• Costa Rica is filled with natural beauty.Costa Rica Countryside image by oddzen89 from Fotolia.com
  
  Costa Rica is blessed with incredible diversity providing travelers a wide range of destinations to explore. Natural scenery to be discovered includes beaches, rainforests and volcanoes. Also added is an extensive array of nightlife, unique culture, tasty food, and plenty of live music. Costa Rica has something to offer every traveler, and is a destination one will never go bored.
  
  

Manuel Antonio National Park

• Manuel Antonio National Park is a Costa Rican beach park that possess immense natural beauty. It offers a relaxing escape away from the bars, clubs, hotels and restaurants that surround it. Trails run throughout the park into areas of the lowland rainforest that encompass the park. Wildlife throughout the park includes monkeys, sloths, many species of birds, and iguanas. Dolphins can be spotted from the park's beaches. The park's two most widely known beaches are Playa Espadilla Sur and Playa Manuel Antonio. Playa Manuel Antonio is a half mile long with white sand and a secluded cove. Due to past overcrowding of the park, the amount of visitors is kept to 600 on weekdays, and 800 on weekends. According to the Manuel Antonio National Park info center's website, the park is located 132 kilometers south of Quepos on the Pacific Coast, and 132 kilometers from San Jose. Entrance to the park is $10 per person with children under 12 being able to enter for free. The park is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.
  
  

Puerto Viejo Area Attractions

• Puerto Viejo is one of the more widely known and laid back tourist destinations in Costa Rica along the Carribean coast. It is a city located in Limon province where reggae, calypso, and soca are the music genres of choice. While Spanish is the main language in Puerto Viejo, English Creole is also widely spoken by many inhabitants. Puerto Viejo has a scenic nightlife with beaches like Playa Colces and Salsa Brava nearby. Playa Colces beach is just south of Puerto Viejo, and is well suited for swimming, scuba diving and snorkeling. Salsa Brava is a mile north of Playa Colces, and located within Puerto Viejo. According to Surfline's website, it's waves are among the best in Costa Rica for surfing.
  
  

Volcano Trekking

• Exploring Costa Rica's volcanoes is among the country's top tourist attractions. According to Go Visit Costa Rica's website, the nation has has over 200 identifiable volcanic formations to explore. The nation's largest volcano is located within Irazu Volcano National Park which is 32 kilometers from the former capital of Cartago. The park allows visitors to climb to the Deigo de la Haya crater which has a green water-colored lake in the center of it. Both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans can be viewed from the top of Irazu on a clear day.
  
  A more active volcanoe is present near the town of La Fortuna which is 16 miles from Ciudad Quesada and 75 miles from San Jose. Four miles from La Fortuna is Arenal Volcanoe. Arenal has maintained constant activity for the past 400 years, and erupted on a mass scale in 1968.