Costa Rica gives you a wonderful vacation with both the wonderful blue ocean with its playful wild dolphins and the biologically rich rain forest. You'll find a great variety of dolphin, whales and other marine life combined with beautiful vegetation and nature to explore.

Whale-watching was developed in 1953. It provides important benefits for environmental education and cetaceous research.

Over 50 countries offer whale and dolphin-watching trips and they are all very different.

Species of dolphins and whales in Costa Rica

Species of dolphins living in the waters off the southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica :

Spotted

Spinner

Bottlenose (Flipper)

Common Dolphin

Orcas.

Species of Whales:

False Killer

Pilot & Humpback Whales

The acrobatic Humpback Whale

Places where you can enjoy dolphins and whale watching in Costa Rica :

The Whales Nacional Park

The Whales National Park is the best area for whale watching just north of Playa Uvita, takes its name from the humpback whales that mate in its warm waters each December though April. They can often be seen from the beach. There are also whale and dolphin watching marine excursions from Dominical and Quepos.

Spanish language classes, dance classes and other activities are also available in the immediate area.

Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio has become Latin America¹s number one tourist destination with more than 700,000 visitors annually. Located on a peninsula backed by forested hills and includes the waters of the Pacific on three sides

The primary attraction is Manuel Antonio National Park . The Park itself encompasses nearly 140,000 acres, most of which are maritime acres. The Park's two white sandy beaches, Espadilla Sur and Manuel Antonio, stand out as its main attractions.Punta Catedral was an island at one time, an accumulation of the sediments joined to the land with a sandy belt named Tombolo, a prized nesting site for the brown booby.

You'll see dolphins here, and once in a while a pod of migratory whales. There are more than one hundred mammal species and one hundred and eighty species of birds here, including the rare white ibis.

Manuel's Antonio Town

The town of Manuel Antonio is growing at an exponential pace with high end hotel/restaurants springing up everywhere offering the tourist all of the comforts they would expect .There is also an abundance of activities that are operated out of Manuel Antonio.

Some of the activities the town offers are:

World Class sport-fishing

Whitewater rafting

Horseback riding

Sea kayaking tours

Dolphin and whale watching

Jet ski tours

Mangrove tours

National Park hiking tours

Room massage

Spa services

Surf lessons

Countless international restaurants, a full service hospital, 8 daily commuter flights to San Jose, four car rental agencies, high speed internet connections, solid infrastructure both with the community and the roads leading to it, cellular phone service, spa facilities, a selection of banks, atm's, shops, art galleries, and other stores which make this place an exotic, yet comfortable place to visit or live

Manuel Antonio Marine Preserve

The Costa Rica Pacific coastline is one of the most beautiful in the world. The unique geology of the region insures a surprise around every island and shore.

The Preserve is home to many whales, dolphins, sea turtles and a wide variety of birds.

There are several species of sea turtles living in the Marine Preserve and they will occasionally make an appearance along your route.

Here dolphins play in the wake as you sail silently through the blue pacific waters. The rushing of wind and waves are frequently interrupted by the splash of dolphins and whales coming near for a closer look.

Osa Península

Osa Peninsula is home to a variety of whale and dolphin species and are ideal for whale and dolphin viewing.

Pods of humpback and pilot whales, as well as schools of spinner, bottlenose and spotted dolphins frequent the area at various times throughout the year. Surfacing at regular intervals to breath, whales can be observed exhaling, which is often accompanied with deep, resonating sounds and enormous expulsions of vapor. As they break the water's surface their large bodies will draw your attention.

While whales and dolphins are most commonly seen independently of each other, it is not uncommon to see pods of whales accompanied by large schools of dolphin. Schools of dolphin are most frequently seen in open water, frolicking effortlessly along the water's surface.

Drake Bay

Here you can see Humpback Whales, Orcas, Psuedo Orcas, Sei Whales, Fin Whales, Pilot Whales, Beaked Whales, not to mention groups of thousands of spotted and spinner dolphins, rough tooth dolphins, common dolphins and bottlenose. No where else can you see so many species in one day.

Caño Island

Isla del Caño is home to many of the same species living in the Galapagos Islands .

The waters offshore teem with dolphins, migrating whales (for several months each year), mantas, sea turtles and many more animals.

There are few experiences more beautiful than to have a mother humpback whale and her calf swimming a short distance from the boat.

Some hotels where you can enjoy dolphins and whale watching are:

Aguila de Osa Inn

Parador