Traveling to Costa Rica

Citizens from most countries in Europe and North America can freely enter the country with just a valid passport, and stay in it for up to 90 days without the need for a visa.

By plane

Most regular flights have the Juan Santamaría International Airport, near the capital San José, as their destination. However, there is an increasing number of flights that land in the Daiel Oduber International Airport, near the city of Liberia, and closer to the beach resorts of Guanacaste in the country’s Northwest.



Most American airlines fly to Costa Rica. From Europe, the Spanish airline Iberia, Dutch Martinair, German Condor an British Airways fly regularly to San José.

The local airline TACSA, belonging to TACA group, flies to several U.S. and Latin American cities.

By road

It is technically possible to enter the country by road from the USA, crossing Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, through the Panamerican Highway.

By sea

The ports of Puntarenas on the Pacific Ocean and Limón in the Caribbean are usual stopovers for cruise boats.

Costa Rica weather

The pleasant, moderate tropical climate of Costa Rica is one of the things that explain the country’s popularity among retirees from all around the world who wish to live in a sunny place. Temperatures in the Central Valley range from 18º C to 27º C (64-80ºF) throughout the year. They are higher, though, in the coasts: The Caribbean shore is, with temperatures ranging from 25 to 27ºC (77-80ºF), slightly cooler than the Atlantic coast, where they vary between 31 and 38ºC (88-100ºF).

Costa Rica’s climate has only two seasons: the rainy season (called “winter” over there), ranging from May to November in the northern regions, and from April to December in the south, and the dry season (“summer”), the rest of the year. Certainly, talking about seasons is very relative, as each one of them has a more or less prolonged transition period, and indeed the sun shines many mornings during the rainy season, while storms and showers aren’t that rare during the so called “dry” season.



On top of all that, Costa Rica’s geography favors the existence of microclimates, in such a way that temperatures may vary wildly from one city to another and even from a moment of the day to just one hour later. There are two coastal plains, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean respectively, and a central plain at 1160 meters (3500 ft) high, set apart from the coastal plains by two mountain ridges of about 1500 m (4500 ft) high on average each one.

This rugged topography ant the difficulty of communications are responsible for the extraordinary diversity of plants and wildlife in Costa Rica.

Some basic facts about Costa Rica

The Republic of Costa Rica is located in Central America and is the southernmost of the five countries that form the region.

It is bounded to the North by Nicaragua and to the south by Panama (which is not a Central American country): the Eastern shore (225 km or 140 miles long) belongs to the Caribbean Sea and the Western shore (1103 km or 684 miles long) is bounded by the Pacific Ocean. Both coastlines boast extremely beautiful beaches surrounded by palm trees.

Costa Rica is a small country: There are, from West to East, a maximum of 246 km (152 miles) from Puntarenas to Limón, and 534 km (331 miles) from Peñas Blancas, at the Nicaraguan border, to Paso Canoas (Panamanian boundary) at the south. Total surface of the country is 51,100 sq km (19,730 sq mi) for about four and a half million people. The highest peak is Cerro Chiripó, 3819 m (11000 ft) high.



Its geographical position places Costa Rica in the tropical region, although due to the rugged terrain there is a great amount of microclimates that makes out of Costa Rica a world class wildlife sanctuary. Actually, one fourth of the country’s territory is protected and belongs to one of the many National Parks. And even more impressive is the fact that, although the country’s extension is only a mere 0.03% of the earth’s surface, it boasts being home of no less than 6% of the known animal species.

Main agricultural products are: coffee, tropical fruits such as pineapple and banana, sugarcane, corn, rice, beans and potatoes; cattle raising and timber growing are also of importance.

The country is administratively divided in seven provinces: San José, where the capital is located, Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia (all of them inland provinces), Guanacaste and Puntarenas (in the Pacific Coast) and finally Limón, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea.