(And Why Costa Rica and Panama Are Calling)
There’s a particular kind of traveller who’s done with all-inclusive resorts.
You know the type. The person who’d rather sleep in a tent hearing howler monkeys at dawn than wake up to a buffet breakfast and a poolside DJ. The one who wants their passport stamps to mean something beyond “I was there, I took a photo, I left.”
If that’s you, then expedition holidays aren’t just a nice idea… they’re the only idea that makes sense anymore.
And if you’re going to do it properly, Central America, specifically Costa Rica and Panama, might just be the most rewarding place on Earth to start.
The Problem With Normal Holidays
Let’s be honest. Most holidays are designed to sedate you.
You arrive. You’re shown to your room. You eat predictable food. You lie by a pool. You take a few photos. You go home feeling vaguely rested but also… unchanged.
There’s nothing wrong with rest. God knows we all need it. But there’s a difference between resting and actually living.
Expedition travel flips that script entirely. It’s not about comfort… it’s about connection. Connection to place, to people, to the version of yourself that doesn’t spend forty hours a week answering emails.
It’s the difference between seeing a rainforest from a tour bus window and actually walking through one, sweating, listening, noticing the way light filters through the canopy at four in the afternoon.
It’s the difference between saying you’ve “been to Costa Rica” and actually knowing what it smells like when it rains in the cloud forest.
Why Costa Rica and Panama?
Because nowhere else packs this much wildness into such a small space.
Costa Rica is roughly the size of West Virginia. Panama is only slightly larger. And yet between them, these two countries contain:
- 5% of the world’s biodiversity
- More bird species than all of North America combined
- Jaguars, sloths, toucans, poison dart frogs, sea turtles, and humpback whales
- Rainforests, cloud forests, mangroves, coral reefs, and volcanic peaks
- Some of the most progressive environmental policies on the planet
Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948 and decided to spend that budget on education and conservation instead. Today, more than 25% of the country is protected land. Panama, meanwhile, is home to indigenous communities who’ve lived sustainably in the jungle for thousands of years.
This isn’t eco-tourism as a marketing gimmick. It’s woven into the fabric of both countries.
And that matters, because when you travel somewhere that actually values its environment, you feel it. The experience is richer. The guides are more knowledgeable. The local communities benefit. You’re not extracting… you’re participating.
What an Expedition Actually Looks Like
Forget the word “holiday” for a second. Expeditions are something else entirely.
You’re not ticking boxes off a list. You’re moving through landscapes that require something from you… attention, curiosity, a willingness to get muddy.
In Costa Rica, that might mean trekking through Corcovado National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, where you’re more likely to see a tapir than another tourist. It might mean kayaking through mangrove tunnels in the Osa Peninsula, or watching scarlet macaws nest in the cliffs of Carara.
In Panama, it could be hiking through the Darién Gap (yes, actually), exploring the cloud forests of Boquete, or spending time with the Emberá people in their riverside villages, learning how they’ve maintained their way of life without electricity or roads.
These aren’t experiences you can buy at a resort. They require movement, intention, and the kind of travel company that knows the difference between adventure and recklessness.
The Sustainability Question (Because It Actually Matters)
There’s a lot of greenwashing in travel. Companies slap “eco-friendly” on their brochures and think that’s enough.
But real sustainability isn’t about offsetting carbon or using bamboo straws. It’s about designing trips that support local economies, protect fragile ecosystems, and leave places better than you found them.
That means:
- Working with local guides who actually live in the regions you’re exploring
- Staying in locally-owned lodges, not international hotel chains
- Choosing activities that fund conservation, not exploitation
- Travelling in small groups that don’t overwhelm communities or wildlife
- Being transparent about impact, not just profit
The best expedition companies understand this instinctively. They’re not selling you a holiday… they’re inviting you into a relationship with a place.
And that’s the standard you should hold every travel company to, especially in regions as ecologically significant as Costa Rica and Panama.
What You’ll Actually Gain (Besides Photos)
This is the bit most travel writing gets wrong.
They list activities. They describe sunsets. They use words like “pristine” and “untouched” until you want to scream.
But the real value of expedition travel isn’t what you see. It’s what you become.
You become someone who can navigate uncertainty. Someone who notices things… the sound of a three-toed sloth moving through the trees, the way the air changes before a rainstorm, the quiet pride in a guide’s voice when they show you something rare.
You become less reliant on comfort and more comfortable with discomfort, which is a genuinely useful life skill.
You come home and realise that the things you worried about before you left… most of them don’t actually matter.
And yes, you also come home with stories that make every other conversation at a dinner party sound incredibly boring. Sorry, not sorry.
The Companies That Get It Right
Not all expedition travel companies are created equal.
Some are glorified tour operators with better branding. Others are genuinely committed to doing this work properly… thoughtfully, sustainably, with respect for the places and people they’re working with.
Karen Travel is one of the latter.
They specialise in expeditions to Central and South America, with a particular focus on Costa Rica and Panama, and they’ve built their entire model around uniqueness and sustainability. Not as buzzwords, but as actual operating principles.
That means small group sizes. Local partnerships. Itineraries designed around exploration, not Instagram. The kind of trips where you’re walking through a forest with someone who grew up there, not reading from a script in broken English.
It means they’ll take you to places that aren’t on the usual tourist trail, because those are the places worth going.
And it means when you book with them, you’re supporting a way of travelling that actually benefits the places you visit.
Why Now?
Because the world is changing faster than we’d like to admit.
Glaciers are melting. Coral reefs are bleaching. Species are disappearing. And while none of that is your individual fault, it does mean that the window to experience certain places… properly, meaningfully, before they’re gone or irreversibly altered… is closing.
Costa Rica and Panama are still wild. Still accessible. Still welcoming travellers who want to do more than consume.
But that won’t last forever.
So if you’ve been thinking about this… if you’ve been tired of the same old beach resort, the same old city break, the same old version of yourself on holiday… now’s the time.
Not next year. Not when things are less busy. Now.
What Happens Next
If this has landed with you at all, here’s what I’d suggest.
Head to page.fo/karen-travel and have a look at what Karen Travel are offering. See if any of their expeditions speak to you. And if they do, reach out.
Ask questions. Be specific about what you want from the experience. Tell them what scares you and what excites you.
Good travel companies want to have that conversation. They want to match you with the right trip, not just sell you any trip.
And if you go… when you go… pay attention. Not just to the big moments, the sunsets and the wildlife and the views, but to the small ones. The conversations. The silences. The way it feels to be somewhere that isn’t designed for your comfort, but rewards your presence anyway.
That’s where the magic lives.
And that’s why expedition holidays, done right, aren’t just holidays at all.
They’re the thing you’ll still be talking about in twenty years.