Costa Rica has its Marriotts, Four Seasons, beach resorts and casinos but to experience it at its best you need to grab your rubber boots, slap on the Deet and head for the hills.

Going wild doesn’t necessarily mean adios to comforts – there are many luxurious wilderness lodges tucked away in cloud forests and steamy, dripping jungle, but also many that are basic, super-remote or just plain quirky and what they lack in thread count, bin size and, okay, electricity, they make up for in Kodak moments and indelible memories.

If you want nights spent listening to plinking tree frogs, howler monkeys and the splatter of rain on leaves, to see monkeys and flash birds swoop past your hammock, to amble through a reserve or sit on a beach and pretend it’s all yours; if you want spirit of place and to know you are in Costa Rica, these hidden gems – ranging from rock bottom basic to charming – will deliver it.

Southern Pacific: Sirena Ranger Station, Corcovado National Park

One of the finest places on earth and well-worth the effort of getting there – considerable, given its location at the heart of Corcovado National Park on the Osa peninsula, and the total absence of roads. After getting yourself to one of the three perimeter stations (a feat in itself) there’s a 14km hike along the beach (from La Leona), a 20km slug through orange mud (from Los Patos) or, from San Pedrillo, a 23km hike along sand (mainly) and timed carefully to arrive at two tidal rivers (one at each end) before the water is thigh deep and chock-a-block with hammerhead sharks.

The wooden station is in a clearing, a grassy airstrip back from the sea, but don’t anticipate a refreshing dip on arrival. As the park office states, the beach is a ‘high energy beach with rip currents and bull sharks’, and the river is ‘home to a population of crocodiles and due to its brackish water, bull sharks and sting rays’, concluding laconically, ‘Swimming is not advised.’ This I can confirm. Facilities are modest – there’s rice and beans for those who book ahead, and space to camp, string up a hammock, plus+ bunkbeds.

These things are irrelevant once night falls and you experience being at the cacophonous heart of a truly wild place, home to tapir and jaguar – tracks are often spotted around the station, howler, spider and capuchin monkeys, pizotes and raccoon-like mapaches, toucans, scarlet macaws, trogons, honeycreepers, hummingbirds, parrots, tanagers, hawks, vultures (above the kitchen) and fishing bulldog bats.

Don’t even think about hiking (particularly after dark) without rubber boots – poisonous snakes are plentiful. You’ll also need moleskin for blisters, torch and spare batteries, factor infinity sun protection, mosquito net and sheet, water bottle and written permission from the ACOSA office located by the airstrip in Puerto Jimenez. Fabulous stuff.

Non-residents daily park fee $8/day; permission to camp $4/day; bunk bed (bring own sheets, towels and mosquito net) $8/ day. Breakfast $8; lunch $11; dinner $11; No access without ACOSA authorization: Tel 506 735-5036. Park information

Southern Pacific: Tiskita Jungle Lodge

Peter Aspinall began homesteading this piece of land on the coast close to the Panamanian border in the 1970s, and raised his family here, and while the location is remote and wild, the atmosphere at the beautiful lodge – one of the pioneering ecolodges - is heartwarmingly homely. Amble through the tropical fruit orchards plucking and eating, poke around the rock pools or doze on the veranda of a wooden cabin.

Accessed by plane, and without telephones, television, fax or passers-by, it’s easy to forget the outside world exists at all. The cabins are in the thick of the local action, with hummingbirds making fly-bys through the outdoor showers, sloths and squirrel monkeys in the surrounding trees. Cas, guanabana, mangosteen, star fruit and other fruity treats draw the jungle’s flashiest birds into the 37 acres of orchards, while large mammals lurk just beyond in the forest reserve. Guided hikes are available free of charge, and sea and mangrove fishing, riding and various excursions can be arranged for a reasonable price.

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