Carara National Park, Carara

A very beautiful park that still has a wild feeling when walking around. Not busy (at least when we went 9am Monday). Nice to have the information signs dotted around the trail providing knowledge about the fauna and flora. We couldn't spot much but we did see some dart frogs, other creepy crawlies and a group of Howler monkeys.

A smaller park withots to see. This park is on the boarder of the wet and dry forests and so has a lot of diversity. We saw neon green frogs along with many other plants, animals, and insects. We opted not to go with a guide and it worked well for us because we were able to go our own pace and still saw a lot. The guides guarantee you will see the red macaws so if that is your aim it may new worth the $50+ but otherwise I suggest going without. The trails were fairly well maintained. They don't allow you to pack in food so eat snacks before. There is a parking lot on site at no cost.

Great well maintained trails. Some rougher bits main trail is paved. Saw a howler monkey. A few cool bugs like a big millipede.

This national park has 3 hikes that we did walking slowly in about 1h 45 minutes. It’s a really pleasant walk as it is almost fully shaded at all times. Hence you can do it any time of day! Great break in the middle of the day when the sun is strongest. There were no mosquitos but you should have repellent with you just in case. Bring water. Single use plastic water bottles are not allowed so bring your reusable water bottle.

There was a lot of wildlife and plants here. There are 3 main walking paths but many of the lookout decks were closed and one of the bridges was down, seemed to be for a long time. There was free parking lot and you pay a small conservation fee to enter, there are also bathrooms on site.