Beyond the Beaches: Discovering Costa Rica’s Lesser-Known Treasures
After our youngest left for university, the house got very quiet very fast. My partner and I looked at each other over dinner one night and said, almost simultaneously, “So… where do you actually want to go?” We’d done the obvious — the all-inclusive resorts, the beach weeks where we barely moved — but this time we wanted something that felt genuinely alive. Costa Rica had always meant postcard beaches to us, but once we started digging, we realised the country was hiding something far more interesting beyond the coastline: cloud forests, remote villages, volcanic landscapes, and a culture that most visitors never slow down long enough to find. This is the trip that changed how we travel, and these are the lesser-known corners of Costa Rica we’re so glad we almost missed.
The Hiking Boots That Survived Costa Rica’s “Dry” Season Mud
Costa Rica’s cloud forests and hidden trails aren’t kind to street shoes—and the locals’ casual warnings about “rainy season” left us unprepared for the fact that “dry season” apparently means “just slightly less wet.” We learned this the hard way after slipping on mossy trail rocks about forty minutes into our first inland hike.
What works
- The grip actually held on wet rocks and muddy descents—which sounds obvious until you’re gripping a tree root at a 40-degree angle with your heart in your throat.
- They don’t absorb water like a sponge, so your feet don’t prune into unusable appendages halfway through a three-hour jungle trek.
- The ankle support made a real difference on uneven, root-tangled trails where a twisted ankle would have ended our adventure and probably required a helicopter.
What doesn’t
- They’re heavy and take up almost the entire shoe section of your luggage—pack them, but it hurts when you’re also trying to fit in actual clothes.
- Breaking them in before a trip is non-negotiable; I ignored this advice and paid for it with blisters on day two.
I nearly turned back halfway through our second hike after my blister flared up, convinced I’d made a terrible gear choice by not testing them first at home. But once they were properly broken in, they became non-negotiable for any trail deeper than the resort perimeter. If you’re serious about actually exploring Costa Rica’s interior, grab a pair of hiking boots.
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