Costa Rica
Two coasts, a spine of volcanoes and cloud forest, and national parks where sloths, macaws and turtles are the point of the trip — Costa Rica is a small country that packs more wildlife per day than almost anywhere else.
A small country
built around its wildlife
Costa Rica is smaller than Kerala and Tamil Nadu together, and yet it holds two oceans, a chain of volcanoes, cloud forest at altitude and lowland rainforest on both coasts. The distances are short; the changes between them are not. You can watch the sun rise over the Caribbean canals of Tortuguero and set behind the Pacific at Manuel Antonio in the same week, with a volcano and a cloud forest in between.
What makes it unusual is how much of that is protected, and how easy it is to reach. A large part of the country sits inside national parks and reserves, the parks are walkable on marked trails, and the animals — sloths, capuchin and howler monkeys, toucans, scarlet macaws, nesting sea turtles — are not a lucky sighting but the ordinary business of a morning walk with a guide. For Indian travellers used to safari as a vehicle-and-distance affair, Costa Rica is wildlife on foot.
It is also an easy country to be in. There has been no army since 1948, the phrase pura vida does the work of hello, thank you and no problem, the food is rice-and-beans-based and vegetarian-friendly, and the tourism infrastructure — shuttles, lodges, guides — is the most developed in Central America. The cost is that it is not a cheap destination, and the visa needs a proper run-up. Both are worth it.
When is your Costa Rica?
A tropical country with a dry season and a wet one rather than four seasons — and two coasts that do not follow the same calendar. The Pacific side and the Central Valley are dry from roughly December to April; the Caribbean coast has its own pattern.
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Costa Rica visa — what you need to know
Under Costa Rica's current entry directive, Indian passport holders are in the group that requires a consular visa, applied for through the Embassy of Costa Rica in New Delhi. There is a significant exemption for travellers who already hold certain other visas, and the directive that governs it was rewritten in November 2025 — so much of what is published elsewhere is out of date.
Costa Rica's Directorate of Migration states that nationals of consular-visa countries who hold a multiple-entry visa or residence for the United States or Canada, in any category, may enter Costa Rica without a Costa Rican visa, provided that visa is valid for at least one day counted from the day of arrival. The stay granted at the border will not be longer than the remaining validity of that visa or residence. US C1, C2 and C3 transit visas are explicitly not accepted. Before November 2025 the rule required ninety days of remaining validity; it is now one day, and older third-party pages still quote ninety.
A Schengen visa of category C or D, multiple-entry only, already in force on the day you arrive and with at least one day of validity remaining, also exempts you from the Costa Rican visa. Single-entry Schengen visas do not qualify, and a visa whose start date is after your arrival in Costa Rica is not accepted. As with the US and Canadian route, the stay granted will not exceed the visa's remaining validity.
The third exemption covers people who hold a residence permit for the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland or an EU member state, either multiple-entry or with ninety days of validity left. It is a residence clause. A UK visitor visa is not named in it, so a UK visa on its own does not exempt an Indian passport holder from the Costa Rican consular visa.
Whichever route you use, the directive requires an Indian passport to have at least 180 days of validity on arrival, and the exemptions apply only where it does. The maximum stay for Indian nationals is thirty days, extendable in Costa Rica to ninety. A consular visa is single-entry, must be stamped into the passport within three months of being authorised, and must then be used within sixty working days. Separately, an Indian national changing aircraft at a Costa Rican airport needs an airport transit visa unless one of the exemptions above applies — which matters if you route through San José to somewhere else.
The directive states that the cost of a consular visa is whatever the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship sets, and gives no figure. It gives no processing time either, and the Embassy of Costa Rica in New Delhi does not publish a visa page. We therefore do not quote a fee or a turnaround, and we would treat any site that does with caution. Apply well ahead of your travel dates and confirm both directly with the embassy.
For all Costa Rica journeys we design, we prepare your complete visa documentation package — the forms, the supporting documents, the sequence of submission. Our visa specialists help travellers prepare complete applications with careful document guidance. Final visa decisions always remain with the relevant authorities.
Travel Costa Rica intelligently
Costa Rica is safe, well organised and easy to move around. The visa, the rain and the road times are the three things that catch Indian travellers out.
Costa Rica travel FAQ
The questions Indian travellers ask most often before booking Costa Rica.
Costa Rica for every kind
of traveller
The country is small enough that almost every trip touches the same central loop. What differs is which coast you finish on and how much time the wildlife gets.
The volcano that appears on every Costa Rica photograph, quiet since 2010, with hot springs fed by it, the La Fortuna waterfall, and hanging bridges through the forest at its base.
Forest that lives inside cloud on the continental divide, walked on suspension bridges and guided night walks, and home to the resplendent quetzal.
A small national park where the rainforest meets white-sand coves, with sloths, capuchins and squirrel monkeys along the trail and a swim at the end of it.
No roads in — a boat through the canals or a small plane — to a village between the lagoon and the sea where green turtles come ashore to nest.
The wildest corner of the country: lowland rainforest on the Pacific, scarlet macaws in the almond trees, tapirs on the beach, and a national park you may only enter with a guide.
The dry north-west: long Pacific beaches, surf towns and the sunniest dry season in the country, with its own international airport at Liberia.
Rainforest lodges with private hot springs, a cloud-forest lodge in the mist, and a Pacific beach to finish — the classic shape, and it works.
Short drives, safe marked trails, animals visible without binoculars and hot springs to end the day — Costa Rica is one of the easiest wildlife countries for children.
The Central Valley around San José: coffee farms in Tarrazú and around Poás, the crater lake at Poás, and Irazú above the old capital of Cartago.
Tell us whether you want the classic loop, a turtle season, the wild Osa or a beach finish, and how many nights you have, and our travel designers will shape it.
How far in advance
should you book Costa Rica?
Two things drive the timeline: the consular visa, if you need one, and the small size of the best lodges in the dry season.
A multiple-entry US, Canadian or Schengen visa may exempt you. If not, the consular visa comes first, through the embassy in New Delhi.
Dry season for beaches and views, July to October for turtles, February to April for quetzals. The choice of coast follows.
Tortuguero, the Osa and the better Arenal and Monteverde lodges have few rooms and sell out first.
Fix the long-haul routing and its transit rules, then the domestic flights and boat connections around it.
What to pack
for Costa Rica
Hot and humid on both coasts, cool and wet in the cloud forest, and rain possible anywhere in the afternoon. The trick is quick-drying everything and one warm layer.
Pack for the cloud forest, not the beach. Monteverde is misty and cold enough for a fleece even in March, and it is the one place a beach wardrobe fails.