Overview
An absolutely wonderful country. We visited just before the pandemic. We'd been quite impressed by what we read beforehand, some of it even felt a bit utopian, but after meeting the locals and chatting with them, we loved it even more.
What to See
Their approach to nature is extraordinary. Forget about zoos, even in national parks, they get seriously upset if you do anything that interferes with wildlife. A tourist ahead of us fed bananas to monkeys, and a local guide absolutely tore into them: "How dare you come to our country and disrupt our natural balance?"
In terms of sightseeing, if you're drawn to tropical regions, this is a magnificent destination. The ocean waves are quite strong, so I was initially a bit disappointed with the beaches, I generally find Turkey's coastline hard to beat. But the beach at Manuel Antonio Park is absolutely perfect. I don't remember feeling this way at any other beach before. Incredible calm, superb water. You absolutely must visit with proper swimwear.
Beyond that, La Fortuna is a fantastic area. The Cloud Mountains we drove through by taxi on the way from Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna were stunning, we watched most of the 4-hour drive completely mesmerized. And the volcano view at the end was spectacular. You genuinely find yourself thinking, "I wish it would erupt while I'm here." And it's not just tourists who feel that way, every local we met who had witnessed the last eruption couldn't stop raving about it, all of them praying they'd live to see another one.
Tips & Advice
Smoking is essentially banned across the entire country. As a smoker at the time, I genuinely suffered. In the hotel grounds, including the open-air parking lot, smoking was prohibited, you had to walk out to the road. When it rained and I tried to lean slightly under a covered area, the receptionist politely brought me an umbrella. On a trekking tour, it was completely banned for 4 hours straight. Unable to resist, I lit up at the back of the group and by pure bad luck the guide turned around right at that moment. He came over, made me put it out, and gave me a proper telling-off. About an hour later he found a smoking room for me, like the tiny ones you see at airports, in the middle of an enormous forest. This was actually one of the biggest factors in my decision to quit smoking.
The locals work incredibly hard, often juggling multiple jobs. Taxi drivers almost always have a second or third gig. They're unbelievably warm people, someone you met five minutes ago will tell you their whole life story and show you photos of their kids. Crime rates are reportedly low.
One of the things I loved most was the complete absence of prejudice toward Turks. Probably because of the geographic distance, they don't really know us, the only reference point is the 2002 World Cup. Unlike Europe, where you often face subtle or not-so-subtle racism, here there was none of that. That alone made us want to pack up and move.
This is one of the trips we most regret keeping short, which is why we absolutely plan to return before we die. Hopefully we can time it when the volcano is active.