Elena. I highly recommend this hotel as it was my favourite place I stayed in Costa Rica. The location is super convenient as it is a short drive into the town and it is right next to Aguti Reserve for hiking. The on-site restaurant is fantastic and has views of the Pacific. From my room and heated plunge pool, I was able to see wildlife, including a huge family of coatis (with babies!!), agoutis, motmots, and emerald toucans. I did not want to leave and am still dreaming of it.

Day 6-8 Monteverde

Monteverde ended up being my favourite place I visited in Costa Rica. I have seen recommendations to skip it, but to me, it was unique from La Fortuna. While La Fortuna has beautiful rainforests, Monteverde is at a higher elevation and has cloud forests. Two full days in Monteverde was the perfect way to experience the cloud forest.

I first fell in love with cloud forests while visiting Ometepe in Nicaragua and did research in cloud forests of Madagascar, so I was greatly anticipating my visit to Monteverde.

Day 6: Ziplining and Santa Elena Cloud Forest

Ziplining was created in Monteverde so it’s the perfect way to start your time in the cloud forest. I did ziplining at Selvatura Park. The ziplining at Selvatura Park gives you the chance to soar above the forest over 13 cables. In addition to single rides, there are also ziplines that are doubles. The final zipline is 1 km long and you ride it with a partner either sitting up or superman style laying down. In addition, there is an optional Tarzan-style swing.

After ziplining at Selvatura, you can choose to spend the day at Selvatura as they also offer hanging bridges and animal exhibits. I chose to head next door to Santa Elena Cloud Forest to experience more of Monteverde’s offerings. With more time, you could also add Curi-Cancha Reserve or Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve to your itinerary.

Hiking Santa Elena Reserve

At Santa Elena Reserve, there is a restaurant so you can grab a snack or lunch before setting out on a hike. There are a lot of trails to choose from here. I intended to hike all of them, but lost some time as I picked up a nail in my tire and had to swap it out for the spare.

I ended up hiking the Youth Challenge (1.4 km) and Encantado (3.4 km) trails. Both were quite easy with little elevation change. The Youth Challenge trail takes you to the highest point in the park and a small observation tower. Both trails take you through gorgeous cloud forest. One of the unique things here was that there seemed to be multiple Black-faced Solitaire birds that had eerie calls as you walked through the forest, you can take a listen here. Santa Elena Reserve is also a great place to spot Resplendent Quetzals. I only caught the briefest glimpse of one so you would likely be better off joining a bird tour.

After spending a few hours at Santa Elena, I headed back into town to get my tire patched and had dinner at the hotel I was staying at, Koora Hotel. Kire Restaurant is a popular spot in Santa Elena so even if you aren’t staying at Koora Hotel, it’s worth checking out.

Day 7: Hiking El Tigre Waterfalls

El Tigre Waterfalls ended up being my favourite hike in Costa Rica. It’s about 8 km and it took me 4 hours to do. You can either hike the entire thing like I did, or after the scenic waterfalls and bridges, you can take a horse or a 4×4 back to the start of the trail. You aren’t missing any scenery if you take the horse option, it is just an uphill slog for an hour.

El Tigre Waterfalls can be a challenging hike because you descend down a mountain and also many stairs up. The hiking is spectacular. It had my favourite hanging bridges as they are these narrow 1-person bridges that go through the jungle and make you feel like Indiana Jones about to find a hidden temple.

At El Tigre, you pass by 6 main waterfalls and over 8 hanging bridges. The waterfalls are gorgeous too. The first one reminded me a lot of La Fortuna Waterfall and others were giving me vibes of Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. There is also the opportunity to swim in the river. If you only do one hike in Costa Rica and are reasonably fit, this is the one I would do.

Upon reaching the end of La Tigre, they offer up free beverages in the cafeteria and there are spectacular views over the mountains. I finally got to see Arenal Volcano without any cloud cover.

My day started a bit late so by the time I was done at El Tigre and drove back to Santa Elena, it was too late to start another activity. I had dinner at The Jungle Monteverde. This restaurant has four separate kitchens so you have the choice of sushi, Mediterranean, Indian, or Thai food, with vegan and gluten free options. It was one of my favourite places I ate while in Costa Rica and I loved that you could look out over the jungle from the dining room.

Day 8: Driving to Manuel Antonio

After one final breakfast at Koora Hotel, I went to explore a bit of the Aguti Reserve next door. It’s nice to have free access to this park. You could easily spend a couple of hours hiking here, but I just walked around a short loop. This forest surprisingly has some of the most beautiful trees I saw in Monteverde with huge buttress roots and with vines and figs growing on them. I was also lucky to spot some howler monkeys moving through the trees as well as agouti and coatis.

Driving to Manuel Antonio

After checking out of the hotel, head to Manuel Antonio. It is almost a 4 hour drive so try to leave by 11 am. After leaving Monteverde, the roads are very straightforward and turn into separated highway at some points. Make sure you have your credit card handy to tap for a toll road.

The hotel I stayed at, Hotel Playa Espadilla, is right next to Manuel Antonio National Park. You will likely have parking attendants try to park you quite far from the hotel. They can be quite aggressive, even trying to jump in front of the car. Just tell them you are going to your hotel and keep driving.

Hotel Playa Espadilla is the perfect place to stay in Manuel Antonio as it is 5 minutes to walk to the National Park and about a 5-minute walk to Espadilla Beach. After checking in, spend some time on the beach nearby or in the hotel pool.

For dinner the first night, I walked to the Magic Bus. Seating is outside but they have covered sections for when it rains. I ended up eating at the Magic Bus twice and highly recommend it. There are plenty of vegetarian options and the serving sizes are generous. I had the vegan chifri, the vegan wrap, and the guacamole here as well as the smoothies. The smoothies here were the best I had in Costa Rica, with the Monkey Smoothie of peanut butter, banana, and chocolate being a standout.

Day 9-11 Manuel Antonio

Manuel Antonio is one of the highlights of Costa Rica with scenic tropical beaches and tons of wildlife. I stayed in Manuel Antonio for three nights, but you can also stay in the nearby city of Quepos. It was the busiest place I visited but still easy to find some space for yourself. If you want to see monkeys, this is the best place on this itinerary to see them as I saw all three species easily, including at the hotel.

Day 9: Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio Park is closed every Tuesday so you need to plan your itinerary around that. You should purchase your entry at least three weeks in advance as entry times do sell out, especially in peak seasons. The official SINAC National Parks website is your cheapest option for entry tickets. However, I do find the official SINAC website quite frustrating to use and occasionally unavailable, so you may need to purchase tickets from a reseller.

I did a self-guided tour, but there are also guided tours of Manuel Antonio. Guided tours typically do not include your entry ticket.

Try to visit the park early before it heats up in the afternoon. You cannot take any food into the park or plastic bottles, but reusable bottles are fine.

I walked the 5 minutes from my hotel and had an 8 am entry to the park. Upon visiting, most of the guided tours will go down the vehicle access road, which isn’t very scenic. Take the boardwalk route instead. The boardwalk takes you through the mangroves and allows you to take the side path to the seasonal waterfall. The boardwalk will then take you to a beachside path where you have incredible views of the beaches.

You can swim at Manuel Antonio Beach and also take a hike around Cathedral Trail. All of the hiking here is worth it as you get beautiful views and lots of opportunities to spot wildlife.

In Manuel Antonio Park, I was able to spot all three types of monkeys present, including seeing capuchins up close at Manuel Antonio Beach and having a group of squirrel monkeys right overhead the mangrove boardwalk. In addition, tons of crabs live on the forest floor as well as iguanas and lizards.

I was also lucky enough to spot a two-toed sloth by the beach as well as an otter in the milky turquoise river. It was one of my best wildlife days in Costa Rica, even without a guide.

I ended up spending about 6 hours in the park before leaving around 2 pm to take a break at the hotel and grab a snack.

Before dinner, I took a walk on the Sendero Hotel Playa Espadilla trail, which you have access to as a guest of Hotel Playa Espadilla & Gardens. It’s a nice trail but there are a lot of mosquitoes. The highlight was seeing a three-toed sloth that was at ground level.

After a day of hiking, treat yourself to dinner at the Magic Bus. The beach here is a great spot to watch the sunset before heading back to the hotel. If you’re up for it, you can join a night tour with the hotel. There are quite a few interesting frogs and a swamp with a resident crocodile.

Day 10: Rainmaker Reserve and Uvita Beach

Drive the 30 minutes to Rainmaker Reserve. The road as you approach does get a bit bumpy and turns into a dirt road. The reserve is set pretty far back from the main highway so you do have to drive through palm tree plantations to get to it.

Rainmaker Reserve is a beautiful hike that takes you across hanging bridges and alongside a river that has rapids and waterfalls. It’s incredibly scenic with bridges high above the rainforest.

While I didn’t see any large wildlife, this is absolutely the place to visit if you want to see black and green poison frogs. I saw plenty by the trail sides as well as tiny black frogs about the size of a pencil eraser by the river. You can swim in the river here as well.

After Rainmaker Reserve, you can either head back to Manuel Antonio to spend some time on the beach or drive to Uvita to check out the coast. It’s a 1.5-hour drive to Uvita from Rainmaker. I found the drive scenic and it was nice to get a break from hiking.

There is paid parking right next to the entrance of Marino Ballena National Park. It’s a short walk along the beach to the famous “Whale Tail.” The whale tail doesn’t look like much from ground level but the beach here is beautiful and not very busy.

After a busy day, stop at Roots Restaurant before heading back to the hotel. It’s the perfect place to have a final dinner in Costa Rica. The nachos and tacos here were amazing, but the highlight was the cacao. I am still dreaming about sipping cacao, looking out over the rainforest.

Day 11: Driving to San Jose Airport

My flight was midday, around 3 pm, so I had plenty of time to drive to Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) from Manuel Antonio. If your flight is early in the morning, I recommend staying overnight at Fairfield by Marriott, San Jose Airport.

After a wonderful 10 days in Costa Rica filled with more wildlife and amazing scenery than I could imagine, it was time to head home. I had my final breakfast at the hotel, snapped a few more photos of the resident iguanas and packed up my suitcase for the flight home. I grabbed some drinks from Roots Restaurant for the road and started the 3-hour drive to San Jose Airport. The drive is fairly uneventful, although you can stop at the crocodile bridge to view the crocodiles in the river below.

Costa Rica as a First Time Visitor

Costa Rica was surprisingly easy to navigate as a first-time visitor. The driving is easy and it feels very safe. I found myself wishing for more time in each place I visited but it was a great sample of what the country has to offer. Costa Rica is sure to leave you wanting to explore deeper into Central America.