Country Information

Food and Drink

Restaurants in towns and cities serve a variety of foods including Chinese, French, Italian, Mexican and North American. Food is satisfactory, from the most expensive to the cheapest eating places (which are generally found west of the city centre). Food sodas (small restaurants) serve local food.

National specialities:
• Casado (rice, beans, stewed beef, fried plantain, salad and cabbage).
• Olla de carne (soup of beef, plantain, corn, yuca, nampi and chayote).
• Sopa negra (black beans with a poached egg).
• Picadillo (meat and vegetable stew).
• Gallos (filled tortillas).

National drinks:
There are many types of cold drinks made from fresh fruit, milk or cereal flour, for example:
• Cebada (barley flour).
• Pinolillo (roasted corn).
• Horchata (corn meal with cinnamon).
Imported alcoholic and soft drinks are widely available. Coffee is good value and has an excellent flavour.

Tipping: Tipping is not necessary but is acceptable if the service was particularly outstanding. Restaurants add a 23% service charge to the bill.

Nightlife

San José especially has many nightclubs, venues with folk music and dance, theatres and cinemas.

Shopping

Special purchases include wood and leather rocking chairs (which dismantle for export), as well as a range of local crafts available in major cities and towns. Local markets are also well worth visiting. Prices are slightly higher than in other Latin American countries. Best buys are wooden items, ceramics, jewellery and leather handicrafts.

Shopping hours: Mon-Sat 0900-1800/1900. There may be variations between areas.

• Discover a mixture of traditional and modern Spanish architecture in the capital San José. Places of interest include the Teatro Nacional, the Legislative Assembly building, and the Parque Central, east of which is the cathedral. The National Museum and the Museum of Gold are also worth a visit.

• San José is a good centre for excursions into the beautiful Meseta Central region. The nearby town of Cartago was founded in 1563, but there are no old buildings as earthquakes destroyed the town in 1841 and 1910. However, some of the reconstruction was in the colonial style. Excursions can be made from here to the crater of Irazúand to the beautiful valley of Orosi, with its colonial church.

• Admire Costa Rica’s eight active volcanoes. The sight of Arenal, in the Sierra Volcánica Guanacaste in the northwest, erupting at night is truly spectacular.

• There are numerous beaches, ports and towns worth visiting on the Caribbean Coast. The biggest is Puerto Limón; others include Guapiles, Tortuguero, Barra del Colorado, Cahuita and Puerto Viejo. On the Pacific Coast, head for the towns of Quepos, Nicoya, Liberia and Samara.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.

• Relax in San José’s numerous parks, including the Parque Nacional, the Parque Bolivar and the Parque Morazán.

• Discover Costa Rica’s national parks. Braulio Carrillo National Park has five kinds of forest, some with characteristic rainforest vegetation. Orchids and ferns, jaguars, ocelots and the Baird tapir may be seen here. Poás Volcano National Park contains the smouldering Poás Volcano and has the only dwarf cloudforest in Costa Rica. Tortuguero National Park protects the Atlantic green turtle egg-laying grounds. Santa Rosa National Park has the last large strand of tropical dry forest in Central America. The virgin rainforest in Corcovado National Park contains many endangered species. It has the largest tree in Costa Rica, a ceibo which is 70m (230ft) high. Cano Island Biological Reserve hasa bird sanctuary. Cahuita National Park protects the only coral reef on Costa Rica’s Carribbean coastline. Its other attractions include howler and white-faced monkeys, racoons and 500 species of fish. Costa Rica’s highest mountain, Chirripó (12,533ft/3,828m) is in Chirripó National Park. The upper slopes of the mountains are often covered by cloudforest, whose most notable inhabitant is the Resplendent Quetzal. Manuel Antonio National Park and the Barra del Colorado National Wildlife Refuge are also worth a visit, and many of the tiny islands in the Gulf of Nicoya, near Puntarenas, are ‘biological protection areas’.

•Mountain biking can be done on the trails in the forests and national parks. Horse riding is also easily arranged. Beginners should arrange to have tuition beforehand, as working ranch horses are often used on rides. Canopy touring is becoming popular as well; it entails being attached to a harness and ‘flying’ through the jungle canopy via a series of cables. Bungee jumping and ballooning are also available.

• In the foothills of Rincón de la Vieja, the mud pools bubble permanently and it is possible to bathe in the hot springs in this area. The Central Highlands are the most accessible for the visitor, and feature Poás, whose crater contains a boiling sulphurous lake, and Irazú, its desolate landscape resembling the surface of the moon.

• The most popular adventure sport is white-water rafting. Outfitters and guides can arrange trips. The Reventazón River (class III) is suitable for beginners, while more experienced rafters can tackle the Pacuare (class IV) and the Pascua (class V) rivers. The best times to go are from May to November.

•Lake Arenal is one of the world’s top windsurfing spots. Situated at 5,580ft (1,700m) above sea level, the lake offers its best windsurfing between April and December. Puerto Soleyon the northern Pacific coast offers good ocean windsurfing. Surfing is possible at many beaches, and is especially popular at Pavoneson the Pacific coast and at Playa Naranjo in the northwest. This part of the country also offers excellent diving and snorkelling, with more than 20 local dive sites. Cocos Island, praised by Jacques Cousteau, and Caño Island, off the southwest coast, are also good diving areas.

• On the Pacific Coast, the beaches around Puntarenas are rather poor, although San Lucas Island, just off the port, has magnificent beaches. There are beautiful beaches in the Guanacaste area, near Quepos in the Central Pacific and near Golfito in the South. Puerto Caldera, a few miles south of Puntarenas, is a port of call for cruise liners.

• The Pacific coast, from the Gulf of Papagayo to Golfito offers excellent sport fishing. Sailfish, marlin, tuna and wahoo are among the catches. The Tortuguero Canals and the area around Barra del Colorado offer good freshwater game fishing, while trout can be caught in the country’s mountain streams.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.