Into the Moment in Costa Rica
Let nature set the pace on your luxury journey through Costa Rica. Enjoy experiences that help you notice the small details: a barefoot grounding practice that draws your attention to the textures beneath you; an apitherapy session accompanied by the bees’ gentle, meditative hum; or a sunrise swim that brings calm clarity to your mind.
Trip highlights
- Plant native trees in Bosque Vivo’s high-altitude forest
- Walk barefoot through Monteverde’s ancient cloud-forest
- Gather for a traditional fireside cacao ceremony
- Visit a naturally carbonated spring in Río Perdido
- Indulge in a chef-cooked seafood feast at your villa
- Climb through the canopy with dinner on a treetop platform
Bespoke trips with Jacada
We design one-of-a-kind journeys incorporating luxury in all its forms. Our bespoke trips include:
- Luxury accommodation throughout
- Privately guided tours
- Private transfers
- Meticulously selected experiences
- Expertise and support from your Jacada concierge
Days 1–2
Welcome to Heredia
Close to Costa Rica‘s capital, San José, the road begins to wind slowly into the Heredia highlands. Here the air is cool and there are unobstructed views across the Central Valley. Much of the farming land is used for coffee production, you can learn from small communities and family-run fincas, many with their own coffee plantations and organic farms. Families still tend these plots much as their parents did, using traditional techniques on a small scale.
The main coffee produced is arabica, known for its balanced, floral notes. Mineral-rich volcanic soils and an elevation of around 1,150 metres (3,772 feet) work together to slow the cherries’ maturation and deepen the flavour. On walks around the fincas and nearby forest, you can spot toucans, motmots and hummingbirds. And with a bit of luck, the occasional sloth resting in the trees.
Find your footing
Habitat restoration
Bean to cup
A guided tree-planting experience
Meet the inspiring founders of Bosque Vivo, a high-altitude forest conservation project supporting Costa Rica’s biodiversity. You’ll take part in hands-on tree planting, contributing directly to reforestation work that helps protect vital habitats and the wildlife that relies on them. We love this experience because your time on the ground makes a direct difference. It’s part of our Positive Impact Collection, with 100% of the funds supporting Bosque Vivo’s work.
A coffee farm stay at Finca Rosa Blanca
Set in the coffee highlands, Finca Rosa Blanca is an art-filled, family-run boutique hotel. It’s surrounded by tropical gardens and an organic, shade-grown coffee farm (coffee cultivated beneath a canopy of trees). For the people who live and work here, coffee is part of daily life, and you can see the slow, methodical process up close, watching beans harvested, dried and prepared before they reach your cup. Start the day with a brew that feels fresh, especially when you’re looking out over the very fields it came from.
Days 2–5
Spend three days in Monteverde
The journey continues higher up into the Cordillera de Tilarán and the small highland community of Monteverde. This is cloud-forest country, with evergreen hillsides sheltering some of Costa Rica’s best-known reserves: the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve and the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve.
Settle into the quiet, almost humming awareness of nature. Trails and hanging bridges lead you through layered forest of strangler figs, oaks and tree ferns thick with orchids and other epiphytes. Wildlife is ever-present here, including the resplendent quetzal that moves between fruiting trees from February to July.
Make it mine
Forest bathing
Shared moments
Canopy adventure
A grounding ritual in the cloud forest
Join a barefoot grounding practice in Monteverde’s ancient cloud forest, an invitation to pause and become fully present. The experience gently guides you into a meditative state, building full awareness of what’s around you as the forest shifts in light and sound. At sunset, you’ll take in the canopy from a viewpoint over the treetops, feeling small in the best possible way.
Join a fireside cacao ceremony
Gather around the crackling fire in the Monteverde Cloud Forest for a traditional cacao ceremony rooted in Mesoamerican ritual. Sip rich ceremonial cacao, warm and gently bitter, as your guide shares the meaning behind the practice. The circle opens with simple intention-setting, a quiet moment to name what you would like to call in or let go of. There is space to share stories or simply listen, with the night sounds of the forest in the background.
A treetop climb and canopy feast
Explore a forest sanctuary built into the canopy, with structures fastened to living trees using ropes and cables. You’ll find trails and suspension bridges, viewing platforms and hammock-style rest stops, all leading deeper into the treetops. The challenge is a 91-foot rope climb inside a towering hollow fig tree. Guided by expert naturalists and canopy specialists, the experience ends with a gourmet, farm-to-tree feast prepared by a world-class chef using ingredients from the on-site organic gardens.
Days 5–8
Secluded Bagaces
Bagaces sits inland in the heart of Guanacaste Province on the edge of the tropical dry forest, an ecosystem mainly found in this region. The landscape feels open with wide plains and volcanic ridgelines all around. This volcanic geology helps fuel the geothermal heat that keeps nearby mineral waters and natural hot pools warm.
Just outside the small town is Río Perdido (Lost River), a 600-acre private reserve of canyons and solid-rock trails formed by ancient lava, and your base for the next three nights. The spring-fed river that gives the reserve its name flows year-round and, together with the canyons, creates sheltered microclimates that draw a wide range of wildlife. You may spot white-faced capuchins, howler monkeys, spiny-tailed iguanas and white-nosed coatis. Keep an eye out for green iguanas and basilisks, often warming up on the rocks.
Appreciate beauty
On two wheels
Sip the spring
At dusk
A slick-rock mountain bike ride
Ride Río Perdido’s signature trails by mountain bike, where the terrain is mostly solid volcanic rock rather than dirt, gravel or mud. It feels smooth and fluid under your tyres, with natural grip that makes the slickrock surprisingly confidence-boosting. Often described as ‘tropical slickrock’, this corner of Guanacaste is nicknamed South Moab (a nod to Utah’s famous slickrock bike trails). Time your ride for sunrise or sunset and pedal to a viewpoint across the reserve, watching the light shift as it fades.
A visit to the Carbonatadas mineral spring
Follow an easy trail through Río Perdido’s tropical dry forest towards Carbonatadas, their own naturally carbonated mineral water spring. The route is mostly flat and passes the Yurro cascade before heading inland, where the forest thickens as you get closer to the source. At the spring, you can taste the fizzy mineral water, long valued by local residents for its medicinal healing properties.
A private nocturnal hike
After dark, Río Perdido’s trails take on a different energy. With a torch in hand, you’ll head out with your expert guide to explore the reserve and tune into the dry forest’s nightlife. Listen for movement in the trees, scan leaves and branches and spot nocturnal insects and amphibians. Plus forest fruits and seeds that bring into focus how this ecosystem feeds and regenerates overnight.
Days 8–11
Enjoy three nights in Nosara
Nosara sits on the Guanacaste coast the, specifically on the Nicoya Peninsula, one of the world’s few recognised Blue Zones – regions where people are known to live longer thanks to an active lifestyle, fresh food and strong community ties. Playa Guiones is the heart of the area, a three-kilometre (1.8-mile) beach protected by the Ostional Wildlife Refuge, which helps limit large-scale development along the shoreline.
This stretch of coast is known for consistent, year-round surf for all levels. The food is a highlight too, especially seafood from the nutrient-rich Gulf of Nicoya. The catch is exceptionally fresh and usually cooked simply, letting the flavour do the work. The atmosphere stays relaxed, with sandy paths leading to independent cafés, surf shops and small art studios. Also known as a place where creatives come together.
Where you could stay
Sendero
Inspired by nature
Be creative
Private feast
Reset through art and hands-on healing
Explore creativity and inner calm through an art therapy session using natural materials gathered nearby – including leaves, flowers and found textures from the landscape. Your facilitator will guide you to work slowly and intuitively, taking inspiration from the colours, patterns and shapes you notice around you. You’ll then arrange and glue your chosen pieces into a simple collage, a tangible keepsake that reflects how present you feel in the moment. It is less about technique and more about attention, a simple way to steady the mind and soften the nervous system.
A Blue Zone seafood tasting at your villa
Settle in for an ocean-to-table feast inspired by the Nicoya Peninsula’s Blue Zone way of eating. A private chef will arrive at your villa to prepare a raw bar of freshly shucked oysters served with wild vinaigrettes, fermented chile and criollo limes. Then, over an open fire your chef cooks charred octopus, smoky clams and prawns finished in flavoursome infused butter. Add an optional natural wine or cocktail pairing to round it off.
Planning my daughter and my adventure with Berni and Jen was easy and fun. We outlined the key things we wanted to do and they put it all together. Throughout our holiday, we enjoyed ziplining, nature walks and sloth searches, traversed the hanging bridges, hiked to waterfalls, rafted into and out of our amazing lodge in the rainforest and were…
Why book with Jacada
Personalised design
We’ll plan your trip around your personal interests, tastes and preferences, providing honest advice based on first-hand knowledge.
Authentic experiences
Our expert guides and brilliant concierges are hand-picked for their ability to bring your destination to life with care and passion.
Positive impact
We seek out unforgettable experiences that benefit both local communities and the environment.
