Northwestern Costa Rica Attractions

This region of Costa Rica stretches north to the Nicaraguan border. The highlands of northwestern Costa Rica are made up of two mountain chains: the Cordillera de Tilarán and the Cordillera de Guanacaste. Featuring attractive towns, forests, mountains, volcanoes and parks, this is a very scenic region of Costa Rica.

Cloud forest once covered the mountains of the Cordillera de Tilarán. Today, the famous Monteverde cloud forest presents an example of this tropical environment, as well as a unique community in Costa Rica. The Arenal area, including a lake and volcano (one of the most active in the world) separates the two mountain chains.

A string of lightly active or dormant volcanoes comprises the Cordillera de Guanacaste, five of which are protected within national park boundaries. West of this massif is the Santa Elena Peninsula that includes a rare tropical dry forest descending to remote beaches on the Pacific coastline.