Costa Rica - IN A NUTSHELL

The first thing you see when you get out of the airport is a herd of taxi drivers trying to give you a ride. They will charge you around $20.00 USD to take you into downtown San Jose. Once in San Jose, do proceed with 'caution' (don't keep flashy jewelry on, don't leave thing's un-attended, (and in general just don't have the look of the easy-target dumb tourist). I personally have never really enjoyed San Jose. I think Costa Rica is so far the most beautiful country I have ever visited. The natural beauty the country has is amazing. You have everything from Beaches to Volcanoes to the Rain forest.

It truely is a remarkable place. The locals are for the most part very friendly, especially once you venture outside of San Jose. Costa Rica also has various beaches and one of the benefits of visiting here is that the Pacific ocean is a five hour drive from the Caribbean. They are two very different places.

The Caribbean side is called Limon ("Lee-Mon"). Be very careful when visiting Limon. Especially the city, there are thieves which WILL KILL YOU or stab you to rob you of your posessions so if approached and told to hand over your stuff, do it.. There are obviously safer places where you will be fine, such as the beaches Manzanillo. The Pacific is Guanacaste and Puntarenas. I suggest you go to Guanacaste ("Gua-Na-Kas-tay") if you wan't the best experience - however that is just my opinion. All in all you really can't go wrong visiting Costa Rica. It has gotten a little bit more expensive over the years, and you won't be finding as much bang-for-your-buck as you used to find, but it's still a beautiful place none the less and worth the trip.