Costa Rica is famous as an ecological tourism destination, and 10 percent of the country’s land consists of national parks. After landing in San Jose, I would take a car to the Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal, which includes a stunning array of landscapes – wetlands and forests, caves and volcanoes, and habitats for creatures galore, including scarlet macaws and howler monkeys. Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal is a dormant volcano, which still occasionally smokes, that visitors can climb and tour.

While here, I would:

1. Visit the Arenal Volcano, which has been continuously exploding since 2010. Visitors can see clouds of ash, explosions of magma, and glowing lava almost daily.
2. Take a dip in the hot springs at the Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal.
3. Visit Jaguar Centro de Rescate, a wildlife rescue center where visitors can see sloths, alligators, anteaters, snakes and monkeys. Once the animals are rehabilitated, they are released back into the wild.