Osa Penninsula/Corcovado

From San Jose you can take a bus to Puerto Jimenez at 8 am or noon.

If you are on a budget I recommend going to Puerto Jimenez. Drake Bay has cheap lodging in the village and a free beach hiking trail but most exploring there is done by booking (often expensive) tours. But if you want to go to the Sirena ranger station in Corcovado Park Drake Bay is your best bet. A day tour to Sirena by boat is $90. If you do go to Drake Bay you can take a Tracopa bus from San Jose to Palmar Norte, bus or taxi to Sierpe and boat to Drake Bay.

The other way to get to Sirena is to hike there. You would go to Puerto Jimenez and arrange the three day trek (Carate-Sirena-Carate or Los Patos-Sirena-Carate) through your hotel or a tour operator. If you wait till you are there the park might be fully booked. As you need a guide, a permit and reservations at Sirena that might be too expensive (we paid $500 for two people). Even guided day hikes into Corcovado from Carate are expensive. But the good news is that you can enjoy amazing rainforest and see lots of wildlife without actually entering the park. We stayed at two jungle hostels (one near Puerto Jimenez that is closed for repairs) and one (Bolita) in Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre. Bolita is amazing. You have to hike 30 minutes through the jungle to get there. There are lots of spectacular trails to a viewpoint, a valley, waterfalls, through a jungle river... If you do end up staying in or near Puerto Jimenez or Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre and you are not doing the three day trek I do recommend a day trip to Cabo Matapalo/Carate by public transport as it is beautiful there and there is so much wildlife in that area, even on the road.

http://www.bolita.org/index.html

I don't know how long you have but another good destination for wildlife, rainforest and beautiful wild natural beaches is the Caribbean coast (Tortuguero, Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and the beaches south of PV).

It all depends if you are wanting to hike the LOOP in Corcovado. This requires time, money, guides/permits/reservations, and you would base in Pt Jimenez. You basically need 4 nights, and start the hike after a 2 hour ride from PJ to Los Patos at 4AM. Once in park with guide/permit and reservation to sleep (can prepay for meals too) at Sirena Ranger Station. Its a 22KM hike in the jungle, you will leaner a lot with a guide, and its raw jungle, hot, humid, muddy, rainy and not easy.

After 1-2 nights at Sirena, you then hike to La Leona via a 18KM trail that hugs the coast, though you need to time it with the tides due to a huge river crossings. If you get to La Leona by 4PM, you can get the collectivo to PJ (2 hours) and back to your base.

You can also access the park, via Carate/La Leona, as a day trip, though permit/guide/reservations still required.

Or, if all that hiking and jungle sounds too much, then consider going to Drake Bay. You get there via a bus to Palmar Norte/Sur, then a taxi hire to Sierrpe, then a boat down the Rio Sierrpe, and out thru the mouth to the open Pacific and down the coast to DB, beach landing. A blast on all levels.

Once in DB, you lodging can arrange a boat and tour w/guides, to either San Pedrillo Ranger Station, or for more $, all the way to Sirena R.S.. Overnights at either can be arranged, but you need a guide the entire time. DB is not actually a town, but a place, all the lodges are connected via foot paths, or via boat, so no ATM, or guides/tour offices to walk too...There is also Shuttle Osa from Jaco or Quepos, to Sierrpe, which be a huge time saver than going all the way to San Jose, especially since you are coming from Nicaragua/Liberia area.

How much time do you have for CR? What else's on your agenda in CR? Are you headed to Panama? There is a lot to see and explore National park wise, between Liberia and Jaco/Quepos, like Rincon, Tenerio, Cano Negro areas.

You also can cross in Nica to CR via San Carlos to Los Chiles, if you want to head to SJ area faster and more fun.

If Corcovado seems too out of the way or out of range budget wise, consider going to Tortuguero Canals and Rainforest on the caribe side, tons of wildlife and that is much easier to enjoy from a boat, canoe and kayak, and then you have Cahuita N.P and great hiking and beaches, a funky reggae town with excellent afro spicy caribe cuisine, and also Pt Viejo area, a fun backpacker town, and excellent beaches south to Manzanillo, as well the Ganduca area.

This route puts you on the backpacker track to Bocas del Toro Panama, and onward to PC and or San Blas for crossing to Colombia via boat.

So it all depends on your time, where else your headed, and where your going after CR.

Wow thank you for so much helpful information! The 3 day trek honestly sounds awesome (I'm 24 years old and a trekking guide in my normal life, so no amount of mud/humidity/trekking is a deterrent, money however is) but I'm a bit worried theres no way I can afford it (I'm looking at around $250 then?). I am not headed further south to Panama unfortunately, I'll be leaving from San Jose in 3 weeks (one of which will be spent in more heavily tourist frequented places with my dad). I've just really been craving somewhere that isn't much of a backpacker town, that feels remote and is beautiful, for some hiking and a bit of a writing retreat for me. I will have a little over a week in Costa Rica before I meet my dad, in that time I don't mind going somewhere far, but I don't want to move around too much. Which of the towns would you say has more options for non-tour hiking trails, Puerto Jimenez?

We paid $250 per person (two people) in 2015 for the three day trek. You would have to join a group (groups are usually small). Contact Osa Wild or Surcos Tours in Puerto Jimenez or ask your hotel.

You can do some walking in Puerto Jimenez (we followed the road past the beach and the airport for a while) but for most hiking you need to get out of town. That is why I recommended Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre and Bolita because if you stay at Bolita it would take you 2-3 days to hike all their trails. Bolita is not in town, it is in the middle of the jungle. It is certainly remote and beautiful and quiet. Great for writing when you are not hiking. You could also stay in Dos Brazos de Rio Tigre, in the village. You can go hiking there as well (there is a hike to a swimming hole, a hike up a jungle river and you can access Bolita's trails for $8 if you are not staying there, Bolita has an office in the village). So maybe a combination of PJ, Dos Brazos and a day trip to Cabo Matapalo/Carate. It would be great if you could stay in Cabo Matapalo for a few days but I don't know of any budget accommodation there.

You can also try to contact Bello Horizonte (the other jungle hostel we stayed at in PJ). They are still closed for repairs according to their website. If you can't stay there you can still take a taxi to the dirt road they are on (La Balsa). Or walk 3 km from PJ. If you keep following the dirt road (uphill) there are good views and we saw lots of wildlife there. You can also walk to a beach (Playa Cienega) from there (walk back to the main road, turn right and walk 50 minutes or so till you see a sign for Pelican House on the left). It is a nice swimming beach and we saw quite a lot of wildlife during our walk there.

http://bhjunglehostel.com/

Or choose the Caribbean and take a bus to Cahuita (great hiking in the National Park) and after a day or two take a short bus ride to Puerto Viejo. Bike (or bus) to Manzanillo. You can hike in the Gandoca wildlife refuge but if you go far you should take a guide. If you can find cheap lodging stay in Manzanillo (it is a small village that feels remote, is quiet, has wild natural beaches, rainforest, wildlife...).

I'm getting a little worried about the cost of not being able to go into the park for free/needing tours/boats for everything. And the time. Do you think Carribean would be a similarly wild beautiful experience? Do you think I'm missing out if I don't make it to Osa?

If you are not going to hike the LOOP, and not going all the way to Carate, then consider going to Drake Bay instead.

If not, Tortuguero is fantastic too, but a completely different type eco system, forest and more birds/reptiles than the Osa...and not all 4 species of Monkeys, not apples and apples. Both great, but the Osa not cheap, nor easy, period.

Read the National Geographic explorer or, get a guidebook...decipher with research.

Where are you meeting your dad for a week?

If your tight on funds and want to travel shorter distances you won't regret going to the Caribe side, it's fantastic and easy to be alone, in the jungle or beach. Cahuita is a very small laid back town, Puerto Viejo has the more backpacker vibe but still small. South to Manzanillo has very few tourists, killer beaches and nice jungle.
Good cheap day, rent a bike in PV and take a full day down to Manzanillo.
The NP in Cahuita is outstanding, easy to be hiking alone, tons of wildlife.

Tortuguero is excellent as well.

If you can't afford tours or the guides for Corcovado Park you could still enjoy the Osa. I would choose Puerto Jimenez. Drake Bay does have a free beach hiking trail but for almost everything else you will need to book a tour (Sirena, Cano Island, mangroves...).

I will repeat what I said in my post #1. Bolita is amazing and combined with a day trip to Cabo Matapalo (and maybe Carate) it would be the budget way to see the Osa in my opinion. Check out their website.

That being said... we loved the Caribbean coast. The National Park in Cahuita is amazing. It has wild natural beaches, rainforest and lots of wildlife. We saw capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, 6 sloths (two were very close and moving, one was so close we could see the green algae on its fur), an agouti, an oropendola, frigate birds with inflated red pouch, several other birds, butterflies, a large brown basilisk lizard with impressive head and back crest, white and yellow eyelash vipers (they really do have “eyelashes”) and the very pretty blue crab. We went without a guide and you don't need one but guides are not that expensive and you could join a small group too.

We took a bus from Cahuita to Manzanillo. From our hotel we saw vultures, hummingbirds, toucans and grey-necked wood rails, funny birds with pretty colours and a piercing call. They woke us up early every morning with their loud repetitive song. Manzanillo is just a small town but we loved walking around, looking for animals, looking at the waves. We hiked quite a bit in the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge. It was still free in 2015 but they were building what looked like a large welcome center so not sure if they will be charging an entrance fee soon. The first part of the trail is easy but soon the trail becomes hilly, muddy and slippery. I would take a guide there if you go far. We saw a hawk flying with his prey and eating it, butterflies, a scorpion with prey, woodpeckers, toucans, lots of oropendolas (with their beautiful exotic call) and 20-30 of their hanging basket-like nests, agoutis, howler monkeys, weird crabs and in one area a lot of strawberry poison-dart frogs. Also a rocket frog. The beaches are beautiful, the waves huge and we watched people surfing. We also walked to Punta Uva, it was a nice walk (5 km) and we saw sloths, howler monkeys, toucans, butterflies and hummingbirds.

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