Guanacaste Dry Forest

Tropical dry forest is one of the most endangered habitats in the Americas, and the Guanacaste Conservation Area is the largest restoration project of it anywhere, stitched together from ranchland over decades. It behaves nothing like the rainforest people associate with Costa Rica: in the dry season the trees drop their leaves and the forest goes grey and open, which makes wildlife far easier to see, and then in the space of days the cortez amarillo trees flower a violent yellow all at once. Santa Rosa protects the historic hacienda where a decisive nineteenth-century battle was fought, plus turtle nesting beaches. Rincón de la Vieja adds a volcano with bubbling mud pots, fumaroles and waterfalls on its flanks.

What you actually see

• Rincón de la Vieja - volcanic mud pots, fumaroles and forest waterfall trails.
• Santa Rosa's Casona - the historic hacienda and battlefield site.
• The yellow bloom - cortez amarillo trees flowering simultaneously in the dry season.
• Playa Nancite and Naranjo - remote turtle nesting beaches, reached on foot or by rough track.

When to go

December to April for the dry season, when animals concentrate at water and the leafless forest makes them visible. The yellow bloom is brief and unpredictable, triggered by a rain event. Green season from May brings the forest back to life and heavier going on tracks.

Honest expectations

It is hot and dusty in the dry season, and shade is limited once the trees drop their leaves. Rincón's summit trail is often closed for volcanic activity, so the lower waterfall and mud pot loops are what most visitors get. Reaching the remote beaches needs four-wheel drive or a long walk, and the classic wildlife people picture in Costa Rica lives mostly on the other side of the country.

Nearby

Liberia is the gateway city with an international airport; the Nicoya beaches are south.