Cahuita National Park, National park in Cahuita, Costa Rica

Cahuita National Park is a protected area along Costa Rica's Caribbean coast that combines tropical forest and marine zones into a single ecosystem. The park features sandy beaches, forest trails, and coral reefs that you can explore on foot or by swimming in designated areas.

Cahuita was declared a national monument by Executive Decree No. 1236-A on 7 September 1970, to protect its coral reefs, flora and fauna. It was reformed as a national park in 1978, a change ratified in 1982. In 2025 two Danish slave ships wrecked in 1710, the Fridericus Quartus and Christianus Quintus, were identified in park waters.

The park takes its name from the town of Cahuita, whose name is used for the whole protected area. At the Cahuita entrance, the park is the only national park in Costa Rica that does not charge an admission fee and instead relies on donations. The reef and beaches are also a nesting ground for sea turtles.

The park has two entrance points, and you can explore it by walking trails that wind through forest and lead to the coast. Wear good shoes since the paths are often muddy and rooted, especially after rain, and plan to spend several hours walking.

The reef's outer edge runs about 4 km in front of Punta Cahuita, between the Perezoso river and Puerto Vargas. After the 22 April 1991 earthquake, part of the reef platform rose about 1 m. Live coral cover fell from roughly 40% in the early 1980s to under 10% by the early 1990s, largely from sediment carried by the La Estrella river.