San Jose, Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a small Central American Country that is bordered by the countries of Panama to the South and Nicaragua in the North. The country is also bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The country is one of the most peaceful in a region that has a reputation for crime and civil wars. Costa Rica is a democracy and one that abolished its military completely quite a few years ago. The country is about the size of West Virginia and has around five million people. San Jose is the capital and largest city that is full of all the modern comforts of any other city. It has great museums and sites to see. Outside of San Jose you get out into the coffee farms and the many other types of agricultural products that the country produces. Beyond that is a country of lush rainforests, diverse animal life, volcanos, waterfalls hot springs, and adventure. I cannot forget to mention the great people and food that Costa Rica has in general. We visited Costa Rica for the first time in November of 2021 and it was the first international trip we went on during the pandemic.
Getting to Costa Rica and getting around the country
The best way to get to Costa Rica is taking a flight to one of its two major international airports. San Jose has the largest airport in the country and has flights to many destinations in the US and around the World. All major US Airlines fly to San Jose including Southwest, American, Delta, United, JetBlue and Frontier. There is a smaller international airport in Liberia near the pacific coast that is also serviced by major US airlines. When getting around in Costa Rica you have a few options. You could always rent a car but for me personally I shy away from renting a car internationally. In Costa Rica the traffic can be intense in San Jose and outside of the city the roads are relatively small (think small farm to market roads in the US). The weather can change dramatically as we saw from a sunny day to fog and heavy rain while driving through the mountains. There are buses available throughout the country as well. We opted to take guided tours and airport transfer services as it made for a much less stressful trip. Some cruise ships make a stop in Costa Rica as well.
Country Information
As of November of 2021 US Citizens do not need a visa to visit Costa Rica. You will of course need a valid passport. As of now you do not need a negative Covid test to enter Costa Rica if you are vaccinated but you will need to fill out a health questionnaire that gives you a QR code you will show to immigration in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is taking a lot of precautions as you will need to wear a mask at the airport and around the country you will find mask wearing, hand washing before entering a museum or hotel and temperature taking is common. Spanish is the national language of Costa Rica but for the most part I was able to get by with English and speaking a little bit of Spanish. The currency of Costa Rica is the Colon (named after Christopher Columbus) and as of now one Colon is worth around .0016 US Dollars. We got Colones before we left the US from our bank but in Costa Rica the US Dollar is widely accepted and at many sites the prices were in US dollars.
Places to Stay in Costa Rica
There is no lack of hotels and resorts in Costa Rica. You can find resorts near volcanoes with hot springs to swim in, resorts along the coast with beaches and anything in between. We decided to stay in San Jose at a beautiful Hilton Property in downtown across the street from the National Theater and a short walk away from the National Museum and capital building. The Gran Hotel Costa Rica has been around since the 1930s and is where President John F. Kennedy stayed when he visited Costa Rica. We decided to stay there to be able to do some things in the city but also be able to go out into the countryside on tours. We also stayed one night at a very nice Hampton Inn near the Airport since we had a somewhat early flight home.
San Jose, Costa Rica
Our base of operations for this trip was in the capital and largest city in Costa Rica. While there is plenty of traffic, its a very modern city. When we first landed and our transfer was driving us to the hotel we saw many international companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Cisco and others in large office buildings in the city. We also saw plenty of US restaurant chains driving through the city such as Subway, McDonalds, Papa Johns, Denny’s, Taco Bell, and others. We spent two days exploring San Jose in our short trip and we were able to see many great things a short distance from our hotel. We took the advice of the hotel staff and did not go out at night but we felt very safe walking to the museums and spots we visited in San Jose.
The National Museum of Costa Rica
The first museum we visited in Costa Rica was the National Museum. It was around a ten minute walk from our hotel along a nice European style pedestrian street flanked by shops and restaurants. The museum is in a colorful yellow former military barracks. It is the site of where the military was disbanded in Costa Rica. To enter they took our temperature and had us wash our hands. The museum does a great job teaching about the history and culture of Costa Rica. We started in a beautiful butterfly garden that was once part of the military barracks. There is a very good and in depth exhibit that starts with the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica including the huge stone spheres they created and continued on to the Spanish explorers, Central American independence from Spain, the formation of Costa Rica and then the current days. They had great videos and artifacts to describe their history. They also had great exhibits about the good and the challenges of modern Costa Rica. There were temporary exhibits on the spheres, the night animals of Costa Rica and the anniversary of Costa Rican independence. It taught us a lot about the culture and history of Costa Rica. When we visit a country we always try to visit the National Museum of that country if all possible. It will teach you so much about the country you are visiting and will give you a greater understanding and a new perspective. It took us a couple hours to tour and there is a fee to visit the museum. All the museums we visited had Spanish and English explaining the exhibits and artifacts.
The Museum of Jade
Across a park that is in front of the Costa Rican capital building from the National Museum is another great museum we visited. The Museum of Jade is a multi-story museum that tells the story of the pre-Columbian peoples of Costa Rica. It is a very high tech museum with interactive displays and many jade, gold and other artifacts from the people of Costa Rica. The museum tells the story of all aspects of their lives including recreations of their villages. It tells the story of what the artifacts meant and what they were used for. From worshiping deities, shaman healings to death it shows what the jade and gold was used for. We spent a couple hours at the museum learning about Costa Rica’s ancient past. There was a entrance fee of around $30 for the two of us to visit the museum but we found it well worth it.
The Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold
Right across from our hotel underneath the Plaza de Cultura is the Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold. The museum is completely underneath the ground and goes down several stories. Like the Jade Museum it chronicles the ancient people’s of Costa Rica and focuses on the gold artifacts that they created. This also has a interactive displays and had a great presentation on the levels of the existence (underworld, the heavens and others) they believed in. There were several exhibit floors and there was a temporary exhibit about the mapping of Central America by the explorers. On the ground level floor there was a great exhibit on currency that included coin history in civilizations such as Rome and continued through the history of Central American and Costa Rican currency. We spent an hour or two touring the museum on our second day touring San Jose. Like the other museums there is a fee of around $10-15 a person.
The National Theater of Costa Rica
Near the Gold Museum and across from our hotel is the ornate National Theater of Costa Rica. They offer tours throughout the day so we decided to take a tour on our last day touring San Jose. The theater is much like many of the beautiful theaters in Europe. It was built in the late 1800s and was built to look like European theaters Costa Rican’s had seen traveling. Many of the sculptures and art in the theater are from Italy or other parts of Europe. Inside you will find ornate paintings, marble sculptures and wonderful wood working. The theater also has an interesting stage that can be manually raised and lowered that was designed in the 1800s as well. We had an English tour and was able to see much of the theater in around an hour. We really enjoyed seeing this beautiful building that still has events in it to this day!
On our second trip to San Jose we decided to go to a show at the smaller theater behind the National Theater that is still part of the Costa Rican National Theater Program. It was a play with a small cast in an intimate theater. It was written by a local playwright about an older clown near his death. The show was completely in Spanish as we expected but we knew enough to be able to get the gist of the play. It was a nice experience and was just as good as a play of this kind in the US!
The San Jose Central Market
We took a quick walk from our hotel down the pedestrian avenue to the Central Market. It is a maze of shops and restaurants that people can buy pretty much anything. We saw meat vendors, herbs and spices being sold, toys, and many other kinds of shops. There was all kinds of food being served at very small restaurants. We did not want to get lost in the pretty crowded market so we only spent around 15-20 minutes there but we wanted to get a flavor of local shopping in San Jose.
The San Jose Cathedral
The last place we toured in San Jose was the main Cathedral of San Jose. Its a huge cathedral that once again reminded me of cathedrals I had visited in Europe. It was in the late afternoon so many people were stopping by to pray after getting off from work. We took a quick walk looking at the stained glass windows and art throughout the cathedral. We did not want to cause a distraction to anyone praying so we only spent a few minutes there but it was well worth the visit.
Driving tour of San Jose and Casino
On a couple of our tours we drove through different areas of San Jose on the way out of the city and were able to see things like their National Stadium and other sites throughout the city. If we make it back I would like to take a more in depth tour of the capital city as it has much to offer. Like I said the city is very crowded and at times you could smell the car exhaust strongly during rush hour as we drove. Costa Rica is a developing country so there are challenges regarding the roads and congestion in the city. We also very briefly visited a casino attached to a Denny’s near our hotel near the airport in Alajuela. It was a very nice casino and I was very impressed with the safety protocols once again of temperature taking, had washing before we entered, very large partitions to separate the machines and they had signs to make sure you did not sit at a machine that had not been sanitized yet after use. Its a great middle ground approach that allows people to safely go to a casino.
Going outside of San Jose
San Jose is a great place to visit museums and for us was a great base for touring other areas of Costa Rica. While in Costa Rica we took two different day tours where we were able to see a lot of of the countryside and some of what makes Costa Rica famous. We were able to see several volcanoes, wild life in the jungle and such much else.
Tour to the Arenal Volcano
Our first tour we took us several hours to the West of San Jose where we saw many different landscapes and places. The ultimate goal was to visit the huge Arenal Volcano near La Fortuna, Costa Rica. We visited quite a few places long the way.
On the tour we started by being picked up by our guide bright as early and we drove through San Jose and some of the suburb cities such as Alajuela. The city was bustling with commuters and business activity. There was a lot of traffic and we passed bt many American businesses such as Wal-Mart along the way. We picked up a few other tourists a long the way. We started driving high into the Costa Rican mountains and made our first stop at a coffee farm.
We took a walk through the coffee farm and learned about coffee production in Costa Rica. The views from the farm were beautiful as we looked out over rainforest and the green of the coffee plants. There were banana trees mixed in with the coffee plants to provide more nutrients. The coffee fruit was growing but not ripe enough for picking yet. They explained all the drying and work that is done to get the coffee. Also every 20 years they cut down the plants and use the wood for cooking and then re-plant. Near the family owned farm we visited was the Starbucks Costa Rica farm.
We left the farm behind and continued up the winding mountain roads. We passed small villages and changing agriculture as coffee cannot grow above a certain height. The coffee farms became strawberry or fern farms. We could see green houses growing the ferns and flowers for export. We soon left the farming regions and got into dense cloud rainforest up in the mountains around 7,000 feet tall. We made a stop at a magnificent waterfall called La Paz. It roars over a cliff surrounded vines, ferns and tropical birds. It was beautiful and tranquil listening to the water and the tropical birds.
We drove further into the mountains and stopped at a “Soda”. A Soda is a small restaurant/cafe you find all over Costa Rica. We stopped to admire the view of another high waterfall and the dense surrounding jungle. While there we tried some local coffee and a Costa Rican tortilla. It was very different from the tortilla’s we are used to. They are thicker, made of corn meal and have cheese mixed in the batter. It was very tasty. We spent time watching all the different species of birds feasting on the fruit that was left out. We saw multiple species of humming birds there was well. Some green and small, others larger and purple.
After our snack stop we continued on and got into a valley where we saw cattle ranches and other types of farms. Agriculture is major business in Costa Rica. We made a quick stop in a town to take a look at some wild sloths up in a tree near a marketplace before we stopped for a Costa Rican lunch. The lunch was great and consisted of grilled chicken or steak, rice, beans, plantains, pico de gallo salad and a fruit smoothie. It was all great and very fresh.
Soon after we arrived at the giant Arenal Volcano. It looks like the traditional cone shaped volcano. Small amounts of smoke were coming from the top. Costa Rica has well over 100 volcanoes with a few major ones like Arenal. We took a short tour off the beaten path to meet the indigenous Maleku people. We toured a traditional hut and they showed us how they hunt, plants they use and told us about how they live.
Our final tour stop was at the base of the volcano at a resort. We were given time to take a dip in the volcano warmed waters of a local hot springs. The landscape was beautiful with all the tropical plants surrounding the pools. We spent a little time in the over 100 degree water but spent more time in the cooling pool as it was warm in the jungle already.
We soon started on our way back through the mountain and jungle roads where we got into heavy rain and fog in the mountains. I was thankful to not be driving in the conditions and in the narrow roads were at times there were bridges were only one car can go at a time. We had a stop for dinner that was fajitas and another fruit smoothie.
We made it back to our hotel after a great adventure. We saw a lot but it was a long tour at 14 hours long. It was well worth it though.
Tour to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens
The second day tour we took brought us back to the mountains to visit the waterfalls and jungle more in depth. On this tour our private guide picked us up and drove us through San Jose back up into the mountains. We stopped by the coffee farm once more and spent time trying their coffee and getting a longer tour of the coffee farm. We next stopped at a local strawberry shop were we tried fresh strawberries, goat cheese, and local wines. It was all great. The main part of the tour though was at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Its a resort in the cloud rainforest that has rescue animals in a zoo and a 2 mile long trail through the jungle that takes you to 5 stunning waterfalls.
The weather was pretty poor on the tour day as a tropical wave/depression was hitting the country so there was heavy rain. We were prepared with rain ponchos and umbrellas. We were able to see in the zoo area sloths, jaguars, butterflies, and other animals. After visiting the animal rescue center we started out on our hike. Few people were taking the hike due to the weather so the jungle was very peaceful with only the birds and sounds of the river La Paz. The trail was very well kept with much of it being concrete bridges. It was very strenuous though being at 7500 feet elevation walking up many stairs. We saw 5 stunning waterfalls as we took the trek. We ended the day at the park by enjoying a traditional Costa Rica buffet. We soon went back to our hotel to dry off and rest after a great tour.
Britt Coffee Tour
On our second trip to San Jose, Costa Rica we decided to take a tour of the very well known around Latin America and the Caribbean Britt Coffee factory in San Jose. There are shops all over the region selling Britt Products. Its the main Coffee Company of Costa Rica. Kind of like the Starbucks of Costa Rica. On this tour they picked us up from our hotel and brought us to the factory. There we met a guide who very energetically showed us every phase of the coffee plant and the delicate process to make the coffee we love. She gave out candy for those who answered trivia about coffee. I got a hand full of candies. Our guide went over the different tastes of coffee that are grown in different regions of Costa Rica. Elevation and the soil make a difference in the taste. We got to try coffee from each of the regions. We got to go into the factory as well to see them roasting the coffee. Our guide showed us how to process coffee in different ways. At the end we got a nice lunch at the restaurant and bought a few different kinds of coffee. If you love coffee this is a wonderful tour where you learn a lot about coffee and Britt. Its only a half day tour so its one to do if you are tired from travel as its a low impact tour.
Book the Britt tour we took below (click link):
Irazu Volcano, Orosi Valley and Ujarras Ruins
We took our next tour on our second trip to San Jose to some areas we had not visited before. We visited Cartago and a holy church revered in the country, the highest active volcano in Costa Rica and the beautiful Orosi Valley with the oldest city in Costa Rica. We got picked up from our hotel in this group tour and headed out to our stops. This was a little different tour for us since it took us to the top of a volcano high in Costa Rican mountains and historic sites East of San Jose.
Our first stop was to Cartago to drive through the city and stop at the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles (Basilica of Our Lady of Angels). Cartago is a very old city and was the capital of Costa Rica from the 1500s to the 1800s. Its been rocked by Earthquakes and volcanos over the years. We past by the ruins of a church that was destroyed several times by Earthquakes. Our main stop was a church that was never destroyed by the Earthquakes and has been around for several hundred years. The Basilica of Our Lady of Angels is the main Cathedral in Costa Rica and has pilgrims visit the church often. People who are there to pray walk on their knees as they approach the alter. We saw that while touring the ornate church. The church has a holy statue of the Virgin Mary carrying Baby Jesus. Its a beautiful place to visit and its very important to the people of Costa Rica and its history.
Our next stop was a drive high into the mountains of Costa Rica. The Irazu Volcano is over 11,000 feet tall making it the highest active volcano in Costa Rica. Its last major eruption was in the mid 1990s but it could erupt again at any time. At the top there is a visitors center with a gift shop and walking trails to see the old craters and the current crater of the volcano. Being at such a high altitude and a very quick assent we took it easy with our hike and did hike to the true top of the volcano. You walk in fine volcanic ash and get stunning views of the dense Costa Rican rainforest and amazing mountains. We spent around an hour up there before we headed down into the beautiful Orosi Valley.
The Orosi Valley is very fertile with the heavy rain and the volcanic fed soil. You pass by many a farm growing many different types of crops. We first stopped at the Historic site of Ujarras. It has the ruins of one of the oldest churches in Costa Rica from the 1600s. There is still a small village there but it has suffered from flooding for many years and why most of those who lived there abandoned the area and the church long ago. Its a very nice site with a lot of greenery and of course the historic church. After all the touring it was time for us to get lunch before heading back to the hotel.
We stopped at a restaurant and event venue beside a beautiful lake. They were setting up for a wedding that evening while we were there. We were served a traditional Costa Rican lunch and were served coffee in the traditional manner with a filter filled with coffee and hot water passed through. We had some time to enjoy the relaxing setting of the venue before we headed back to our hotel for the evening.
To book this tour click the link below:
The Food of Costa Rica
We loved the food in Costa Rica and on our tours and in the city. We had a wonderful soup called Azteca Soup that was like a Tortilla soup. For breakfast we had Costa Rican tamales that were square and wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks, and one of our favorite dishes we had there called Gallo Pinto. Its a spicy rice dish that has black beans and contains a local sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce. While in Costa Rica we had some of the best and freshest fruits we have ever had such as pineapple and strawberries. We had multiple very good fruit smoothies and fresh juice. The other dishes we had on the tours were all great. We felt healthier there eating the fresh and natural food. The coffee, beer and other drinks were also grand. In general while its Latin American cuisine its different than Mexican food we have in the US. We loved it and plan on fixing Gallo Pinto at home! One word of warning is when visiting any developing nation to be cautious about what you eat. In general I shy away from non-cooked items like salads and do not get ice in my drinks. You can get sick from food anywhere in the world including the US but it is more likely when traveling in some parts of the world. We always carry Pepto and Imodium just in case. It came in handy on my second trip to San Jose as I got sick overnight and it caused us to cancel a tour to the rainforest. The medication and a virtual doctors visit with a GeoBlue doctor got me well enough to do a few things in the city later in the day.
Culinary, Chocolate and Coffee Tours
Tips for Costa Rica
We really enjoyed our time in Costa Rica and plan of visiting again in the future. During the pandemic its highly recommended that you watch all country information and get vaccinated. Getting into countries and coming home becomes much more difficult to almost impossible if you are un-vaccinated depending on the country you are visiting. Costa Rica has two seasons, dry and rainy season. November is at the end of the rainy season so we did deal with daily rain in the afternoons and one day with continuous rain. If the rain doesn’t bother you and you come prepared you will find prices and crowds are less during that time. Be careful though traveling there during the peak of Hurricane season. Before we left we bought mosquito repelling clothing and we did not get bothered by any mosquitos. While you can rent a car, for us we felt better taking guided tours versus driving on our own. While in Costa Rica try the local food, you will not be disappointed. While it was handy having the local currency, the US Dollar was widely accepted. Credit card is also accepted pretty much everywhere. On this trip we did not make it to either coast but we heard a lot about how beautiful they are as well. Its helpful to know a little Spanish even though English is widely understood. The water is safe in Costa Rica but just to be safe we bought bottled water at a local grocery store for brushing our teeth and drinking. We felt safe our entire time but like most anywhere you need to be careful at night and leave valuables at home so you do not attract unwanted attention. Costa Rica is a wonderful country and we can’t wait to get back!
If you are Interested in this trip:
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Additional Tours from San Jose (click links below):
Transportation
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