Best of Costa Rica Itinerary for All Ages

Upon your arrival, you will be greeted at the airport for a short transfer to your accommodation in the city’s outskirts. Set in tropical gardens, your hotel features its own spa and a sense of tranquility that is ideal after a flight. You will also be provided with plenty of time to settle in before your local guide leads you around San Jose just before dusk, which is a beautiful time because the old colonial architecture begins to glow with a golden hue. A short stroll can give you a good impression of old San Jose before indulging in dinner at a small farm to table restaurant. After an early dinner, you will visit San Jose’s most iconic building: the Teatro Nacional.

Deep in the downtown area, you can explore the vivid history of the city. Your guide will use different buildings to create a storyline from pre-Columbian times to Costa Rica after its colonization with optional visits to Museos del Banco Central de Costa Rica and the country’s museum of jade. After lunch, it will be a two and a half-hour drive to La Fortuna. Arenal is the most famous volcano in Costa Rica, and it looms high above the bustling town of La Fortuna. Therapeutic hot springs are a highlight of any stay in La Fortuna, and you will be able to enjoy them without even leaving the hacienda’s grounds.

Here, you can zipline, summit a volcano, go whitewater rafting, mountain bike, and travel on horseback. All these activities disguise how La Fortuna is a serene destination, where everyone can explore at their own pace. Today, you will be provided with a local guide who will tailor a selection of activities to your interests and fitness levels. For example, Sendero Coladas, which is the lava flow trail, is a beautiful and relatively short hike that is ideal for many senior visitors, but you can also explore the area in a vehicle with stops at a variety of viewpoints and natural hot springs. While most visitors in La Fortuna come for Arenal, there are other volcanoes as well. You can also explore a cloud forest and wander slowly across bridges that are positioned high in the canopy.

This morning, after breakfast, you will visit the Maleku Indian community. Your first impressions will linger, especially when you are greeted in a revered manner. Elders are highly respected in Maleku culture, and senior visitors can enjoy a full immersion into the tribal community because some elements of village life are not made available to younger visitors. You will spend a morning in a Maleku village, admiring their craftsmanship and culture. As a senior, you will be able to converse with the village matriarchs and patriarchs, which can lead to some very interesting discussions about history and change. Visits to cacao and other plantations can also provide you with an idea of traditional farming methods while antique huacas, or tombs, will teach you about the local mythology.

Today’s journey will present options for short walks en route to Monteverde. Costa Rica has innumerable trails, and you do not need to traverse a volcano to enjoy hiking in nature here. Toward Monteverde, you can try short, 30-minute hikes on flat paths in the cloud forest or a walk that is focused on local wildlife. One option for today will be to get an early start and to arrive in Monteverde for lunch before spending the afternoon at a butterfly and orchid garden. When heading deeper into the cloud forest, you should keep your eyes alert for capuchin monkeys. They can swing past you with playful eyes and bashful smiles.

Tours of Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve are best conducted in the early morning, especially for senior travelers. It is much easier to walk around in the cooler morning hours, and, during this time, the wildlife is more active as well, so you can experience some very personal encounters with capuchin monkeys and over 200 different bird species. By midmorning, it will be hotter and significantly more humid, and, by midday, the wildlife will be hiding to avoid the heat. An early start can feel a little inconvenient, but it will mean that you get three to four hours in the biological reserve before the heat takes over the grounds. The Monteverde area has a number of other attractions that you can visit in the afternoon, including a Bat Jungle.

After spending yesterday on the forest floor, you will walk through the cloud forest canopy at Sky Walk. A network of suspension bridges will lead you between massive trees, and this aerial perspective will provide you with a peek at animals that you can completely miss from the ground. There are different routes here, and all of them will encourage you to walk slowly while looking out for flora, fauna, and wildlife. After two to three hours in the canopy, you will be transferred by road to Manuel Antonio National Park. After arriving at your beachside hotel in the park, the rest of the day will be at your leisure.

Mangroves will set the scene when you ride on a boat through the Damas Island estuary, and birds flit around these harmonic trees. When the mangroves rescind, you can find empty beaches and muddy banks. With a private boat tour, you can sit back and enjoy rainforest seclusion before cruising toward the beach for a few final hours on the sand. After lunch and a late checkout, you will be transferred back to San Jose for your outbound flight.