A more responsible journey through Costa Rica starts long before your guests arrive.
It begins with decisions made behind the scenes: how we measure our footprint, which conservation and community projects we support, and how we prepare the guides who spend their days with your guests.
That work has now earned Costa Rican Trails CST Elite certification, the highest level of Costa Rica’s Certificate for Sustainable Tourism, awarded by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT).
CST looks at sustainability across environmental, cultural, and business practices. The programme has two levels, Basic and Elite, with Elite reserved for companies that demonstrate verifiable excellence and continuous improvement across the areas assessed. The certification is valid for three years.
For us, CST Elite puts an independent standard behind work already happening throughout Costa Rican Trails. Here is what some of that work looks like on the ground:
Confidence on the Ground
Sustainability is about people as much as places.
Costa Rican Trails is a member of Red Sofía, an ICT network focused on the safety of women travelling alone. We have also signed the Code of Conduct against the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.
Our team is trained to identify and prevent risks connected with these commitments, giving advisors additional reassurance about the people looking after their guests once they arrive in Costa Rica.
Supporting Local Communities
Sometimes making a contribution can be as simple as leaving a little room in a suitcase.
Through Pack for a Purpose, we encourage guests to bring essential school supplies with them to Costa Rica. This year, guests and our team have collected more than 20 kg of materials for local schools.
We also support Asociación Pro Hogar de Niños Baik, which provides temporary residential care for 20 at-risk children referred by Costa Rica’s national child welfare agency, PANI. Our own team gets involved, too, with staff participating in annual national blood donation campaigns.
These are different forms of support, but each connects tourism more closely with the communities where we live and operate.
Measuring Our Environmental Impact
Some of our sustainability efforts can be measured very precisely.
We track and work to mitigate our carbon footprint in line with Costa Rica’s national carbon-neutrality goal. To date, Costa Rican Trails has compensated 34.25 tonnes of CO₂ through FONAFIFO, a national initiative that supports sustainable development, reforestation, and forest management for small and medium-sized local producers.
In the Osa Peninsula, we support Fundación Corcovado as a Silver Morpho member, financially contributing to its Make a Difference programme and its work in conservation, anti-poaching, and environmental education.
Our team also gets out from behind their desks to join clean-up campaigns and tree-planting initiatives in protected areas across Costa Rica. Together, these efforts connect the footprint of our own operations with practical support for the landscapes guests have travelled to experience.
How Our Guides Put It Into Practice
Much of a guest’s understanding of Costa Rica comes from the guide exploring it alongside them. That is why ongoing learning is an important part of how we prepare our guides.
Their training goes beyond sustainability and environmental management. Guides take part in educational opportunities covering topics such as birdwatching, volcanology, pre-Columbian cultures, Costa Rican history, ecosystems, biodiversity, and environmental conservation.
That knowledge gives them more to draw on throughout a journey. A bird spotted along a trail, a volcanic landscape, or the history behind a site becomes an opportunity to add context and help guests better understand what they are experiencing.
By continually building their knowledge, our guides are better equipped to answer questions, share meaningful insights, and help guests develop a deeper understanding of Costa Rica and the importance of travelling through it responsibly.
The Work Behind the Certification
Your guests are unlikely to see a carbon calculation or every training session that happens before their trip. They may not know about every tree planted, bag of school supplies collected, or conservation programmes supported.
But those actions are part of what sits behind their journey.
CST Elite gives that work an independent benchmark. For advisors, it offers something more concrete than a sustainability claim: measurable actions, ongoing community and conservation work, and a team continually investing in how Costa Rica is experienced and cared for.
→ Speak with our team to learn more about CST Elite and the work behind your guests’ journeys through Costa Rica.
