Arenal Volcano/Tabacon Hot Springs (near La Fortuna, NW of San Jose): When the skies are clear and the lava is flowing, Arenal Volcano provides a thrilling light show accompanied by an earthshaking rumble that defies description. You can even see the show while soaking in a natural hot spring and having a drink at the swim-up bar.

Manuel Antonio (near Quepos on the central Pacific coast): There's a reason this place is so popular and renowned: monkeys! The national park here is full of them, even the endangered squirrel monkeys. But there's plenty to see and do outside the park as well. The road leading into Manuel Antonio provides numerous lookouts that consistently produce postcard-perfect snapshots of steep jungle hills meeting the sea. Uninhabited islands lie just off the coast, and the beaches here are perfect crescents of soft, white sand.

Osa Peninsula (in southern Costa Rica): This is Costa Rica's most remote and biologically rich region. Corcovado National Park, the largest remaining patch of virgin lowland tropical rainforest in Central America, takes up much of the Osa Peninsula. Jaguars, crocodiles, and scarlet macaws all call this place home. Whether you stay in a luxury nature lodge in Drake Bay or outside of Puerto Jim?nez, or camp in the park itself, you will be surrounded by some of the most lush and most intense jungle this country has to offer.

Tortuguero Village & Jungle Canals (on the Caribbean coast, N of Lim?n): Tortuguero Village is a small collection of rustic wooden shacks on a narrow spit of land between the Caribbean Sea and a dense maze of jungle canals. It's been called Costa Rica's Venice, but it actually has more in common with the South American Amazon. You can fly into the small airstrip, but it's better to take one of the slow boats that ply the river and canal route. On the way you'll see a wide variety of herons and other water birds, three types of monkeys, three-toed sloths, and huge American crocodiles. If you come between June and October, you may be treated to the awe-inspiring spectacle of a green turtle nesting -- the small stretch of Tortuguero beach is the last remaining major nesting site of this endangered animal.

Monteverde Biological Cloud Forest Preserve (in the mountains NW of San Jose): There's something both eerie and majestic about walking around in the early morning mist with the sound of bird calls all around and the towering trees hung heavy in broad bromeliads, flowering orchids, and hanging moss and vines. The preserve itself has a well-maintained network of trails, and the community is truly involved in conservation. Not only that, but in and around Monteverde and Santa Elena, you'll find a whole slew of related activities and attractions, including canopy tours that allow you to swing from treetop to treetop while hanging from a skinny cable

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