Holidays to Costa Rica

Now that it’s served by direct flights from the UK, there’s really no excuse to ignore this Central American wonderland. Try windsurfing, ziplining, biking or hundreds of other adrenalin-rush activities, or tour of some of the world’s best coffee plantations. You could go for the Pacific and Caribbean beaches, and the planet-leading eco-friendliness. You could simply go for the excellent hotels and mountain resorts (some are seriously luxurious). But the best reason is wildlife: from multi-coloured quetzals and myriad monkeys through sloths, see-through frogs and the elusive jaguar, Costa Rica is an animal-lover’s dream.

I’d also recommend driving, rather than flying, around. Some of my favourite Costa Rican moments came this way: watching kids play football amid a palm-tree plantation; eating coconut fudge at a roadside sala (small canteen). The roads are good and – outside of capital San José – traffic is light, and you’re guaranteed to see the real country.