Costa Rica, off the main road
The beautiful places most visitors drive past
Offbeat Costa Rica collects the crater lakes, cloud forests, caves and quiet beaches that rarely make the top-ten lists. Every place is shared by someone who has been there.
Fewer crowds, same wonder
Every listing has an offbeat score, so you can tell a local secret from a place that is just a little less known.
Shared by people who went
Directions, road conditions, entry fees and the best time to go, written from a real visit rather than a brochure.
Travel lightly
Quiet places stay quiet when visitors respect them. Pack out what you bring, hire local guides and support small businesses nearby.
Recently added places
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Ostional
A wild grey-sand beach north of Nosara where thousands of olive ridley turtles come ashore together during the arribadas.
Bajos del Toro
A small farming valley between Poás and Sarchí with more waterfalls per kilometre than anywhere else in Costa Rica.
Catarata del Toro
A narrow, powerful fall plunging around 90 metres into the crater of an extinct volcano.
Cabo Blanco Reserve
The country's first protected area, with a forest hike that ends on a near-empty beach.
Browse by province
Seven provinces, each with corners that never made it into the guidebooks.
Alajuela
Crater lakes, quiet waterfalls and the northern plains.
Cartago
Cloud forest valleys, rivers and colonial ruins.
Guanacaste
Dry forest, caves and empty coves.
Heredia
Highland trails and Caribbean-slope rainforest.
Limón
Black-sand beaches and slow canal towns.
Puntarenas
Islands, reserves and the far south Pacific.
San José
Mountain villages and coffee-country ridges.
The offbeat scale
Each place gets a score from 1 to 5 based on how many other visitors you are likely to meet. It is a guide, not a promise: holidays and weekends change everything.
Known locally. Popular with Ticos on weekends, quiet midweek.
Under the radar. Signposted, but few tour buses.
Off the main road. Needs a detour, a dirt road or a local tip.
Hard to find. Little online information and no facilities.
Truly remote. Expect to have it to yourself.