Travel bucket list idea:
Costa Rica
Costa Rica produces fine coffee – smooth, mildly acidic (depending on altitude) and floral. Coffee haciendas (plantations) dot Costa Rica’s Central Valley, Pacific coast foothills and northern highlands.
A number can be visited – on day tours. You can learn how the beans are grown and harvested, taste varieties produced under different conditions, see the cacao fruit, and the process which turns its seeds into chocolate.
You can even stay in an upscale coffee hacienda as an overnight stop on your way in or out of the country. There’s a scattering of them near the international airport, set in beautiful semi-wild surrounds.
Heredia, Heredia Province, Costa Rica
Experience
A boutique hacienda near the airport that produces excellent home-grown Arabica coffee – served throughout the day, at breakfast and after meals – alongside farm-to-table organic food. They organise their own tours around the coffee farm. Stay overnight for the full immersive experience.
Adult price: £30
Good for age: 18+
Coffee tours with companies like Northfields are easily organised from San José or La Fortuna (the town next to Arenal Volcano).
This typical small, family-run coffee and cocoa plantation offers tours, explaining the process of production from crop-to-cup. They’ll pick up from hotels within 20 minutes of Fortuna and Tabacon. There’s no minimum age – anyone can go.
The Finca Rosa Blanca boutique hacienda, near the airport produces excellent Arabica – served throughout the day, at breakfast and after meals, alongside farm-to-table organic food, and organises its own tours, including around the coffee farm. You can stay overnight here too.
Plantation tours are available all year round. Times very by operator.
