Ten nights for active families: hot springs and hanging bridges below Arenal Volcano, night walks and ziplines in the Monteverde cloud forest, then four nights on a Pacific beach in Guanacaste with a private driver between each stop.
Open any day for the detail. Everything here can move: add a night, swap a hotel, change the order.
Land in the evening and drive to a garden hotel in the hills above the city, so the first morning starts away from the traffic.
Drive north through coffee country to La Fortuna. Walk the old lava fields with a guide, cross the hanging bridges through the forest canopy, and soak in the hot springs heated by the volcano in the evening.
A road and lake crossing round to Monteverde. Go out at night with a torch and a guide to find tarantulas, sleeping birds and tree frogs, and fly the ziplines through the canopy by day. Pack a warm layer.
Drive down to the dry Guanacaste coast for four nights on a sheltered beach. Snorkel, kayak, look for howler monkeys in the trees above the sand, and take a boat out for a sunset sail.
A short drive to Liberia airport for the flight home to London Heathrow, connecting on the way.
Between July and October, start with two nights in Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast to watch green turtles nesting at night.
A half-day family rafting trip near Arenal on gentle rapids, for children of eight and over.
Planned for December to April, when Costa Rica is at its best. Outside those months it still works, with different trade-offs; ask us.
When to go to Costa RicaTell us your dates and who is travelling, and your specialist will send a tailored version of this route.
A night in Buenos Aires and one in Ushuaia, then 11 nights on a small expedition ship across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula, with Zodiac landings among penguin colonies and cruises through the ice.
A night in Oslo and one in Longyearbyen, then nine nights on an expedition ship circling Spitsbergen in the midnight sun, looking for polar bears along the pack ice, walrus on the beaches and seabird cliffs in Hinlopen Strait.
Three nights in Athens for the Acropolis and the museums, then a drive west via the Corinth Canal to seven nights on the Messinia coast, where a kids club, an aqua park and ancient Olympia keep every age busy.
