Costa Rica National Parks

If you are in the Playa Jaco and Los Suenos areas and looking for a walk on the wild side, why not spend the day at a National Park with a Certified Bilingual Naturalist Guide? Costa Rica has 26 National Parks, various Wildlife Refuges and Forest Reserves protecting over 25% of its total land area. Applauded as a leader in Eco-tourism, Costa Rica’s Rainforests and Dry rainforests contain 5% of the entire planet’s biodiversity, though it only takes up a mere 0.01% of the Earth’s landmass!

All donations and entry fees at its protected parks and refuges go directly to sustaining the forests and their inhabitants for future generations. Reduce your Carbon Footprint with a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park or Carara National Park during your visit and not only help save the rainforest, but also see and learn about the variety of wildlife in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica.

Manuel Antonio was dubbed one of the top 12 National Parks to visit in the world by Forbes in 2011. It is rimmed by breathtaking white sand beaches and turquoise waters and offers a great chance to see different types of monkeys, many frog species, a variety of birds and insects. It is home to 184 species of birds and 109 species of mammals.

Carara National park is the lesser known of these two parks and is consequentially even more pristine as it receives less of an impact from visitors. It is very likely you will encounter a variety of parrots and toucans, white face monkeys, sloths and lizards on your guided tour. Carara is both an ancestral forest with giant trees, vines and high canopies and a secondary forest.

We suggest an early morning departure from Jaco Beach and Los Suenos, Costa Rica for either National Park in order to get the best chance to glimpse wildlife in the cooler part of the day.