Like many beaches in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Playa Guiones doesn’t have much shade. The coastline is lined with long grasses, shrubbery, very-low-to-the-ground stubby trees and some tall palm trees here and there. A nonprofit NGO in Costa Rica is working to change that. The Green Coasts Conservation Association (La Asociación Conservacionista Costas Verdes) is dedicated...Read More
Parades, lantern ceremonies, traditional music and dancing will take place all over Costa Rica this weekend to mark the day that Costa Rica and four other Central American nations gained their independence from Spain. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are all celebrating 193 years of independence from Spain on Sept. 15. On this...Read More
Green season in Guanacaste, Costa Rica is when the waterfalls at Rincon de la Vieja Volcano really show off. Near Rincon de la Vieja hotel Hacienda Guachipelin, four waterfalls flow, and all of them have pools where you can swim. Getting to the waterfalls is an adventure on its own – either by hiking or...Read More
Families who travel to Costa Rica know that Costa Rica is a fun, easy and safe family vacation destination. In fact, Costa Rica is this year’s most recommended travel hotspot in the world! Positioned between Nicaragua and Panama, Costa Rica is easily accessible from North America and Europe with numerous daily flights. It is one...Read More
Guanacaste – known as the “sunny side” of Costa Rica – is a preferred Costa Rica vacation destination and popular place to live for its famous Pacific Coast beaches. Known as the “Gold Coast” or “Costa Rica’s Riviera,” here you can find everything from wild, completely deserted tropical beaches to booming, buzzing beach towns full...Read More
The thrilling Rincón de la Vieja Challenge 2014 100-mile mountain bike race is again on track for August in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Set for Aug. 23, 2014, the competition is a unique adventure race – the only 100-mile mountain bike race in Latin America, and the only race in the world to circumnavigate an active...Read More
Recommended as one of the best places to go in 2014 by CNN and National Geographic, Nosara Costa Rica is now easier and more affordable to visit than ever. Leading luxury hotel in Nosara, L’acqua Viva Resort & Spa, is currently offering special green season rates to all guests who make direct reservations with the...Read More
The massive Rincon de la Vieja in northern Costa Rica is known for its imposing outline on the horizon, its steaming fumaroles and bubbling mud pits, and impressive tropical dry forest. The highly-popular adventure tourism location also is becoming known for spectacular bird-watching. This weekend, birders from all over Costa Rica will gather at the...Read More
May and June – the beginning of Costa Rica’s low season – are one of the best times for travel deals. The crowds have gone home. Refreshing afternoon rains (though not every day) have transformed the landscape into a vivid tapestry of green and brightly-colored tropical flowers. And many hotels and tours are offering great...Read More
Walking through the rainforest in Costa Rica is an experience not to be missed. Towering trees stretch to the heavens, every inch covered in vines, bromeliads, mosses and orchids. Giant roots reach out across the forest floor carpeted with leaves and smaller trees, plants and shrubs. Every living thing competes for space and light in...Read More
Some of the best things to do in Guanacaste, Costa Rica are found at Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin. The dilemma actually is trying to decide what to do, since there is so much from which to choose. That’s why the One Day Adventure Pass and One Day Nature Pass really are your best bet. If you...Read More
Every young child has a special place where they feel happiest. For Fernando Madrigal, as a young boy growing up in Costa Rica, that place was his grandparents’ farm – the Finca La Troya in the Orosi Valley of Cartago. “I spent practically all of my childhood and youth on this farm until my grandparents...Read More
North of the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, there is a place where the dry brown rolling plains give way to tall, lush green forest. Suddenly you are in an enchanted paradise of gushing waterfalls, warm thermal springs, sky blue streams, and bright orchids. This is a place where jaguars, pumas and tapirs...Read More
The immense plains, powerful volcanoes and dry, sunny climate of Guanacaste are becoming pivotal for Costa Rica’s production of renewable energy. The second largest province in the country is being tapped for its powerful resources of wind, solar and geothermal energy. Costa Rica currently produces 91% of its energy from renewable sources: 73% from hydroelectric...Read More
Costa Rica over the past decade has become a magnet for high-endurance extreme sports, adventure racing and triathlons. Elite international athletes travel to the small Central American nation several times a year for sport competitions. One of the most popular zones for extreme endurance events is the north Pacific Guanacaste region. In early March 2014,...Read More
Guanacaste is known as the “sunny side” of Costa Rica. The northwestern province is named after Costa Rica’s national tree, the Guanacaste. The nearly-always sunny climate is dry and hot, which creates its unique dry tropical forest habitat. Vast rolling plains, foothills, low coastal mountains and the towering Cordillera de Guanacaste mountain range create an...Read More
It is said in Costa Rica that the best “all-terrain vehicle” for navigating the country is a horse. Costa Ricans love horses and their riding traditions – their equestrian roots coming from the Spanish who brought horses with them to Central America in the 16th century. The northwestern province of Guanacaste is the heart and...Read More
Talk about Nosara, Costa Rica, and you actually mean a stretch of several beaches on the Nicoya Peninsula – from Playa Ostional to Playa Nosara, Playa Pelada and Playa Guiones. This remote area of Guanacaste, just north of Samara in the country’s north Pacific, is known for long wide beaches, fantastic surfing, peace and quiet,...Read More
Imagine this Costa Rica vacation: Traverse the entire country from coast to coast and north to south, but only using mountain bikes, kayaks, rafts, zipline cables, and your feet. Sleep under the stars wherever you may be – mud, sand, grass field, rocky stream bed – but only for a few hours at a time....Read More
Long, fat, round pipes in dark brown and off-white snake along the rust red ground through the underbrush. They remind me of giant worms from some prehistoric setting … though not quite like that terrible 1990 movie Tremors. The pipes belong to the Pailas Geothermal Power Plant at the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in...Read More
Learning about a country’s culture is one of the fun and interesting aspects of traveling. In Costa Rica, an intriguing cultural location is the village of Guaitil in the northern Pacific province of Guanacaste. Located between the small cities of Santa Cruz and Nicoya, Guaitil is famous for its pottery in the pre-Columbian style of...Read More
With Costa Rica’s most famous active volcano – Arenal – behaving quietly for the past three years, tourists to this Central American hotspot are looking elsewhere for exciting fireworks. There are actually six active volcanoes in Costa Rica, and another 61 that are dormant or extinct. For the past 50 years, Arenal was the country’s...Read More
It was a bit like playing bumper cars in the middle of Roaring Rapids. There I was, perched very alert in my high-tech individual rafting tube, bouncing off a rock to my left only to spin off a rock on my right and now speeding backwards down the chute to smack the huge wave in...Read More
One thing about Costa Rica is the country loves a good party! Costa Ricans are known for being gregarious and fun-loving and their enthusiasm is contagious when the country celebrates its numerous fiestas, festivals and horse parades. Plan your travel to Costa Rica during these cultural events and experience first-hand the country’s rich local traditions,...Read More
