The hook
Costa Rica's most-loved small park, where rainforest runs right down to white beaches and sloths, capuchins and toucans are close enough to see without binoculars — and, far south, a bay with no through road where the wildlife density is on another level.
01Why it's worth it
Manuel Antonio is tiny by national-park standards and consistently the country's favourite: a short, well-made trail network through coastal forest that opens onto beaches, with genuinely high odds of sloths, howler and capuchin monkeys, agoutis and racoons in a morning. Its accessibility is the appeal and the catch — it's popular, capped by daily entry limits, and the animals near the beaches have learned that bags contain food. Drake Bay, on the Osa Peninsula, is the opposite proposition: reached by boat up the river or a small plane, no coastal road, and it borders Corcovado, which National Geographic once called the most biologically intense place on Earth. Tours there aren't cheap, but travellers routinely name it the best wildlife they've ever seen, and humpbacks pass offshore for much of the year.
02How to experience it
Do Manuel Antonio at opening with a guide — they carry scopes and spot what you'd walk past — and keep food sealed. For Drake Bay, budget properly: flights and boat transfers plus roughly $100 tours, and give it several days so a Corcovado day and a snorkel or whale trip both fit. Dry season is easier; driving between them is slow, mountainous, and not for nervous drivers.
The honest note
Come for the wildlife or do not come. The single most-upvoted assessment of Costa Rica anywhere in this corpus — from a thread of 1,340 comments arguing about whether the country is oversold — is unambiguous about what it is: "90% of CRs appeal is the wildlife. It is one of the most biodiverse nations on the face of the planet. I took multiple wildlife tours with guides that spotted EVERYTHING. CR is not known for cultural appeal, it doesn't have the history it's neighbors do either, no remains of the ancient civilizations that it's neighbors do. If you focus on the wildlife and the jungle it's incredible."
Another put the same point as a comparison worth remembering before booking: "You don't go to CR for outstanding cultural sites, you go to CR for jungles and beaches and nature. That's a bit like complaining that Kansas doesn't have very good skiing."
One correction to that framing, from an archaeologist, because the "no history" line is repeated widely and is not quite right: "there is actually a lot of fascinating archaeology in Costa Rica. It's part of the contact zone between Central and South America, there were some big chiefdoms that were doing interesting things. With lidar we are starting to find a lot of earthworks. But, they didn't build huge stone monumental structures like the Maya." True that you will not see it; not true that it is not there.
The food is the standing complaint, and it comes from people who like the country. From someone who has been twice, thirty years apart, and now lives in Panama: "the food isn't great (except for the fresh fruit and coffee). there's a reason you don't see costa rican restaurants anywhere outside of costa rica."
It is expensive by Central American standards, and the fairest version of that acknowledges why: "One common criticism is that CR is expensive — which compared to other central American countries, it is. It also has a higher standard of living, stable government, pretty good infrastructure, good education, and so on. All that stuff costs money."
Drake Bay tours are a real budget line, not an add-on — roughly $100 each, on top of flights or boat transfers.
Manuel Antonio is small and busy. Entry is capped, and the animals near the beaches have learned that bags contain food.
From the locals
Both halves get named unprompted. "The biodiversity is amazing, and Manuel Antonio will forever be one of my favorite parks," one traveller wrote, opening with the caveat everyone repeats: "driving in CR is not for the faint of heart." On the remote south: "Drake Bay is incredible — it was my first real stop on a 1 year trip and I still think it's where I had the best wildlife spotting. It is $$ to go on the tours though." The same account is blunt about the capital: "San José is ok. I liked the main museum. Then I got out ASAP and I don't regret it."
The guides are the reason this park works, and the accounts of them are specific. From someone who grew up finding animals themselves and expected to be unimpressed: "I took both a day and a night guided tour through Manuel Antonio. Their guides are rigidly educated and have the eyes of a hawk. I grew up searching for critters in the country myself, and think I have a pretty good eye for irregularities on the sides of trees… but I was genuinely amazed at what those dudes can find."
Another explained why: "I believe the only guides allowed in Manuel Antonio were their own. Costa Rica takes its ecology very seriously, and becoming a guide there takes years of training and certification. If I remember correctly my day trip guide actually had a PhD."
That is the practical instruction hiding inside the argument about whether Costa Rica is worth it: the people who hired a guide saw everything, and the people who did not, did not.