Designing the Best Self-Driving Tour of Costa Rica
A Tailor-Made Adventure
Costa Rica, with its lush rainforests, majestic volcanoes, hanging bridges, and pristine beaches, is the perfect destination for travellers seeking adventure and natural beauty. According to Greenpeace, the country is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. For those who value flexibility and independence, a self-drive tour is the ultimate way to experience the country’s wonders.
In this guide, I’ll share how I crafted a Costa Rican self-drive adventure that avoids the crowds, maximises unique experiences, and keeps everything tailored to my interests. Above all, I wanted to see sloths and toucans, hopefully all four species of monkeys (howler, capuchin, spider and squirrel) and I had high hopes of seeing all of these in a 2-week journey.

In addition, I wanted to experience:
- Hanging Bridges
- Cloud Forests
- Nice beaches
- as well as animals in their natural habitat
The entire trip was self-planned and self-booked, having never been to the country before. We actually booked the SUV through Discover Cars, who ended up being slightly cheaper than Kayak.
The only disappointments were the beaches (really nothing special if you’ve lived in Bermuda or travelled to Thailand), the lack of volcano views (it rained for 3 days while we were in La Fortuna), and Manuel Antonio National Park (it’s a zoo of people, not animals)!
Why Choose a Self-Drive Tour of Costa Rica?
A self-drive tour allows you to take control of your itinerary. Unlike group tours or relying on public transport, driving lets you explore off-the-beaten-path locations and adjust plans on the fly. For my trip, I deliberately avoided the busy northern regions (Guanacaste province including Tamarindo, Nicoya and Nosara). We went in January / February, so not an ideal time to visit the Caribbean Coast (turtle breeding not in season) and so we decided to focus on the quieter, less tourist-heavy areas.
The northern regions are a popular destination for American visitors, with direct flights to Liberia (LIR) making the journey easier. (Just don’t get confused with the country in West Africa, or you will have an altogether different type of holiday!)
This approach ensured a more immersive and authentic experience. The driving was a doddle. We hired a Ford Explorer, which could climb a mountain and ford rivers (and we did!). The ability to stop, take pictures and just admire the beauty was ideal.
First, we explored a number of options with five different tour companies. All of them came up with some incredible itineraries. But the cost of doing what we wanted was hard to swallow, especially when we started looking in to booking a self-drive tour ourselves.
Planning your Self-Drive Tour of Costa Rica
Choosing the Right Time to Tour:
If your goal is to spend time touring, with a mix of hiking and sunbathing, you have to visit Costa Rica during their dry season. This starts in December and should last until after Easter or around mid-April.
Guess what? It’s also the time when travellers wishing to escape the winter in the northern hemisphere visit. It will be more expensive, busier and you can expect scarcity of flights and accommodation. Book those first!
There is a period from May to August, where the weather should be great in the mornings, but thunderstorms bring torrential rain in the afternoon. The good news is that the birds, bees and other animals love it and you should be sure to spot something.
As September is the peak of the hurricane season, you can expect to get blasted either on the Pacific Ocean or Caribbean Sea.
Self-Drive Transportation Tips:
We chose Alamo, as they were one of the few reliable companies who would accept a drop-off at a different location (Puerto Jiménez) to the pick-up (San José). It wasn’t cheap – we paid over $1,250 for our 18 days – but for the flexibility and peace of mind it was worth it. Let me clarify that: I just don’t think I could bear being in a group, where you constantly are mindful of having to be at a certain place at a fixed time. Besides, some people are just always late and I hate waiting for stragglers. Also, what if some people are just a little … – you know! 😉
Depending on the time of year you travel (see above), getting around could prove a challenge. If you come in the “green/wet” season, it’s definitely a time to consider the biggest SUV/4X4 you can afford!
Roads could become impassable at short notice, so plan accordingly.
Essential Self-Drive Tour of Costa Rica: Apps and Tools
Download the Full Itinerary
If you want to see a snapshot of the full self-drive tour of Costa Rica, you can download it here:
Download Link
The Ultimate 14-Day Self-Drive Tour Itinerary
Day 1 - Arrival & San José
Our flight was due to land at lunchtime and so we had already decided we were NOT going to attempt the drive to La Fortuna that day. With customs, getting to the car hire depot, filling in forms etc, we didn’t leave the airport area until around 2:30pm. Had we driven all the way, it would have made it a long day and would have been dark when we arrived in Arenal.
Instead, we stopped at a huge supermarket, that was as good as you’d expect back home. We stocked up on journey essentials as well as beer and wine and then headed on to Alajuela where we were going to spend the night.
I was not tempted to visit San José. Another time maybe, but we were here for the animals, not those you can find in any big city.
Perhaps had we NOT been doing a self-drive tour, it would have been easier to grab public transport and see what is supposed to be a lively city. There is a Central Market (Mercado Central) and several buildings of note, including the Teatro Nacional.
We had no regrets that evening, sipping a beer on the balcony of our hotel, looking back at San José in the distance, with the ultimate self-drive Costa Rica tour to come!

Days 2 - 4: La Fortuna & Arenal Volano
We had pre-paid to visit the Poás Volcano prior to our arrival. We woke early and after a typical Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice & black beans), egg and coffee, we set off on our adventures: full of first day nerves! The Volcano is conveniently situated on one of the two routes you can take to La Fortuna. What struck us, apart from the natural beauty and cleanliness everywhere you looked, was that it was completely deserted. Nothing on the roads, no traffic or people. The other thought was: “it’s just like Switzerland!”, with rolling hills and green pastures.
Of course, it only struck us later, that vast quantities of the country have seen deforestation on such a scale, that the only primary rainforest remaining is to be found in Osa Peninsula or in the southern Caribbean area known as The Talamanca Biological Corridor. While around 50% of the country (most of the south) is forested, only about 12% of the country has primary rain forest left. Even some of the places we visited later in Osa and Golfito have relatively new secondary rain forest.
Poás Volcano
The side-trip was well worth the detour, even if we were an hour earlier than our scheduled time. It’s a short hike up to the crater and then, BOOM: the ground falls away to reveal one of the largest volcano craters in the world! We were very lucky to have such a clear day and the volcano wasn’t billowing more sulphur. We read that some months later, visitors had to be evacuated and the site was closed for a while as it was bubbling furiously.


We continued our journey northwest to La Fortuna, and by chance we came across the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Peace Lodge. The advantage of a self-drive was clear. We just stopped and spent a few hours seeing our first monkeys, lions, humming birds and incredible Morpho butterflies in the country. That and five waterfalls too, culminating in the La Paz that drops an impressive 34m (110ft). This self-drive trip was only a few hours old, and already it had beaten our expectations!
Before long, we set off, using Waze, and as we approached Arenal, we went wrong by climbing over the top of a mini-mountain before finally arriving at our resort (The Springs Resort). Coincidentally, it turns out that both La Paz and our resort are owned by the same people.
The Resort itself was incredible, but we were most unlucky with the weather. It was cloudy and/or rainy for the 3 nights we were there. While the Hot Springs were outstanding – with three separate areas with multiple pools. The pools range in temperatures from around 33C to 40C (104F), and it didn’t matter that it was raining as we were getting wet soaking up the natural minerals.
If you don’t want to pay the day pass to The Springs (Club Rio), there are other hotels that offer passes including Baldi Hot Springs and Tabacon Thermal Resort & Spa. However, you just need to head 200 yards further down the road to find the source, which is free to enter (watch out for parking vigilantes).

La Fortuna itself (20 minutes from The Springs Resort), is a bustling town with plenty of cafés and restaurants to choose from. Just as well we had the hire car as we hopped around for 2 further days soaking up all there was to see.
One of the must do things is to walk down to the Catarata Río Fortuna, to see the 70-m waterfall plunge off a cliff. You can swim in the pool, but be careful as there is quite a current. The bad news is that there are 500 steps to climb down, and the only way out is to climb back up! It’s worth the journey though.
Other things you can do in abundance in the area include:
- Hike the Arenal Volcano National Park trails.
- Relax in natural hot springs (e.g., Tabacón or Eco Termales).
- Adventure activities: zip-lining, white-water rafting (Balsa or Sarapiquí Rivers), or canyoning.

Hanging Bridges Tour

No trip to Costa Rico would be complete without a visit to a site with Hanging Bridges. The ultimate stop for us was Mistico Park, where they offer guided tours with experienced naturalist guides. It was pouring with rain. People were late joining and a family with young kids dropped out, so we were 30 minutes late starting for our 2.5 tour. However, Will, our guide, turned out to be a practicing professor of Natural History. We could not have been more fortunate. His skill at finding animals sheltering from the rain allowed us to see a few animals including birds and reptiles. The highlight was the Hanging Bridges themselves, with some of them having vertiginous drops of up to 80m.
One of the few birds we did see (it was raining pretty hard!), was the delightful MotMot, which became my favourite bird as we saw a few after this.

Sloth Tours, Night Tours, Chocolate Tours
All of these tours can be done individually or combined (obviously it’s easier to see the sloths during the day!).
We did a morning tour looking for sloths – and had some success, and the guide was very knowledgeable. The evening tour was a combination of making chocolate and trying not to step on a Terciopelo / Fer-de-Lance snake. The tour guide at


again, knew his stuff and we were lucky enough NOT to see the Fer-de-Lance, but did see pit vipers and frogs and made some delicious chocolate too.
It was soon time to head on from La Fortuna. Next stop was Monteverde and the Cloud Forest Reserve.
If you look at the map, it’s a relatively short journey as the crow flies. There’s also the one [and only] disadvantage on this self-drive holiday compared to being on an organised tour. On an organised tour, you can go by boat across Lake Arenal and be met the other side. For our tour, you have to drive ALL the way round the lake.
Having Googled the options, we decided to make a longer detour and take the opportunity of visiting the Rio Celeste Waterfall. This turns out to be a) quite the hike, not least as our thighs were still recovering from the hike up from La Fortuna Waterfall; and b) the hike to the end was much longer, but has an incredible natural phenomenon.
Rio Celeste Waterfall
You can hear the waterfall itself before you can see it. I ventured all the way down to the bottom to witness its power and beauty. It really is turquoise in colour, but that’s not the whole story.
Venturing back up the trail and then continuing towards the source of the river, you come to a clearing where two rivers meet.
The one on the left, the Buenavista River is clear but contains aluminosilicate from the Tenoria Volcano. The Quebrada Agria coming from the right, is highly acidic (pH 3.1) as it passes hydrothermal vents of sulphuric acid (hence it smells strongly of rotten eggs.
The blue / turquoise colour is actually an optical illusion like a rainbow, from light hitting suspended mineral particles!
- Note book tickets for Pargue Nacional Volcán Tenorio first!
Days 5 - 6: Monteverde & Cloud Forest
Having left Rio Celeste behind, we passed several dormant volcanoes on the 3-hour drive to Monteverde. The journey is straightforward, apart from the last hour. It’s mostly uphill and the road is more pot hole than road. The views off the side are however stunning!
We stayed centrally in Saint Elena at the Monteverde Lodge, which is a short walk uphill from town. They have several sister hotels (including Lapa Rios in Osa), but also the Cloud Forest Lodge a short car ride up the hill. We went there for breakfast one day, which was stunning. Not least as they have loads of humming birds enjoying the feeding stations, just feet from where you are sitting.
The opportunity to immerse yourself in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve with its misty trails and rich flora is one not to be missed.
We were fortunate enough to see and hear howler monkeys and also see a Quetzal bird. It was a wonderful forest, full of trails and I wish we’d spent more time there.
If you don’t manage to get to La Fortuna but still want to experience Hanging Bridges, then check out:
- Another Hanging Bridges Tour at Selvatura Park or enjoy the huge Butterfly Garden or Sloth Sanctuary there.
For us, it was time to head south and turn up the heat!
Days 7 - 8: Manuel Antonio
Getting there
By now we were very much ready for some sunshine after the rain of La Fortuna and wind of Monteverde. The drive down south started with some epic views of the coast in the distance. Soon it became busier and we even passed a toll booth. Overall, with a stop for lunch by the coast, it took 4h:30.
We needed a pit stop so thought about stopping at the River Tarcoles, where you can see crocodiles from the bridge. Yes, there were plenty of crocodiles, but watch out for the sharks in the car park! And don’t leave your valuables in the car (at any time!).
Turning up the heat!
The afternoon when we arrived, the weather was sensational. We’d splashed out as I was intrigued by the hotel concept, so we stayed at Hotel Costa Verde. It was a unique style of hotel, but more outdated and tired than rustic. It did have the most incredible view though, which served as a good launchpad for a drone tour.
What to do around Manuel Antonio?
There is a LOT to see and do here, and you could probably spend 5 days if you just want to chill and sunbathe and do a few activities.
Here’s a list of some things to do:
Things to Do
- Relax on Manuel Antonio Beach.
- Hike trails within Manuel Antonio National Park, and consider joining a wildlife tour focused on spotting sloths and other unique animals that thrive in the park’s lush ecosystem.
- Take a sunset catamaran cruise.
- Try kayaking or paddle-boarding at Playa Biesanz.
Best Sights / Activities
- Manuel Antonio National Park: Abundant wildlife, pristine beaches, and lush trails.
- Playa Espadilla: Popular for its soft sands and nearby amenities.
- Playa Biesanz: A secluded spot perfect for snorkelling and relaxing.
Insights for New Travellers
- The National Park is closed on Tuesdays—plan accordingly.
- You need to book as spaces are now limited.
- Arrive early to the park to avoid crowds.
- Be cautious of monkeys at the beach; they’re skilled food thieves!
- Avoid Manuel Antonio completely if you really want to experience the biodiversity of Costa Rica: go directly to Osa Peninsula instead!
Frankly, the National Park was nothing special. I hated it. Every time an animal was foolish enough to stick its head out, all the guides messaged each other (“sloth/spider/snake/frog spotted”), which then meant you had 3 or 4 tour groups all crowding around trying to get a photo that the eye couldn’t see!
My advice, don’t pay for a guided tour. Tag along to other groups when they see something. Head to the two beaches and enjoy the sunshine.

Day 9: Uvita / Dominical / Ojochal
After a few days, we headed further south. The change is subtle but noticeable. Fewer people, more of a 60’s/70’s vibe. We didn’t have time to stop and enter the Marino Ballena National Park, but wish we had. We were fortunate to have flown over the “Whale’s Tail” on our flight back to San José though, and it is quite the stunning view.
Dominical is for surfers and the sort of place that hasn’t changed in 30 years. Long may it stay so. The surfing beach is miles long, although I would probably stay close to the area with life guards, who will also be on the lookout for salt-water crocodiles.
We stayed in a cute hotel in Ojochal called Alma de Ojochal, which shares the site with The Bamboo Room, which provides evening meals and entertainment. This is clearly a favourite with the French ex pat community and we had a really fun night there.
I did manage to sneak the drone out in the morning too to capture some stunning visuals of the area. If you wanted the absolute indulgence experience, then check out the Hotel Three Sixty, nestled on a hill – and where your 4 x 4 on your Costa Rica self-drive would be recommended!

Days 10 - 13: Osa Peninsula
Our self-drive tour would lead us to two destinations on and near Osa Peninsula. As it turns out, and because it was the dry season, we really didn’t need the 4X4. I had planned to explore more of the peninsula, but the resort we stayed at provided for everything we needed and wanted to do. The car stayed in the car park for 2 days. Next time I’ll get the resort to pick us up from Puerto Jiménez airport.
If you are heading to Drake Bay, then you’ll want to drop the car at Sierpe and catch a boat ride from there.
Some Self-Drive Tour ideas for Osa Peninsula
Each resort probably has a huge list of things that are either free or extra that you can do at or near the resort.
- Visit the stunning resorts of Lapa Rios Lodge, Bosque Del Cabo Rainforest Lodge or El Ramanso Rainforest Lodge on Osa Peninsula.
- Alternatively, venture across the Golfo Dulce and stay near Golfito at the charming Golfo Dulce Retreat for an eco-luxury experience.
- For the brave and super-adventurous, go further to Carate and walk 4km down the beach to La Leona
- I found this blog an interesting read! I’m not sure I could have done it, though I had planned to do it.
- Trek through Corcovado National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.
- Enjoy kayaking, wildlife tours, and serene beaches.
Honestly, the Osa Peninsula is just extraordinary. From the noise of buzzing insects, to the sheer number of animals everywhere. We were brave (or fool-hardy) and did many treks on our own around both Bosque del Cabo. We only had 2 days, but it’s one of those places that people just keep going back to. I am sure we will too. Read my review here.
Golfo Dulce
We wanted to explore the other side of the Golfo Dulce (where humpback whales come to birth their calves), before heading home. So, we drove back to Puerto Jiménez to pick up our transfer boat.
No chance of self-driving here! The only way to get to our resort was by boat. There wasn’t even a pier at the other end!
We had to drop the car off at Alamo by the airport by noon, but our boat ride wasn’t until 2pm. The staff kindly dropped us off at a beach cafê (there’s nothing at the airport), which would have been quite a walk away. They then came and picked us up later to drive us to the dock. Amazing service 🙏.
The ride across the bay takes about 20-30 minutes depending on the weather. It was a little bumpy!
The resort itself was a little piece of paradise. On some days we were there on our own, just chilling by the pool or wandering round the trails. What was outstanding though was the food, service and welcome from the family and staff. Highly recommended.
One highlight for us was doing a kayaking tour of the mangrove forests. You know there are crocodiles there, but the water is brown so you can’t see them. But seeing the footprints on the muddy banks was thrilling!
Day 14: Return to San José
Our self-drive tour of Costa Rica had come to an end when we left the SUV at Puerto Jiménez. We could have driven back, but as we were staying on 2 different resorts (Osa and Golfito), where we didn’t need the car, AND it would have taken a whole day to do the drive back to San José.
Getting back to San José therefore required a flight. There are several options, but you get more choice if you fly back from Puerto Jiménez rather than Golfito.
It’s a fun experience, not least as the “airport” is not much more than a paved landing strip. We chose Sansa airlines, who provided a great service. The views back were as awesome as those on the ground.
Concluding our Self-Drive Tour of Costa Rica
A self-drive tour of Costa Rica offers the freedom to tailor your trip to your preferences while uncovering the country’s hidden gems. From the majestic volcanoes of Arenal to the untouched beauty of the Osa Peninsula, this itinerary showcases the best of Costa Rica while avoiding the crowds.
Ready to hit the road?
Start planning your Costa Rican adventure today, and discover the joy of travel on your terms.
