About Costa Rica

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San José, the bustling capital, is smack in the center of Costa Rica, within the Cordillera Central, a mountain range dotted with volcanoes. To the northwest of San José are Lake Arenal and the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. South of San José is the Pacific coast, where you'll find Manuel Antonio National Park and other unspoiled stretches of rain forest. Two peninsulas jut into the Pacific: The larger is Nicoya, one of the country's most popular destinations. The smaller Osa Peninsula is more difficult to reach and has a much wilder feel. The Caribbean coast is hotter, rainier, and much less traveled.

Need to Know

Follow a few simple rules:

• Language: Spanish
• Capital City: San José
• Population: 4.3 million
• Area: 19,725 square miles
• Telephone Calling Code(s): 506
• Electricity: 120V, 60 Hz
• Currency: As of June 28, 2011: $1 USD = 506 Costa Rican Colones
• Entry Requirements: Costa Rica does not require visas for citizens of the United States. A valid passport is sufficient for a three-month stay.

Good to Know

Cuisine

Costa Rica isn't an especially luxe destination, catering more to ecotourists than jet-setters. As a result, the cuisine is less haute than humble, local, honest, and cheap. Specialties of Costa Rica's many sodas (small restaurants) are casado (rice, beans, stewed beef, fried plantain, salad, and cabbage), olla de carne (soup of beef, plantain, corn, yucca, nampi, and chayote), and sopa negra (black beans with a poached egg). You'll be satiated, but not indulged.

Good Buys

Costa Rica produces many crafts that are worth taking home, from beautiful leatherwork to ceramics. Costa Rica also produces some of the world's finest coffee, much of which is grown on small farms. If you can tear yourself away from the verdant jungles and fantastic surf, look around for local artists who create exacting neo-Amerindian jewelry from gold, silver, and precious stones. In the past few years, dozens of shops have popped up, offering what is billed as artesanía indígena. It is indigenous art, but not always from Costa Rica—you're as likely to find weavings from Guatemala, Panamanian embroidery, and stone carvings all the way from Mexico. However, the elaborately carved exotic woods, made into everything from bracelets to bowls, are usually the real deal. The best native crafts are found in SarchÍ, a mountain village nearly a two-hour drive northwest of San José. Look for comfortable wood-and-leather chairs, most of them easily foldable for your flight home. The town is known throughout the country for its colorful ox carts, often seen in local parades; it's possible to buy miniature versions that are just as elaborately painted.

Money

All hotels add 10 percent service tax plus 3 percent tourist tax to the bill by law, while most restaurants add a 10 percent service charge. It is not necessary to tip taxi drivers.

National Holidays

• January: 1, New Year's Day
• March: 19, St. Joseph's Day
• April: 11, National Heroes Day
• May: 1, Labor Day
• June: 29, St. Peter and St. Paul Day
• July: 25, Annexation of Guanacaste
• August: 2, Our Lady of the Angels; 15, Mother's Day
• September: 15, Independence Day
• November: 2, All Souls' Day
• December: 1, Abolition of the Armed Forces Day; 8, Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary; 25, Christmas Day
• Spring: Thursday before Easter, Maundy Thursday; Friday before Easter, Good Friday; Saturday before Easter, Holy Saturday; Easter
• Summer: Ninth Thursday after Easter, Corpus Christi.