Costa Rica honeymoon ideas

Tenille’s right: the accommodation in Costa Rica is a honeymoon highlight. Our experts pick the cream of the crop, steered by your preferences and requirements – and then go above and beyond.

Fancy a spa hotel? No problem: we’ve got a place set amongst fruit trees with palm-shaded massage huts and a valley-view Jacuzzi. How about a beach retreat? Take your pick from wellness hotels, luxury hideaways, and stays just a stroll away from the best beach bars in town. Prefer to explore city life? We can set you up in a restored Victorian mansion in the suburbs of San Jose. Our specialists find the best spots thanks to years of forging great relationships with local hoteliers.

Honeymoon accommodation in Costa Rica also goes above and beyond with its conservation credentials. Lots of hotels – big resorts included – are part of the National Sustainable Tourism Certificate (NCST), which requires rigorous checks on waste management and energy saving measures.

“A lot of the bigger resorts are very keen to have it, as although they are huge, they are employing local people and reducing waste and energy usage,” says Tenille. “It’s something that they’re really proud of… it’s very visible.”

Even hotels without the NCST have great things going on – perhaps frog- and butterfly-friendly gardens and vegetable patches where they grow the ingredients for your dinner on a terrace for two. Some of our hotels invite guests to get stuck into their ongoing forest restoration projects, planting native trees that provides food and shelter for the bees and the birds. Others support jaguar conservation projects and partner with nearby Cabécar villages, sharing Indigenous-led cultural tours and mountain treks.

“Responsible tourism is something they really strive to have, countrywide,” says Tenille.

More brilliant places for wildlife – and for birds and monkeys in particular – are the many canopy walkways that swing through Costa Rica’s rainforests, including the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and Arenal Volcano National Park. “Your eyes are literally at the treetops, so it’s very good for birdwatching and seeing unique flora and fauna at that level,” says Tenille.

Want to learn more about Indigenous-led conservation? We can include a visit to the Indigenous Territory of Kéköldi to learn about the local Bribri people’s green iguana rehabilitation project, walk through the nature reserve, and have a lunch of vegetables and chicken baked in banana leaves.

You can also catch a boat into the Talamanca Mountains, on the Panama border, to visit the Bribri village of Yorkin. Here, women have launched a community-powered tourism programme, inviting visitors on forest walks and to learn how they make organic chocolate. Tastings included.

“This is a really special insight into life in that part of the country,” says Tenille. “It’s so sensitively done… it really stuck with me following my visit and all our travellers who have done it have been delighted with it and meeting the local people.”

Go west, to the Pacific coast, to settle down with a passion fruit mojito and a spectacular sunset. The Pacific is also the most popular coast, with the liveliest beach resorts and surf beaches. It’s home to Manuel Antonio village and national park, which has long welcomed LGBTQ+ honeymooners and holidaymakers. It’s worth noting that, thanks to its nearly equatorial spot, sunsets come early all year round in Costa Rica, at about 5.30pm. Perfect for a pre-dinner sunset stroll.

The Osa Peninsula, in the deep south-west, is an excellent option for those who’d like their beach just for two. It’s one of the most biodiverse places on earth, and largely road-free, with most of the forest lodges accessed by boat.

“I personally think the Caribbean coast is underrated,” says Tenille. “It’s low-key, laid back, there’s none of the development that you have on the north Pacific coast, which is where the main beach resorts are.”

There’s good snorkelling in the bright turquoise waters of Cahuita National Park – something of a rarity on Costa Rica’s riptide-prone coasts – plus dolphin watching tours near Tortuguero, and the chance to cycle along the roads that weave between rainforest-backed beaches. The Caribbean coast – particularly Limon – is also a centre of Afro-Caribbean culture, threading through everything from the architecture to the popularity of spicy pasty-like pati to the calypso-backed Carnival.

But really, why choose between Pacific and Caribbean coasts? Costa Rica is so small that our honeymoons often combine both coasts as a peachy beachy bookend.

Our honeymoons start and end in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. Most tourists touch down here briefly before zooming off to wildlife lodges. However, if courtyard cocktails, candle-lit restaurants, art museums and dance clubs with live bands are your thing, our experts can add an extra night or two for city explorations.

“San Jose is a working, busy, bustling capital city,” says Tenille. “It’s a great place to go to soak up everyday Costa Rica life. The population is around two million, but there’s a very small city centre that extends into these very pleasant suburbs where our guests tend to stay. I went to a salsa club there, which is a good way to experience local dancing and nightlife.”

What do our honeymooners think about Costa Rica? We can’t resist sharing the rest of our traveller Lauren’s review of her Costa Rica honeymoon:

“Having waited nearly two years to go on our honeymoon after having to postpone due to the Covid pandemic, we had high hopes for the trip and we can honestly say it was worth the wait. If you love nature and want to experience life in the rainforest, a trip to Costa Rica is ideal. The people we have met have been really friendly and passionate about preserving the beauty of their country and everywhere we went we enjoyed great food and hospitality. The trip was so well organised by the operator making it completely stress-free and all the lodges that we stayed at were unique.” Pura vida indeed.