Are you renting a campervan in Costa Rica and looking for some of the best free campsites? Well, I’ve got you covered.

Last year my partner and I did the exact same thing with Nomad America to explore as much of the country as possible.

We only booked 2 weeks with the car, so we were somewhat limited when it came to where we could go. We couldn’t hit EVERYTHING so we decided to spend our 2 weeks exploring the volcano highlands region and the Nicoya Peninsula (the peninsula on the west coast of Costa Rica).

So these campsites I’m sharing with you are only around the western half of the country. 

We only camped at free campsites on our trip because campgrounds in Costa Rica can get pretty pricey. Some of these free sites I’d argue are better than anything you could pay for. But others, I wouldn’t recommend. So here I am only sharing with you the top 5 campsites that we stayed at.

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Is Free Wild Camping Legal in Costa Rica?

Yes! It is legal to camp at free sites in Costa Rica. You just aren’t allowed to camp inside National Park boundaries or on private land. But pretty much everything else is fair game unless you see no camping signs. 

The police have even driven by us a few times while we were camping and only gave us a friendly wave. 

How to Find Free Campsites in Costa Rica

The way I find all my free campsites in both the US and internationally is with a website called iOverlander.

I’ve talked about this site before in some of my other camping posts, but essentially, iOverlander is a database packed with campsites in nearly every country around the world. Since wild camping is pretty popular in Costa Rica, you can find tons of great spots through this site. 

Previously, iOverlander had a free app, but to make a long story short, it doesn’t work anymore. You can no longer access the thousands of campsites uploaded throughout the years via the app for free.  

I was devastated until I found out that you can still view the campsites if you go through their website, not the app. This works on both your computer or phone.

So what I did was bookmark their actual website to my home screen on my phone so it’s still super easy to access and feels like nothing really changed.

iOverlander is the only app I ever use to find campsites and it worked amazing for our trip to Costa Rica. There are so many awesome and free spots out there.

The only downside is that you need service or Wi-Fi to use their website which can sometimes be a problem. You will constantly be going in and out of service driving through Costa Rica.

We made sure to look up where we were going to camp that night ahead of time when we had service. So just in case we lost service for the rest of the day, we had a plan of where to go for the night.

Free Campsite #1: Peninsula on Lake Arenal Campsite

The site on the Lake Arenal peninsula became one of my favorite free campsites in Costa Rica. If you plan to visit Lake Arenal and the La Fortuna area, you won’t want to miss this awesome free campsite. 

It’s very easy to access from Nuevo Arenal, a small town next to the lake on the northern shore. There’s some restaurants and a gas station in town which I highly recommend filling up there before you leave the area onto your next destination. 

Honestly, I don’t think you could ask for much more in a free campsite. It had service, no bugs, and practically 360° lake views. I fell in love with the trees at this campsite. It’s so scenic and the perfect place to set up some hammocks. 

If you’re renting with Nomad America, you’ll have hammocks that come with your camp supplies. We utilized ours here and it was lovely. Especially during the sunset. 

The peninsula is big enough to fit a few other campervans, but we got lucky and had the whole place to ourselves for the night. 

You might come across a few locals walking down to the lake with their dogs, but they were all so nice to us and had cool stories to share.

If you’re visiting during the dry season, there will be even more room to camp and drive around. But in the rainy season, the lake waters rise and cover parts of the peninsula making it smaller. We were there in October and there was still plenty of land to park on and explore.

Free Campsite #2: Playa Mangoes

Playa Mangoes is a small beach located along the gulf of Nicoya which is off the east coast of the Nicoya Peninsula. 

To get to Playa Mangoes, you will want a high clearance vehicle. The road leading to the beach is a rough, steep road full of pot holes. This may only pose a threat if you’re visiting in the rainy season. However, if you’re renting with Nomad America, all of their vehicles are 4×4 so you won’t have to worry.

Someone’s property is a few hundred meters off shore from the beach, but we met them in the morning and they said nothing to us about not camping there. They were very nice and seemed used to tourists camping on the beach. 

The beach is small in a way that feels intimate, yet there’s enough room to fit 2 or 3 campers with some good space in between. 

The waters are very calm here, perfect for swimming or taking a quick dip to cool off.

There are also some cool rock formations on the right side of the beach where you can see through to the other side. You can walk out onto these rocks and explore when the tide is low.

There are trash cans located on the beach too so you don’t have to keep all your trash in your car the whole time which is so nice. There is also cell service here.

The only bad thing is that the bugs got pretty bad at night, but that’s part of camping at a place like this. 

Bioluminescence at Playa Mangoes

Something else special about Playa Mangoes is that you can actually see bioluminescence here around the New Moon.

It won’t be nearly as good as the bioluminescence you’ll find around the famous Paquera Bay which is nearby. But it was still cool to splash around the beach at night and see the soft and subtle bioluminescence light up around our legs.

When you’re in the area you don’t want to miss taking a bioluminescence kayak tour. Paquera Bay is one of the best places in the entire country to see it. 

I recommend doing this tour the night you plan to camp at Playa Mangoes because you will only have a short drive to your campsite after the tour ends. It works out perfectly and the tour became one of my highlights from our trip to Costa Rica. 

Free Campsite #3: Playa Santa Teresa

If you plan on visiting the small tourist town of Santa Teresa, you will definitely want to make this spot your campsite for the night. 

The site is technically located on Playa Carmen, but it’s only a short drive to the downtown area of Santa Teresa. Since you’re so close to town you’ll get good service which is very helpful.

If you’re looking for a nice and simple campsite on the beach, this is it. No rough roads required and it was very quiet at night. No one else camped with us although there is tons of space for other campers.

You will probably wake up to see tons people walking along the beach in the morning. It seems like a popular place for tourists during the day.

There are also some nice trees lining the beach where we enjoyed laying in our hammocks again.

We didn’t deal with any bugs at all the night we camped. This may be due to the rain that rolled in that evening. We only stayed that one night though so I’m not sure if it’s always like that.

Overall it was a great spot and I would definitely say this is one of the better free campsites in Costa Rica that are right on the beach.

Free Campsite #4: Poas Volcano 

There’s really not too much special about this campsite, other than it’s super close to Poas Volcano National Park. 

So if you’re planning on visiting Poas Volcano I highly recommend you stay at this campsite and visit the park the next morning. That way you’ll not only beat the crowds, but you also won’t have to spend a ton of time driving to the park that day. You’ll do the long drive the evening before and camp right near the park’s entrance. 

This campsite is basically just a pull off the side of the road in the jungle. There will be bugs, it will be cold at night due to the elevation, and there really isn’t that much space in the campsite to move around.

There’s enough space to set up a table for cooking, but not much else.

There is also no service here. So anything you need to get online (tickets to Poas, driving directions to plan your next day, etc) make sure to do all that before you get to the campsite. 

However, it’s a good enough site for one night especially if you plan to go to the park the next morning. I wouldn’t want to stay more than one night though.

I’d also recommend getting to the campsite as early as you can in the day. You don’t want to be getting there at sunset or later because there will probably be someone there already.

Especially since the site is only big enough for one vehicle. We arrived around 3 PM and began setting up camp to secure our spot so we could easily visit the volcano in the morning. 

A few cars did pull up throughout the evening trying to camp there too, but had to turn around once they realized we had already claimed it. Other than that this road is pretty quiet once the park closes. 

Free Campsite #5: Playa Junquillal

The last free campsite in Costa Rica I am sharing with you is the site at Playa Junquillal. This beach is on the western coast of the Nicoya Peninsula. It’s a few hours south of Tamarindo.

Junquillal is a small local town and the beach primarily seems to be visited by locals. There are tons of places to park along this road, yet there is a no camping sign posted at one of the parking areas. If you drive past the sign there are more spaces down this road where you can camp overnight. 

All the sites are beachfront but they are located within the trees lining the beach so there will probably be quite a few bugs swarming you at night. That’s the only real downside to this spot. 

It was a quiet night, and there wasn’t anyone else camping in the area with us. A few cars did drive down the road in the evening hours after dark. I assume it was some local kids.

Amazing Sunsets & Morning Tide Pools

At Playa Junquillal you’ll get a front row seat to the sunset since you’re on the west coast. It’s nice to walk along the beach during sunset to look for cool shells and take in the incredible views of the coastline.

In the morning when the tide is low, you can walk out onto the rocks and explore the tide pools. If you go early enough you can get in the pools that are deep enough to wade around in before anyone else gets there. 

It’s a great way to cool off in the morning and look for some cool sea creatures that found their way there overnight. I’d say try to get out there by 10 AM or earlier before the tide starts to come in. 

There will probably be a lot of locals here, it seems like these tide pools are still a lesser known gem for tourists. 

And that will conclude my top 5 free campsites in Costa Rica! Costa Rica is a great country to explore by campervan, and you can easily find tons of free sites to help you cut down on costs during your trip. 

I hope this post helped you plan your trip to this beautiful country and thank you so much for reading!