Costa Rica is attractive on many levels.  You can bring your family here safely to travel or live for extended periods.  Your kids can go to school and get a decent education.  Medical care is top quality and virtually free.  You can hire people to help you with almost all of your needs - drivers, nannys, cooks, guides, translators are all available.

The nature is also simply amazing.  My favourite place on earth is here in Costa Rica, a place called Tabacon.  It is a hot springs in the Arenal Volcano National Park.  Here in Tabacon you can enjoy hot springs, a walk through flower-lined paths, or eat a great dinner while watching the smoke and ash steam out of the Arenal Volcano nearby.  Howler monkeys can get a little noisy at times, but that is a tiny price to pay.

The Arenal Volcano National Park is one of about 20 national parks they have here in Costa Rica.  I’ve read that they have a larger pecentage of land set aside as national parks than any other country.  That should tell you a little bit about the country right there.  They are quite progressive and forward minded here and take a lot of pride in their nature.

There are national parks surrounding several other volcanos.  There are several marine sanctuary national parks for whales and sea turtles, and several others setting aside jungle areas to protect rare birds.  In fact where you’re down here, you’ll find that a lot of the tourists from Canada and the US come here to birdwatch.

While it isn’t a national park, the Monte Verde forest reserve is another fun place to go with the family.  It is a cloud forest and has some great trails for walking and bird watching.  It is one of the very few places left in the world where you can actually hope to see the Quetzal.  It also has zip lines set up that let you fly through the forest canopy.  We did this on our last trip here and it was one of the highlights for sure.

One more I’ll mention is the Chirripo national park.  It contains the highest mountain in Costa Rica.  It has limited access because so many people were going there that a lot of damage was being done.  It is a two day affair to climb the mountain, and you’ll need to make a reservation to do the climb, but it is a climb that is well worth the effort.  The climb is hard, but doesn’t require any technical skill.  I spoke with two seventy year old Canadians the other day who had just finished the climb.  They said that even though they ached all over, it was the best thing they’d done on their trip so far.

There are many other parks that you can visit or stay at while you are here.  You’ll just need to decide what you want to do and see and then choose the park that suits you best.  If it turns out to not be exactly what you’re looking for, there are lots more to try.

-James D. Brausch