Costa Rica is well known worldwide to be an eco-touristic destination but nowadays is also a very intense adventure destination. Here are some of the Best Adventure Activities in Costa Rica, including information about the best places to practice them and other details:
Ziplining
Perhaps I have to say that this is the most popular of all of the adventure activities offered in Costa Rica, whether you are adventurous or not, this is the “must-do” tour while in the country. Ziplining is suitable for all ages in most of the parks, from 5-year-olds to 80-year-olds in good physical shape. Where can we do a zip lining tour in Costa Rica? Besides the different geographic locations, being the most popular Arenal Volcano & La Fortuna de San Carlos, Manuel Antonio National Park area, Monteverde Cloud Forest area, and the Guanacaste province, there are also different habitats where it could be done.
The best and most recommended habitat would be our lush rainforests, we’ve noticed in many years of experience that the rainforest is the place where the zip liners enjoy more of the tour, because of the great views of the exuberant vegetation, wildlife and why not, waterfalls in some of the cases. The most popular Costa Rica destinations to do zip lining in the rainforest are the Arenal Volcano National Park area, the Manuel Antonio Beach area, the Sarapiqui area, and the Jaco Beach area.
The second best habitat to do zip lining I have to say is our cloud forests. Doing zip lining in the cloud forest is a great and unique experience, because this is by far “the freshest” ecosystem of Costa Rica, you just have to hope that the day is clear and sunny for the best enjoyment, since this habitat is normally cloudy as its name says and drizzling most of the time, which it could be a not very pleasant experience for those who are not good friends of the cold temperatures (the temperature in the cloud forests is cool, which united to getting wet if it’s drizzling it could get quite cold). The most popular Costa Rica touristic destinations to do zip lining in the cloud forest are Monteverde and Santa Elena Cloud Forest area and the Poas Volcano National Park area.
The least recommended Costa Rican habitat to do zip lining is our dry forests, more specifically the Guanacaste Resorts’ area, mainly because the vegetation and the views are not as pretty as in the rainforest or cloud forest and because the Guanacaste Region is very flat, not allowing a good inclination to make the lines as fun as they would be in mountainous areas.
White Water Rafting
Costa Rica is a famous destination for white water rafting around the world, as a matter of fact; many tournaments have taken place here, including the world championship of rafting. Our best and most famous river is the “Pacuare River”, considered as one of the 5 best rivers in the world for commercial white water rafting; as for us Costa Ricans would say Pacuare is our “Sunday clothing” (a phrase used in Costa Rica to defined the best of the best of what the country is famous for or known for). One thing to take into consideration is that the Pacuare River tour is suitable only for those adventurers with experience, because this river is level III-IV, sometimes we can actually add a “+mark” to these numbers, including the levels of the water.
Another good river to practice class III-IV intense rafting is the Sarapiqui River rafting tour, but this one, in particular, is better known to be the best class II-III River in all Costa Rica, or perhaps I can say the best river for beginners or those who want to experience rafting but not too rough. Besides the good rapids, Sarapiqui also offers excellent views of our rainforests, and many times (almost every time), numerous forms of wildlife can be seen during the tour on the riversides.
Another good river where rafting can be practiced is the Savegre River, near the famous Manuel Antonio National Park beaches and the Chirripo River near the Sarapiqui rainforest area.
Waterfall Rappelling
This one is probably the most challenging of the Best Adventure Activities in Costa Rica, the one where many times the tour guides have to give the participants a “little push” of courage so they don’t chicken out. The best place to practice waterfall rappelling would be, again, our lush rainforests; being the best places the Arenal Volcano area and the coastal mountain range on the Pacific side that goes from Jaco Beach, passing near Quepos (the Manuel Antonio National Park area), Dominical and all the way to Uvita Beach. There are many options available for this activity, with different levels of intensity, you just have to be careful which one to choose because some of them are not really that good; all of them advertise themselves as “the best”, of course, but here is where you need your local Costa Rican vacation planner with a good reputation to guide you to the one is truly the best option according to what you are looking for.
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