Make Costa Rica Your Top Travel Destination in 2022

Adventure. Nature. Culture. These are the things that bring thousands of tourists to Costa Rica each year. With the past two years of the global pandemic causing shutdowns and cancellations, many people who have been avoiding travel are ready to break out of their bubble and make 2022 a year to remember. If this sounds like you, Costa Rica 2022 should be at the top of your list, and we’re not the only ones who think so.

Adventure

National Geographic just added Costa Rica 2022 to its list of top 25 travel destinations in the world. It won the spot against countless other countries, landing itself in the adventure category. The recent Nat Geo article highlighted the El Camino Trail. The article called it the trek from sea to sea.

“Stretching across Costa Rica from the Caribbean to the Pacific, El Camino de Costa Rica is a 174-mile-long window into life far off the well-trod tourist path. The 16-stage hiking route primarily follows public roads as it passes through remote villages and towns, Indigenous Cabecar lands, and protected natural areas.” – National Geographic

Meant to help spur the economy in the rural and inland areas of the country, the El Camino Trail helps support small ventures such as the woman-owned Finca El Casquillo organic farm, Ecomiel honey producers, and La Cabaña sustainable coffee micro-mill. These small businesses provide most of the lodging, food, tours, and supplies along the trail. This epic trek combines adventure, nature, and culture all into one exciting trip!

While Nat Geo highlights a lesser-known adventure in Costa Rica, a well-known adventure continues to draw tourists to the Central American country, particularly the Tamarindo area. We are, of course, talking about surfing. And whether you have been shredding waves for years or you’ve never surfed before, this salty adventure will surely be the highlight of your year.

Iguana Surf Camp offers several Costa Rica vacation packages 2022 for those who have a little surf adventure in mind. From weekend to week-long surfing packages, you can get help staying up on your board to experiencing a full video analysis by our surf experts after daily lessons and a complete surf trip. If you’re a surfer with experience you may even get to take a trip to the infamous Witch’s Rock and Ollie’s Point surf breaks.

Expert or novice, we guarantee you will leave with more skills than you came with! Since opening in Tamarindo in 1989, Iguana Surf has taught over 125,000 beginner surf lessons, so you know you are in good hands if you’re a tourist looking to learn the art of surfing.

The ultimate adventure trip to Costa Rica not only includes surfing, but ziplining, white water rafting, hiking up a volcano, and repelling down a canyon! That’s why the best Costa Rica vacation packages 2022 has got to be the Adventure Combo Tour in Rincon de la Vieja Volcano National Park. This exciting, adrenaline-fueled trip has it all, including a dip in the natural hot springs and volcanic mud bath.

Check out our surf experiences HERE.

Nature

 While adventure tourism in Costa Rica is very popular, one of the first things that pops into people’s heads when they think about the small Central American country is its abundant nature. That’s because Costa Rica, while covering only 0.3 percent of the world’s surface, actually contains 5 percent of the world’s biodiversity. There are over 500,000 species of wildlife. It is literally teeming with life! This is due to the country’s commitment to conservation, protecting nearly 25 percent of Costa Rica with natural reserves, wildlife refuges, and national parks.

One of our favorite wildlife reserves to show our guests is the Tamarindo Estuary. This boat tour offers a unique opportunity to observe the abundant wildlife of the tropical dry forest while learning about the unique ecosystem of the mangrove forest. You will see iguanas, crocodiles, and lots of different species of wading birds right in front of you while gliding smoothly along the estuary. Halfway through the tour you will have the chance to get off the boat and walk into the national park. Here you can see the howler monkeys, raccoons, colorful crabs, and plenty of exotic birds in the treetops above.

There’s, even more, to see under the water. Discover the abundant world of nature under the sea with a snorkeling or scuba diving tour! Catalinas Islands are some of the world’s finest dive spots with volcanic rock formations, sheltering small octopus, angelfish, and graceful harlequin shrimp. You are likely to see huge manta rays gliding along the ocean floor, and you may even get to swim beside a sea turtle.

If you come to Costa Rica between October and March, you can even get the opportunity to see hundreds of sea turtles coming to shore to lay their eggs. It’s called the arribada, and it’s a rare chance to experience an incredible natural phenomenon.

Read more about the turtle-watching tour HERE.

Culture

The small country of Costa Rica is home to not one, but three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. If you visit Tamarindo, which is in the province of Guanacaste, you’ll be very close to the first heritage site. The Area de Conservacion Guanacaste comprises mainly tropical dry forest within the Guanacaste, Santa Rosa, Rincon de la Vieja National Park, and the Junquillal Bay Wildlife Refuge, totaling an area of nearly 4,000 square kilometers (1,500 square miles). The tropical dry forest here is one of the most endangered habitats in the tropics. Other UNESCO World Heritage Sites include Cocos Island National Park, which is rated amongst the top scuba diving spots in the world, and Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserve and National Park, which is the tallest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America with peaks over 4,000 meters above sea level.

Nearby Hacienda El Viejo is a fun and informative cultural tour of a Costa Rican family-owned farm featuring a large sugar cane plantation and a 5,000-acre wildlife reserve. This private estate offers a cultural tour, rum-making tour, and a wildlife reserve boat ride. The one-hour cultural tour lets guests experience traditional Guanacaste farm life, where they’ll learn about sugar cane, and see the ox-powered trapiche (sugar cane mill). They even get the chance to make tortillas by hand in the estate’s old-fashioned cocina (kitchen) and traditional Guanacasteca house.

Costa Rica is synonymous with coffee and tours of the plantations are a popular cultural experience. Nearby Tio Leo offers tours of its plantation and shares the long history of the crop, which really began to expand after Costa Rica’s independence in 1821. Guests of this tour get the chance to learn about the drying and roasting process of the beans and explore other food staples of Costa Rica, even trying their hand at making empanadas. 

For those surfers looking for a cultural experience, Iguana Surf offers Costa Rica vacation packages that include Spanish lessons. During your stay at the Surf Camp, you’ll not only receive surfing lessons but attend one of the top language schools and learn Spanish taught by Costa Rican teachers. Achieve two goals in one package! You can’t get the full cultural experience without learning to speak in the native tongue.

Discover our Costa Rica Surf and Spanish add-on.

Iguana Surf Camp offers several Costa Rica vacation packages 2022. Whether you want to focus on adventure, nature, or culture this year, Iguana Surf has got your Costa Rica 2022 trip covered!

 

By Jennifer LaCharite