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Costa Rica Vacation Guide: Costa Rica Vacation, Costa Rica Tours, Romantic Costa Rica Weddings and Honeymoons
 Our Costa Rica vacation advisors are savvy destination experts. We will save you precious time and stress finding the perfect Costa Rica experiential vacation that fits your desires. So when you travel, you can do so with confidence - secure in the knowledge that you'll get more, simply by booking through us. The world awaits. Let us take you there.
Do you dream meandering through a lush green jungle full of exotic animals only to find the most perfect beach ever? I do. In that dream, I head to the beach with my surfboard and my boyfriend. I grab a few tropical fruits from the vine, wax up my surfboard and enter the most beautiful water I have ever seen. The waves are perfect and there is nobody out except me and my boyfriend.
Guess what this was a dream that TravelWizard.com made come true. In fact my Costa Rica vacation was better than the dream because I could have never imagined how nice the Tico's (locals) are, how yummy the Gallo Pinto con Queso Frito would be or how increadibly awesome if would be to stare down a howler monkey.
More than one million tourists visit Costa Rica each year to experience the exotic jungle life, beautiful beaches and a glimpse of the wildlife. Its not difficult to see why Coasta Rica in booming with tourists. The real secret is Costa Ricas's friendly, warm, outgoing local's.
Costa Rica, located in Central America, is an isthmus where life seems to have created its roots. Costa Rica has extremly dramatic coasts on the Caribbean and Pacific shores.Covering only 0.03% of the surface of our planet, Costa Rica has approximately 6% of the world's biodiversity.
Furthermore, Costa Rica is characterized by its impressive scenic beauty, consolidated system of protected areas, social and political stability, high educational levels, and its efficient infrastructure and services. All of this is offered in a territory of only 51 thousand square kilometers, surrounded by both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, at a distance from each other of only three to four hours by land or 45 minutes by air.
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Costa Rican culture is in many ways a reflection of its racial mix. The predominant influence has long been European, which is reflected in everything from the official language -- Spanish -- to the architecture of the country's churches and other historic buildings. The indigenous influence is less apparent, but can be found in everything from the tortillas that are served with a typical Costa Rican meal to the handmade ceramics sold at roadside stands. A more recent cultural influence is that of the United States, which can be noted in everything from the movie selection at San Jose's theaters to the fast food chains that line some of the capital's streets.
Ticos, as Costa Ricans are commonly known, are a fairly mixed bunch. Though the majority of the country's 3.3 million inhabitants are the descendents of Spanish immigrants, many families originated from other parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and, of course, Central America. You may be surprised by the number of fair-skinned people you'll see in the country, especially in the Central Valley. In the lowlands, more people are mestizo -- that is mixture of European and Indigenous blood -- whereas the majority along the Caribbean coast are of African lineage, and much of the Talamanca Mountain Range is inhabited by full-blooded Indians of various ethnicities.
Costa Rica's underwater wonders range from coastal coral reefs to offshore islands. Those varied dive spots contain diverse and beautiful marine life that includes giant manta rays, timid sea turtles, colorful angel fish, intricate coral formations, psychedelic sea slugs, spiny puffer fish, delicate sea fans, curious dolphins and, on rare occasions, whales.
Though the country's waters contain enough marine life to please the most experienced of divers, you need be little more than a curious swimmer to catch a glimpse of some of its underwater sights, since there are plenty of spots that are perfect for snorkeling. Costa Rica is also an excellent place to learn how to scuba dive, since most dive centers offer inexpensive certification courses in English that can be completed in less than a week.
Caribbean
There are several excellent snorkeling areas along the southern Caribbean coast. The country's largest coastal reef is protected within Cahuita National Park, south of the town of the same name, where you can rent snorkeling equipment and hire people to take you out in boats. The point at Puerto Viejo, south of Cahuita, also has a coral reef wrapped around it that makes for convenient diving. Punta Cocles and Punta Uva, two points to the south of town, have healthier coral formations with plenty of fish around them. Manzanillo, a small fishing village a few miles further south, also has some decent diving off shore. There are also a few good dive spots near the city of Limon, such as the water surrounding Uvita Island. The best visibility in the Caribbean is from March to early May and from mid August to mid November, but water quality can change from day to day.
Pacific
The Pacific has the country's best diving, with less coral, but plenty of big fish. The most popular Pacific diving area is the northwest, where dive centers in Playa del Coco, Ocotal and Hermosa offer trips to several spots in the Culebra Bay and the Bat Islands (Islas Murcielagos), to the northwest, where divers often see sharks and manta rays. The dive center in Flamingo usually takes people to Santa Catalina Island, about five miles off shore, which is another good spot to see sharks and other big fish. The best visibility and water temperatures in the northwest are found from June to September, though the conditions can change from day to day.
There is good snorkeling in Curu National Wildlife Refuge, and near the beach resorts of Tambor and Montezuma. There is also usually good snorkeling off the second beach in Manuel Antonio National Park, and around the points and islands between Dominical and Marino Ballena National Park. However, the best diving off the Pacific coast is found at several underwater reefs near Caño Island, which can be explored on dive trips offered by some of the lodges in nearby Drake Bay. Contrary to the northwest, the best visibility in the waters around Caño occurs during the dry season, though the water tends to be pretty clear year round.
Cocos
Cocos Island, a national park located some 330 miles southwest of the Costa Rican mainland, has the country's best diving by far. While the Island is covered with virgin forest, the ocean that surrounds it contains abundant marine life, and the visibility is good year round. Divers at Cocos Island regularly see such impressive animals as manta rays, dolphins and hammerhead sharks, which sometimes gathering in schools of 30 or 40 animals. It takes about 36 hours to reach Cocos Island, and some companies have ships that run regular dive cruises there, which last ten days and include three dives per day.
Costa Rica has long been famous among serious bird watchers, but many people who would never consider the activity at home quickly become interested in the country's spectacular avian diversity. With almost 850 species of birds -- more than in all of North America -- packed into an area half the size of Kentucky, it's hard not to become enthused about the variety of feathered creatures one encounters in Costa Rica. And the country's travel agencies can provide experienced nature guides who make any bird watching expedition an educational experience.
One of the reasons for Costa Rica's extraordinary bird life is the country's great variety of habitats: rain forests, mangrove swamps, beaches, cloud forest, rivers, etc. And any two of those ecosystems, with their resident bird species, are often only a short distance apart. Birders from North America who visit Costa Rica during the northern winter invariably recognize familiar faces in the forest, since many species of warblers, flycatchers, vireos, orioles, etc. migrate to Costa Rica every winter.
Costa Rica's National Parks System protects examples of nearly all theecosystems that exist in the country, covering about 14 percent of the national territory. Those parks and protected areas are not only great places for hiking and observing wildlife, but some of them also include great spots for skin diving, spelunking, surfing and other outdoor activities. No matter what your vacation priorities, you'll want to visit at least a couple national parks or other protected areas. In addition to the national parks, there are a variety of other areas that enjoy some degree of protection, such as wildlife refuges and biological reserves, and a growing number of private preserves.
Tourism
In contrast to industry and agriculture, which are big businesses in Costa Rica, tourism is, to a great extent, still in the hands of small private concerns. In 2002, over a million visitors came to Costa Rica (52 percent were from North America). They spent a total of US $914 million, providing jobs for 130,000 Costa Ricans. The increase in tourism as an important source of income has prompted the government to add a new minister; since 1990, the country has had a Minister of Tourism in its cabinet.
While the number of available hotel rooms has increased to 25,000, the number of tourists has decreased over the past several years.
In a recent poll, 60 percent of all visitors cited "nature" as their primary reason for coming to Costa Rica. Beaches and sunshine attracted 50 percent. Only 18 percent are package tourists; 45 percent rent a car during their stay, and most of the visitors are under 40 years of age. Most of the tourist accommodations continue to be small family-run hotels and inns, but major hotel chains, such as Marriott and Camino Real, have built hotels around San Jose. A gigantic, longplanned project, Golfo de Papagayo, on the Nicoya peninsula, has been scaled down following massive protests from inhabitants and regional hotel owners.
Almost 40 percent of all visitors say that ecologically sound tourism is important to them. Costa Rican travel agents responded by turning ecologically-oriented tourism into big business. They realized there was money to be made from organized trips to national parks, guided jungle tours, horsebackriding tours, kayak adventures and scuba diving courses. In areas such as the overcrowded Playa Grande, where sea turtles come to lay their eggs, the damage has already been done. New projects are being developed, but it isn't always easy to strike a balance between the interests of tourists and those of hotel owners, developers and farmers.
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