Tourist attraction ideas while visiting Puntarenas,
Costa Rica include fishing, bike riding, diving, or taking tours to near by National Parks and Islands. This location is the perfect vacation spot for the tourist who enjoys outdoor activities and nature. Lush tropical rainforest and clear blue waters found here are attractions of their own.
Sport fishing in the Puntarenas area is available at Los Sueños Resort and Marina, which is located on Herradura Bay. This world-class resort offers the tourist a five star hotel located in the vicinity of attractions such as volcanoes, national parks, water sports and more. Los Sueños Resort and Marina itself can offer the tourist casino action, a golf course, restaurants, a beach club, pools and a spa as well as sport fishing for sailfish, marlin, tuna, dorado and wahoo.
The tourist can further delve into the rainforest if they so wish by taking a rainforest tour. This tour begins 40 minutes from Puntarenas in the Carara National Park and lasts approximately seven hours. Included in this tour are round trip transportation, a naturalist tour guide, the National Park entrance fee, and lunch. This rainforest is classified as a dry rainforest, which means for the tourist, that it has less undergrowth. With less undergrowth, it is easier to see the wildlife in the area. The wildlife in this area includes birds, insects, and of course mammals. Birds often seen are Macaws, parrots, parakeets, guans, toucans, ant-bird and many more. Insects often seen here are the Morpho butterfly, beetles, wasps, bees and others. Mammals here are Coatis, white-faced capuchin, anteaters, agoutis, squirrels and armadillos. Also located in this National Park is a burial site where stone, pottery and gold objects have been discovered.
Another tour available for visitors to Puntarenas is the Crocodile Safari and Carara National Park Nature Walk. This is another full day tour, lasting seven hours. Included in this tour is round trip transportation, a naturalist tour guide, a jungle cruise trip, the National Park entrance fee and tropical fruit. This tour also takes place at the Carara National Park, the difference in this tour and the rainforest tour is that this one includes a crocodile safari cruise on the Tarcoles River. This river is full of American Crocodiles, but Scarlet Macaws, Jesus Christ Lizards and other bird species are often seen.
This tour also includes a trip to a mature mangrove estuary.
Diving is another activity enjoyed by tourists to Puntarenas. Dive shops in this area generally have certified instructors and dive masters available. The diving offered here is usually around rock formations and at depths of 20 to 100 foot depths with visibility that ranges between 20 to 80 feet. Water temperatures remain a steady 75 to 85 degrees while air temperature will range from 80 to 90 degrees.
If a more leisurely activity is what the tourist is looking for, exploring the area by bike may be just what is needed and bike rentals are available. Bike rental establishments’ offer guided tours or a tourist can rent a bike and tour on their own.
One other tourist attraction to consider is a visit to the Nicoya Gulf Islands, which are located right in front of Puntarenas. Beautiful beaches and a wildlife refuge are found here as well as the opportunity to practice water sports on the beautiful Nicoya Gulf.
