Where to stay in Costa Rica: the best areas and hotels

Arenal is the volcano you'd draw if asked: a near-perfect cone rising above rainforest, lakes and the busy little town of La Fortuna. This is Costa Rica's adventure hub, with hanging bridges, waterfalls, ziplines and rafting all within easy reach, and the region's famous thermal waters are the reward at the end of every day.

Many hotels have their own hot spring pools, and the best of them are seriously indulgent: adults-only resorts with spas, thermal waterfalls, private balconies and rooms facing the volcano. Others sit on the edge of virgin forest, where you can walk straight from your room onto jungle trails. It's a brilliant first stop on a two-week trip, and a hard place to leave.

High on the continental divide, Monteverde is cooler, damper and greener than anywhere else on the usual route. The cloud forest reserves are dripping with moss, orchids and birdsong, and if you're lucky, the shimmering quetzal. Canopy walkways and ziplines get you up among the treetops.

Accommodation is cosy rather than grand: mountain lodges with gardens and trails, family-friendly hotels within walking distance of Santa Elena's cafés, and spa hotels for warming up after a soggy night walk. Bring a fleece. Seriously.

Guanacaste is Costa Rica's sunniest corner, a dry north-west of cowboy ranches, golden bays and some of the country's most reliable beach weather. It's where the big resorts are, and the closest beaches to Liberia airport, which makes it the easy choice for families and anyone short on time.

At the top end, the Papagayo Peninsula and its neighbours hide properly luxurious resorts on secluded beaches, with golf courses, spas and villas, one of them on a remote cove less than 20 miles from the airport. Below that, there are lively all-inclusives where meals and drinks are covered and the kids' days organise themselves. Volcano and wildlife tours are a day trip away.

The central Pacific is where rainforest tumbles right down to the sand. Manuel Antonio is the star, a small national park of white beaches and monkey-filled trees, with hotels scattered over the hills above it looking out to sea. Up the coast, the surf town of Jacó and its neighbours are livelier, and the drive from San José is the shortest to any beach.

The range is wide: a tiny adults-only boutique hotel with jungle views and private hot tubs, aparthotels with beach shuttles, a big golf resort with four pools, and a family all-inclusive a few metres from the beach at El Roble. Expect hills, humidity and an excellent chance of seeing a sloth from breakfast.

The far south is Costa Rica at its rawest. The Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce are wrapped in dense rainforest, and Corcovado National Park is famous for its wildlife: scarlet macaws, tapirs, all four of the country's monkey species and the occasional big cat.

Getting here takes effort, and the lodges repay it. One sits on a private rainforest reserve bordered on three sides by national park and on the fourth by two kilometres of ocean. Another fronts the gulf with thousands of acres of forest behind it. There are polished, sustainable resorts too, and a hacienda resort with a spa, pools and hot tubs for comfort between adventures.

Costa Rica's Caribbean coast feels like a different country. In the south, around Puerto Viejo and Playa Cocles, it's Afro-Caribbean cooking, surf breaks, bicycles and boutique hotels with jungle pools. In the north, Tortuguero is a maze of canals reached by boat, where sea turtles haul themselves up the beach to nest.

Inland, a riverside lodge on the Pacuare makes a superb base for white-water rafting and rainforest walks, and eco-lodges hide in the forest for those who want to be properly immersed. Hotels here are smaller and simpler than on the Pacific, and the atmosphere is all the better for it.

Almost every trip starts or ends in San José, and most travellers stay a night rather than a week. Hotels near the airport, some just five minutes away, are perfect after a long flight; others sit in gardens on the western side of the city, beside La Sabana park, or downtown near the museums and theatres.

If you have a spare day, the city's museums are worth it. Otherwise sleep well, have an early breakfast and head for the volcano or the beach.