- About Costa Rica
Why a Costa Rica vacation? Because Costa Rica is full of beauty, lush foliage, many wildlife surprises, incredible lakes, rivers, and waterfalls.Considering a romantic or family Costa Rica vacation? You’re choosing one of the best tourist destinations in the world. Costa Rica has been called the Hawaii of Central America. A Costa Rica vacation is full of beauty, lush foliage, many wildlife surprises, incredible lakes, rivers, and waterfalls.
Activities on a Costa Rica vacation include bird and butterfly watching, surfing, deep sea fishing, scuba diving, tree top (canopy) tours, four wheeling, snorkeling, shopping, hiking, river rafting, horse back riding and casinos. On a Costa Rica vacation you’ll find pristine beaches, tropical jungles, clear blue skies, high mountain rain forest, and tropical sun. That’s why Costa Rica was aptly named ‘rich coast’ by Christopher Columbus in 1502.
Nature is Costa Rica’s green card. Wildlife diversity and exceptional landscapes merge in a long list of untouched lands and protected areas that will get you involved in as many Costa Rica expedition activities and adventure sports as you can imagine.
Costa Rica is unusually blessed by the diversity of its butterflies. There exists about 20,000 butterfly species worldwide. Of these, about 1,000 or 5% can be found in Costa Rica.
With more than 850 species of birds, all found within a tight geographic area, Costa Rica offers birders of all levels of expertise an unrivaled bird watching experience. Birders out on the trail in Costa Rica’s forests should keep an eye out for mixed flocks foraging on certain types of food, especially fruit, in the forest canopy.
Costa Rica is home to roughly 150 species of amphibians, some of which are extremely colorful and exotic. There are tree frogs, which spend their entire lives above the forest floor, breeding in the water of tank bromeliads or in holes in the trunks of trees. Others, like the poison-arrow frog, are exuberantly colored, ranging from bright red with blue or green legs to bright green with black markings. There are over 200 species of reptiles in Costa Rica. The 14 turtle species include both marine and freshwater varieties. The largest of the marine turtles are leather-backs. Their shells are up to 5 feet and they weigh upwards of 800 pounds! Marine turtles climb up sandy beaches to lay their eggs, a spectacular sight because it happens en masses.
Costa Rica is home to over 9,000 identified species of vascular plants, including over 900 different species of trees. Costa Rica is home to some 1,500 species of orchids. From sub-alpine dwarf vegetation, rainforest flora from sea level to mangrove swamps and seasonal dry forest with its deciduous trees, there is an astounding range of floral habitats for a country so small.
The protection of Costa Rica’s natural heritage is managed by the respective national parks and reserves. These areas protect many species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fresh and salt-water fish, and a vast number of identified vascular plants-representing 4% of the world’s total floral and faunal species.
In addition, these management groups protect examples of almost all the existing natural habitats such as deciduous forests, mangrove swamps, rain forests, herbaceous swamps, cloud forests, paramos, hilillo forests and marshlands. They also protect areas of historical and archaeological interest, such as pre-Columbian settlements and early battlefields, as well as beautiful areas of scenic interest, such as beaches, valleys and waterfalls. But above all, the areas of particular interest to the conservationist are the zones which protect the last remaining examples of Central American dry forest and the beaches where the sea turtles nest.
The protection of Costa Rica’s natural resources has implications beyond its borders because they encompass an incredible biodiversity, including numerous species on the verge of extinction. All of this is the reason the country has become one of the most popular destinations for visiting ecologists and biologists. On the whole, access to these areas and facilities are freely available provided the visitor respects the need to protect them. These protected areas are ideal for hiking and rafting, for watching the birds and other wildlife, for camping and just for enjoying in general, their rivers, beaches, jungles, mountain forests, volcanoes as well as their historic and archaeological sites.
A Costa Rica vacation is fast becoming the #1 romantic honeymoon and family vacation destination in the world. Whether it’s your honeymoon or family vacation– Exotic, Romantic and Nature– the perfect ingredients for that special get away, what more could you ask for on your vacation. An unbeatable choice for those travelers looking for a combination of relaxation, romance and activity. The atmosphere on a Costa Rica vacation is “Pura-Vida”, the pure life.
Pura Vida is common expression in Costa Rica that roughly translates as a mixture of “life is great, everything is ok, don’t worry be happy”.The fact that more than one million tourists visit Costa Rica each year does not happen by chance. Our country, located in Central America, is an isthmus where life seems to have created its roots. Covering only 0.03% of the surface of our planet, Costa Rica has approximately 6% of the world’s biodiversity.In addition, Costa Rica is characterized by an impressive scenic beauty, consolidated system of protected areas, social and political stability, high educational levels, and efficient infrastructure and services. All these characteristics you can find in a territory of only 51 thousand square kilometers, surrounded by both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, only three to four hours away from each other by land or 45 minutes by air.The country’s strategic position, in the heart of the western hemisphere, the Government’s positive attitude towards foreign investment, its infrastructure, access to international markets, and labor quality and cost, make Costa Rica an ideal place to establish commercial operations.
During the past century, Costa Rica has experienced an outstanding period of political stability. In the past years, significant facts and achievements have placed Costa Rica as the leader in the Central American region with a number of noteworthy milestones.
Then-President Oscar Arias authored a regional peace plan that earned him the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize — his popularity had him re-elected in February 2006. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz has served in various and important Space Shuttle missions. Claudia Poll won an Olympic gold medal for Costa Rica.
This history of outstanding success has been translated across other platforms including economics. Costa Rica is the only nation in Central America with industries such as Tourism and Technology that surpass agriculture as the main source of revenue. Tourism is one of the main economic activities in Costa Rica.
Major investment players such as Intel, Unysis, Acer, Procter & Gamble have established a solid presence in Costa Rica. The travel / hospitality industry has seen the arrival of major hotel chains from the U.S. (Marriott, Best Western) and Spain (Barcelo, Melia).
New foreign investment is in the growth in Costa Rica and names such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC, Subway, TGIF, Tony Roma’s and others are seen across the country.
The U.S. and Costa Rica have a history of friendly relations. As more then 40,000 U.S. citizens reside in Costa Rica and 600,000 U.S. citizens visit the country annually. Important numbers are also applicable to residents from Canada and Western Europe.
Costa Rica is a beautiful travel destination that has caught the attention of the world. Recent statistics indicate that tourism has growing rapidly over the recent years and is expect to continue expand. Literally called the “Rich Coast” by the Spanish explorers Costa Rica has access to both the Pacific and Caribbean seas.
Costa Rica Tourism is considered a USD 2 billion a year industry. It stands out as the most visited nation in the Central American region and records to date show that 2 million visitors enjoy the country’s beauty and hospitality. More than half of the tourists come from the United States and a fifth of the total number come from Europe.
Costa Rica now prides itself in having two major international airports (SJO and LIR) and several domestic airports. The first major airport is Juan Santamaría Airport (SJO) and it is accessible to major cities of the country which are Alajuela, Heredia and the capital city of San José. The second international airport is Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR) and it is located in Liberia, near the Guacanaste province and closest to the Pacific Northwest coast.
Increases in Costa Rica tourism are tied to the Liberia international airport. Plans are underway to expand this facility to continue to accommodate the surge of visitors. New developments in the northern region of Costa Rica is one of the major reasons for the increased visitor traffic. Nowadays, luxury hotels, enchanting villas and mesmerizing rentals are constantly on the rise in this part of the country.
Costa Rica is the pioneer in strategic ecotourism. Thus, there are many exciting destinations in the country where nature can best be appreciated. Tourists can visit any one of the country’s national parks: Chirripo National Park, Manuel Antonio National Park, Cahuita National Park, Corcovado National Park and Tapanti National Park. Other environmental tourist spots are the Monteverde and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserves and the Pacuare River and Protected Zone.
Going on a holiday in Costa Rica is far from boring. Due to the fact that prostitution is legal in the country, sex tourism has become one of the country’s tourist attractions. The industry is slowly gaining popularity, making it one of the national destinations of ’sex tourists’ and the commerce already accounts for approximately 1/10 or 10% of the billion dollar industry. However there are many people who have decided to avoid Costa Rica as a result of the sex tourism industry.
According to the first Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index published by the World Economic Forum, Costa Rica tourism astonishingly ranks 41st place, making themselves the first among other Latin American countries. It is definitely a feat, since if the forum only takes into consideration major factors such as human, cultural and natural resources, Costa Rica places 20th at a worldwide level.
Costa Rica tourism will continue to grow as the world discovers the beauty of this tropical paradise. This will provide an increase economic growth and the growth of the infrastructure that is associated with the tourism industry. The future is bright for Costa Rica and its tourism industry.
Flag of Costa Rica is five horizontal bands of blue (top), white, red (double width), white, and blue, with the coat of arms in a white elliptical disk on the hoist side of the red band; above the coat of arms a light blue ribbon contains the words, AMERICA CENTRAL, and just below it near the top of the coat of arms is a white ribbon with the words, REPUBLICA COSTA RICA.
