Overview

Costa Rica continually amazes us. In the rainforests, parakeets twitter, howler monkeys scamper from branch to branch, sloths hide in the crooks of trees, and scarlet macaws take flight. You can float along mangrove-lined canals, view active and dormant volcanoes, lounge on beaches and, in season, watch turtles nest. An ecologically aware country, Costa Rica protects more than 25 percent of its land as parks, refuges or reserves.

Costa Rica is also eminently family-friendly. It's safe (the "ticos" like Americans), nearby (about a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Miami) and affordable, with hotel rooms and restaurants costing less than in many U.S. cities and Caribbean islands.

The only "problem" for visitors is the temptation to try to do it all in one vacation. Our advice? Don't. Avoid spending too much time on the road. Instead, pick a few regions to visit, and select one hotel in each area to use as a base for day trips.

Written by Candyce H. Stapen