Costa Rica Travel Guide 4K

[Music] all right so this is just a disclaimer we've done a lot of road tripping around costa rica this is for those of you who want to do the ultimate costa rica road trip we have been doing it we've gone to nakoya we've gone to the pacific side north south la fortuna cloud forest but we did miss monteverde so just be aware that what we're about to show you is not going to have monteverde which is a very premier destination we just didn't include that all right guys this is where we're going to start here in san jose which is the capitol most people originate their travel in costa rica here in san jose we're going to show you guys this area and then we're going to actually head through the mountains to la fortuna in aloela now this is a saying that i heard from locals tour guides they say the best thing to do when you get to san jose is leave san jose what they basically mean is when you come to costa rica you arrive in san jose spend 24 to 48 hours and then start exploring throughout the country not too much to see in terms of beauty in san jose compared to what you're going to get when you get out there into the rain forest the cloud forest the beaches san jose is right in the middle of the country it works for a commercial hub but it doesn't have all the beauty that you're going to get in other parts of costa rica now about two and a half hours north of san jose isla fortuna like i said it's in the province of valuela and here you're going to get lots of rain and a beautiful volcano called aranel which you might not always see it when you're out here because it's constantly covered by clouds especially during the winter time of year which is the months of november to december and january [Music] in la fortuna up in the trees you will see sloth in particular the three-toed sloth they also have another very exotic unique bird here which is the toucan i saw several toucans when i was in the area around la fortuna but what law fortuna is really known for is the geothermal also known as turmoils so you have eco turmoils you have the free eco termales area that you can go to which is the hot springs they also have waterfall hikes where you can go down into the deep depths of the cloud forest and it never hurts to pull off to the side of the road and get some fresh fruit from a vendor uh one thing i would like to say about getting around costa rica we did a mix between a rental car we also did tours we also hired a private van so how you get around can depend on a variety of different transportation we also even use side by sides in four by fours which you'll see later on in the film and we will ask our tour guides to comment below so they can make it possible for you to reach out for them and give you their number or contact information in various different places so after a great time in law fortuna it's time that we start to transit now across alawela over towards tamarindo but on the way we stop at a volcano so here we are in front of the airball de la paz which is the tree of peace this is a sabal tree but if you come up right here you can walk basically by right by the trunk here i mean this is just one side of the trunk and you can see it's like a room such a big tree it's a sable tree but check out how big it is think about all the animals that must live up there [Music] and these costa rica rainforests are teeming with flora fauna and natural and wildlife where we're at now is actually called rio celeste the reason they call it rio celeste is because the sulfuric acid from the volcano below creates this blue colored water it's really beautiful here we are at the park parque national volcan tenario or the national park of the volcano tanario let's go take a look inside this jungle [Music] so down here at rio celestine which is the blue river here it smells like sulfur and you can see the hot liquid magma below is boiling the water right here you wouldn't want to get in the water there it's too hot but that's what creates the hot spring so here we are at the end of the trail something interesting happens here the white water from upstream regular river water turns blue right here and if you look right down below me you can see the white water meet the blue water after a hike like that we definitely built up an appetite and thanks to our guide larry here we're getting some casado this is actually carne and salsa with beans rice plantain and salad on this part of the trek we were actually being driven around in a private van by larry who we will ask to comment below so do check the comments and we finally made it to tamarindo this is actually going to be our very first beach destination that we're going to show you here in tamarindo it's popular because it's just south of the beach of papagayo but people like to do booze cruises here sunset cruises ride horses on the beach or just go up into the jungle and explore with the side by side [Music] and here we are just doing some snorkeling uh we're actually heading out to a private beach area that you can't access with the road so you have to be on a boat to get to that beach but there's many beaches all up and down this coastline [Music] after about three days in tamarindo we decided to head south down to the nakoya peninsula which actually ended up being one of my favorite places although picking a favorite in costa rica is kind of hard to do we ended up going down to santa teresa the drive took about three hours to go from tamarindo down here to the southern part of nicoya which is where santa teresa is this big long beach that we're at right here is supply of santa teresa it's a long beach you can almost ride your bike jog santa teresa is known for surfing but also lots of exploration to be done down here and we definitely took full advantage of that especially once we got the side by side we went all the way over to montezuma and checked out everything in between [Music] and as usual plenty of rivers to explore and waterfalls costa rica has many many many many waterfalls oh and don't forget about hanging bridges and just between you and i if i had to pick between santa teresa or montezuma for relaxation and just chilled out vibes i'm going montezuma and all across costa rica as you heard that man say pura vida which means pure life very common phrase used in costa rica and the wildlife does change down here they have a lot more monkeys in particular the howler monkeys which you hear at night or in the mornings or sometimes just walking through the jungle by the way if this is your first time watching island hopper tv we have many videos from this series that we made across costa rica so check out our playlist from costa rica and subscribe to this channel and what we ended up doing out here in montezuma was actually catching up speedboat over to tortuga island which is one of the premier places to actually go hang out snorkel in all of costa rica so do look that up when you get out here [Music] and you can see beautiful colored water out here in the pacific ocean islands just off the coast of nikoia but fresh food and in order to get out here you would probably end up talking to one of the several tour companies in the area or at your hotel asking them how to get out here [Music] and after about five days in nicoya we crossed the gulf of nakoya on a barge you can actually drive your rental car right on here which we ended up doing so by this point we had a rental car and we ended up heading towards puntarenas and then on to hakko all right guys we've made it down to hoco this is a popular town just outside of san jose it's right there on the beach popular with surfers backpackers hostels a really big tourist destination i would say hoco right here [Music] when you go to san jose they're always going to recommend that you either go to hako or manuel antonio but paco seems to be the most popular place people end up going but you can see it's really built up lots of commercial infrastructure here that you don't get in other parts of costa rica [Music] and nearby hakko they actually have a river with lots of crocodiles you can actually see them from this bridge here [Music] so this tour here is 35 a person uh you can see we're going out on the boat right here let's go along with crocodiles you obviously see plenty of variety of birds out here costa rica has plenty of bird variety i'll tell you but as with anything i asked what about those cows do the crocodiles ever grab them and apparently the crocodiles do feast on a cow every once in a while [Music] all right anyway let's head south now towards uvita and dominical so down here in evita they have these mysterious stones they're kind of circular but these are pre-columbian indigenous created stones i don't know exactly why they're here i don't think anyone really does because they're pre-columbian that means before 1400 but they're all across this area you can see it's fairly circular [Music] we are at the katarata which is waterfall esmeralda uvita so this is the waterfall of vita esmeralda we're gonna go inside here and see just how pretty this place is [Music] yeah so here we are there's several pools there's a pool down here a pool right here and more pulls up that way if you look way off the distance you can see a really tall waterfall [Music] so we've now come north towards dominical but before we get to the minical we're in dominicalito this is a really popular surfing beach right here [Music] and once we got to dominical we actually saw the macaws or cabo rojo also known as guacamaya parrots [Music] i just bought this uh sarong this blanket uh it works for a scarf you know if i need to protect my head something like this i mean you know i'll wrap it any which way right but uh it also works as a bath towel after getting out of the waterfalls the ocean it's better to have one of these because i don't want a towel so something like this works perfect i got it for 12 000 colonies which is about 18 dollars [Music] look at this club sandwich right here chicken steak yummy all right guys here we are at serene or siren however you want to say it glamping experience right here in costa rica so we're going to show you what it's like to glamp right here in the very southern part of this beautiful country and for those of you who don't know what glamping is it's glamorous camping and it really is glamorous they even have an air conditioner in here we stayed a total of two nights here it was a hundred dollars a night for a room we got three different tents and it's right there on the beach we had the place to ourselves at night so the jacuzzi was all ours really an awesome experience can't wait to go back right here in uvita they have moreno balina which is the whale's tail it's this rock beach that you can head out to peninsula with sand on each side really a cool place let's show you i would say the best time to go here is during low tide for sure but also at sunset if low tide and sunset are lining up go then [Music] i got some cheap free ho again [Music] all right guys we've made it to manuel antonio one of the best places in all of costa rica to see wildlife manuel antonio is the national park but the town nearby is known as capos the area is known worldwide by instagrammers because of these airplane hotels or airplane restaurants that they have both of which end up on instagram this one here is called el avion and down here it's very common to see sloth the two-toed sloth and the three-toed sloth which looks like chewbacca in the face they say but also you will see several different monkeys down here including the howler monkey spider monkey and some other ones that might just pop up along the way [Music] we got here [Music] [Music] do all right so after a long time hanging out in punta reinus over a week we start heading back inland across costa rica this time we're heading to kate solis national park that's where the green bird is we ended up actually taking a off-road dirt rug through the mountains which ended up being a little bit more crazy than i was anticipating let's just say that it was beautiful waterfalls along the way but it did get a bit hairy up here i must say [Music] road gets rough and wet and that's not good when you have a four-cylinder [Music] and as i was looking at the map and realizing that i still had about an hour worth of driving on a dirt road as rain and clouds were rolling in and the road was getting even more wet yes i was white knuckling it and at this point we were high up in the mountains clouds everywhere low visibility and i would say if you do come to costa rica don't really try to go off-road in the cars like we did in this case because i was concerned and after about two and a half hours of white knuckling it we finally arrived in the beautiful cape soles national park high altitude it does get chilly here at night [Music] so we've come to the kate saul valley here and we're staying at saint gray which is a beautiful eco hotel right here in the valley we're looking for the green bird if you guys see it can we show you that means we got lucky but right now it's dinner time it's happy hour and uh great burgers let's do this [Music] the mountains up here in caitalya's national park are pristine it's just a very beautiful relaxing experience we only stayed two days up here but i look forward to going back there and the hotels that we stayed at very accommodating and friendly and the second night we stayed at hotel suenos del bosque lodge very friendly staff there [Music] [Music] and as usual we decided to go check out the waterfall that was nearby because it's costa rica many many waterfalls and after a good time in the valley we decided that it was time to head all the way across costa rica through cartego san jose and to the caribbean side for the first time the road going out to the caribbean side is currently being built up and modernized right now it does take a long time to get there but hopefully in a year or two it's going to be faster to get over there so by the time you're watching this you might be able to get on the new road to go to the caribbean which is faster it did take about three and a half hours to get from san jose to limon which is the capital but we ended up heading down to porto viejo after cawita this is the area in the southernmost part right next to panama [Music] [Music] [Music] there's many beaches down here like playa chiquita or playa manzanilla but there's also a national park down here [Music] basically if you went any further south about 30 miles you'd be in bocos del toro panama so that gives you an idea of what kind of landscape you're dealing with [Music] [Music] many people would say that the caribbean side and the pacific side are different the main differences being that the pacific side seems to have more animals available the caribbean side tends to be more flat not as much mountains or waterfalls nearby also they say that the pacific side is more touristy and more built up than the caribbean side in other words more corporate structures hotels etc you won't really get the corporate stuff on the caribbean side [Music] [Music] [Music] and that's a wrap for costa rica you guys are going to love this place definitely go around everywhere you can see you guys next one and i did place two other costa rica videos here so do watch those or uh subscribe to the channel hope to see you guys on the next one we are off to guatemala

Channel: Island Hopper TV

Views: 766,111

Keywords: Costa Rica, Costa Rica road trip, visit Costa Rica, explore costa rica, things to do in Costa Rica, things to see in Costa Rica, where to go in Costa Rica, Uvita, San Jose, tamarindo, Nicoya, Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna, travel guide, ultimate travel guide, Costa Rica Travel Guide, 2022

Id: Epjv329Agm4

Length: 27min 21sec (1641 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 31 2022