Also located on Costa Rica’s Pacific side, but this time way down south – some 15km off the Osa peninsular, Isla del Cano is home to the last big surviving reef along the countries Pacific Coast.
This is a great place to dive among beautiful reef with some incredible pinnacles and canyons to be explored whilst also seeing a lot of fish, white tip reef sharks, turtles and rays.
Between late December to early March you have a good chance of seeing Manta Rays (as I did!).
The medium strength currents sometimes experienced by some of the main dive sites here, mean it’s not suitable for complete beginners and none of the local dive schools teach open water certification courses.
That said, so long as you are already scuba certified it’s not an overly challenging place to dive!
You can’t actually stay on Isla del Cano; it’s one of the most strictly protected biological sites in the country – so you’ll want to stay just across from it on the mainland within Drake Bay.
Drake Bay is a very small town with just a handful of restaurants and lodging options; it’s also pretty challenging to reach; without a 4×4 you need to get a boat there for the last bit of the way.
This is of course part of the charm – Isla del Cano / Drake Bay is way more off the beaten track than Playa del Coco.
From Drake Bay you can also make a day trip to the nearby Corcovado National Park; arguably the best of Costa Rica’s rainforest reserves. Besides that and dive, there’s little else to do!