Costa Rica National Parks system began in the 1960s. Costa Rica continues to add new national parks and data on the number and percentage of land that these cover and this continues to increase. Costa Rica has at least 35 national parks which encompass about 11% of the country. One of the main reasons to travel to Costa Rica is to see some of these great Costa Rica National Parks.

There are numerous other protected zones in Costa Rica including reservations and refuges. Add these to the national parks and about 30% of Costa Rica's land is under protection.

The Costa Rica National Parks have been created to protect habitat, wildlife, valued areas "pre-Columbian ruin" volcanoes and cave systems. Many Costa Rica national parks are in remote areas and are visitors rarely travel to these because of the difficulty to access them.

There are some Costa Rica national parks that are well-known and popular, such as:

• Manuel Antonio National Park: an extremely beautiful, idyllic national park on the Pacific coast
• Corcovado National Park: a vast remote rainforest that is off-the-beaten-path providing outstanding animal viewing opportunities.
• Tortuguero National Park: a scenic wild destination where travelers can look for turtles, sloths, crocodiles and manatees.
• Chirripo National Park: a cloud forest offering beautiful views and Costa Rica's highest summit, it has a variety of plant life at various altitudes.
• Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve: an incredibly famous national park, Monteverde highlights quetzals, birds and a variety of cloud forest vegetation.
• Cahuita National Park: an easy-to-access national park, Cahuita has a lovely hiking trail, coral reefs, beaches and features howler monkeys.
• Santa Rosa National Park: a unique dry forest located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica contains the tree called guancaste for which the state of Guanacaste is named.
• Playa Grande Marine Turtle National Park: a Costa Rican national park designated for the endangered leatherback turtles to lay eggs.
• Barra Honda National Park: a Costa Rica national park that protects 2,300-hectares (5,600-acres) of caves; many of these caves have not been explored.
• Poas Volcano National Park: one of the most visited national parks, visitors can look into the volcano without hiking to the top.
• Irazu Volcano National Park: an easy half hour trip from San Jose, travelers can reach the top ridge, walk along the main crater and look across at a gorgeous green lake.
• Marino Ballena National Park: a national park dedicated to preserving whales, this park covers 15-km (9 mi) of beachfront and 15-km (9 mi) of ocean.
• Carara National Park: this Costa Rica national park contains a transition zone between tropical dry forests of the northwest and rainforests of the south; it's located 50-km (31 mi) south of Puntarenas.
• Los Quetzales National Park: this is Costa Rica's newest national park located in the Cordillera de Talamanca and is named for the endangered ruby red quetzal.
• La Amistad National Park: this is the largest national park in Costa Rica and covers about 12% of Costa Rica's protected park area.
• Rincon de la Vieja National Park: this national park highlights lovely hiking trails, mud pools for bathing and gorgeous scenery.
• Cabo Blanco Absolute Wildlife Reserve: this is the oldest protected area in Costa Rica and was established by Costa Rica's first conservationists in 1963.
• Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge: an angler's dream destination, this national park has kilometers of canals, lagoons, rivers and marshes.
• The Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge : this refuge is an angler's and birder's destination offering a unique landscape and an off-the-beaten-path location.

There are several UNESCO World Heritage sites in Costa Rica. Cocos Island National Park is located 500-km (310 mi) off the Pacific coast and is one of the best places in the world to view sharks, rays, tuna and dolphins.

Costa Rica National Parks are conservation areas

The Conservation Area of Guanacaste encompasses four Costa Rica national parks and reserves in the northwest of Costa Rica. This area is recognized as the best remaining example of dry forest in Central America. In addition, this national park and reserve area protects a variety of ecosystems including marine to cloud forest. The conservation area of national parks and reserves is an important corridor for wildlife and permits animal migration.