Costa Rica is full of nature, they are good at preserving it, and it is easy to get to it. Here are some suggestions close by the capital San Jose

Costa Rica is full of national parks, and we did a good job of visiting a good amount of them. Some of them are reachable by public transport, but the best way to move around in Costa Rica, and especially if you want to do these day trips are with your own vehicle. For some of them we rented a car, for some of them we had good friends that took us to the places.

Irazu

The highest active volcano in Costa Rica, with the last eruption happening somewhere in 1994. The volcano is part of the Irazu Volcano National Park, and from it's peak, if you are very lucky, you will be able to see both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans (good luck with the weather!). The volcano's summit has several craters, one of which contains Diego de la Haya, a green crater lake of variable depth. The entrance to the park costs about 15$ for a foreigner, and you can reach almost all the way to the summit with a car. This is one of those places that you can actually reach without a car, as they have a not very frequent bus that can take you to the top.

Poas

Another active volcano, with the most recent eruption in September 2019. It also had a significant eruption in 2017, following which the park was closed for almost two years. You can reach the visitor center with your car, and from there there is a 10 minutes walk to the active crater lake (Laguna Caliente). You can opt in to walk on a trail for about 20 minutes and reach the other crater lake, that is inactive for thousands of years (Lake Botos). The weather is changing quickly, and although we were lucky enough to get a clear view of the first crater, the second crater was fully clouded. The entrance to the park costs about 15$ for foreigners, and you have to reserve your spot because there is a limited amount of visitors allowed per day since the eruption in 2017.

Waterfalls

Between the Poas Volcano National Park and Juan Castro Blanco National Park there is a series of rivers and waterfalls, with the most famous being Catarata Del Toro. There are a lot of waterfalls, and many of are part of a property, which means that you pay for an entrance. Some of them are just on the way and nice to look at, some have trails to them and some have lakes that you can swim in, but be ware of the cold water!

We managed to see 4 waterfalls at 3 locations in the same day, and then ate dinner in a restaurant in the area:

• Tesoro Escondido - Our favorite of the 3. The location has 2 waterfalls, each having a lake under them. The first one is about 30 minutes hike, and the second one is about another 30 minutes hike after that. The entrance was 7500CRC (~15$) and there is a restaurant in case you want to have your lunch there. You also better bring your water shoes, even though I managed to hike it with sneakers and jeans without getting wet

• Catarata Del Toro - The tallest and most visited waterfall in the area. The location has an option to visit another waterfall but we chose to visit only one. There is about an hour hike to the waterfall, and the way has over 400 stairs before you reach, so get your legs ready! You cannot swim under that waterfall but the trail is full of amazing views and the waterfall is impressive! The entrance to see the waterfall is 15$, and it is changing depending on whether you want to visit the second one as well, you can see the full pricing on their website

• La Paz - One of the waterfalls are are visible just from the road. It does have a hike towards it, and has a zoo as well, but we opted in just to look at it and keep going.

Final thoughts

There are a lot more national parks around San Jose and in Costa Rica in general, and a lot more waterfalls and volcanoes. These were our favorites close by and easily reachable from San Jose.

I hope you find the information helpful and that you will enjoy your time at these parks.

Have more ideas for natural day trips? Like the ones I wrote about? Tell me!