Costa Rica is the original home of eco-tourism. With over a quarter of the country protected by parks and nature reserves the variety of wildlife and the biodiversity of the plant life are incomparable to anywhere else on earth. Enjoy the pleasures of strolling along a beautiful beach and seeing endangered turtles scurrying along, searching for a good spot to lay their eggs. Or edge along a precariously high rope bridge, surrounded by the mists of the cloud forest, the squawking birds and the howling monkeys.

Costa Rica relies on tourism, but in no way has the country been compromised for it. The importance of maintaining this popular paradise has never been underestimated. As one of the most visited locations in the world, the friendly locals are proud of their national treasures and are only too willing to welcome you in so that you can enjoy them too. Bordering Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south, Costa Rica is edged with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. The country is naturally exquisite but the Tico people add a lot to its charm. Welcoming, friendly and often overly helpful, they are the sort of people that could end up killing you with kindness. They are a peace-loving nation, that appreciate nature and they were the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish their army.

Official Tourism Body: Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) (www.visitcostarica.com)

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Costa Rica has a tropical climate with an average of 22°C (72°F). The nearer the coast you are the hotter it gets. The weather is pleasant all year round, even the rainy season – from May to November – is nice as it only rains in the afternoons and the mornings are sunny.

As well as personal belongings such as clothes and toiletries, travellers over the age of eighteen are allowed to carry 5 litres of alcohol and 500g of tobacco or 400 cigarettes or 50 cigars free of duty charges.

Australia - 02-9261-1177
Canada - 613-562-2855
Denmark - 03-311-0885
France - 01-4578-9696
Germany - 030-2639-8990
Israel - 02-2566-6197
Italy - 06-8424-2853
Japan - 03-3486-1812
Netherlands- 070-354-0780
Nicaragua- 270-3779
Panama - 264-2980
Spain - 91-345-9622
Switzerland - 31-3727-887
UK - 020-7706-8844
USA - 202-234-2945

Public holidays are taken seriously in Costa Rica. They celebrate Christmas and New Year much like everywhere else but Easter is a big deal. Semana Santa starts on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. Most businesses close for the entire week, public transport is very limited and hotels tend to fill up quickly. On the 11th April William Walker, the national hero that died fighting in 1856, is honoured in the Día de Juan Santamaría celebrations. Labour Day is on the 1st May, Mother’s Day is on the 15th August and Independence Day is celebrated on the 15th September. On the 12th October Columbus Day, Día de la Raza, is observed.

The international country code for Costa Rica is 506. The primary means of outside contact are through email and public pay-phones. Internet cafés are fairly easy to find in tourist areas. Some offer long distance calls over the web. Public phones are accessed with calling cards (tarjetas telefónicas) which can be purchased in most shops, even in the more rural areas. There are three different types of pay-phones: Coin phones - these only accept the older silver-coloured coins.
Chip phones - these phones allow you to insert a chip-type calling card into them and make your calls.
Colibri phones - these phones have a small swipe bar for you to scratch off. They are the most handy as you can use them in all phones, regardless of whether they are coin or card operated. Both types of calling cards are typically available in pharmacies and other locations where you see the sticker on the door.

Domestic calls are quite cheap but vary with distance. Calls to cellular phones are significantly more expensive though. International calls are fairly expensive. The cheapest way to make them is over the Internet using a service such as Skype at an Internet café. But making short calls using the domestic calling cards (you can make international calls using these but the denominations of the calling cards are quite small so your call will be short!) or the international calling cards available within Costa Rica (all from the government phone monopoly ICE) is the next best deal. Mobile phone service in Costa Rica is provided by Grupo I.C.E. using GSM technology at 1800 MHz. Roaming is possible with a GSM handset but can be expensive.

Although it is considered safe to drink tap water in most developed parts of Costa Rica, to be on the safe side you should avoid tap water that hasn't been boiled. Avoid ice in drinks if you can. Don't eat food prepared in the street or anything that has been standing out for a long time. Smelling your food is a good way to determine its freshness. Don't eat any milk products that aren’t pasteurized. Avoiding these things will help reduce your chances of getting a stomach bug but don't be too surprised if you still suffer some diarrhoea and sickness, it's quite normal due to the change in diet and the different bacterias in the food.

Make sure you have good, comprehensive travel insurance. Check what it covers and how the payments will be made, i.e. will payment be made directly from the insurers to the hospital or will you have to pay and then get reimbursed when you return home. You should also make sure that the insurance covers the possible need for air ambulances and emergency flights home. There are no mandatory vaccinations for Costa Rica, unless you are arriving from Africa or a country in South America that has a high risk of yellow fever. If you have had the injection then make sure you carry your yellow booklet, the vaccination certificate. If you have not had the injection then you will need to have it at least ten days before entering the country. There are a number of recommended vaccinations that you should consider having before you go, these are; hepatitis A & B and typhoid, and make sure you are up to date on your tetanus and diphtheria boosters.

Juan Santamaría Airport (SJO) is located close to the cities of Alajuela, Heredia and the capital San José. It is connected with major cities in North America and Canada, as well as Madrid, Frankfurt, Bogotá, Caracas, Lima, Guayaquil, Quito and all of Central America. Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR) is near Liberia in the Guanacaste province. This airport is closest to the Pacific Northwest Coast. Liberia receives flights from cities in North America, Canada and the UK.

The Interamericana (Panamerican Highway) runs through Costa Rica and is the main entry point by car. The border posts with Nicaragua are Sipoá - Peñas Blancas and San Carlos – Los Chiles. The border crossings with Panama are Paso Canoas(though this one is a nightmare to get through as it's the busiest), Guabito – Sixaola and Río Sereno – San Vito. There are bus services from the neighboring countries of Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Boat transfers are available to Costa Rica from Bocas del Toro in Panama and there's a twice daily boat service from Los Chiles (in NE Costa Rica) to San Carlos in Nicaragua.

There are regular internal flights from San José to lots of the larger towns in Costa Rica. The Interamericana runs through Costa Rica. Virtually all travel out of the capital (except to the Caribbean side) will involve travelling this road. There are many speed traps along this major artery, as well as some random police checks for seat belts and, especially near the borders, for valid travel documents. The highway speed is 80km/h, but since the Interamericana passes through innumerable small towns the speed frequently drops to 50 or even 30 km/h as you suddenly find yourself in a school zone. Most of the highway is not divided. Driving at night is highly inadvisable due to the unpredictability of road conditions and lack of safety features such as guard rails on the many hairpin turns in the hills. Navigation can prove challenging. Road signs are relatively few and those that do exist can be inaccurate.

It is recommended that you have a good road map with the small towns listed, since road signs will often only indicate the next town, not the direction of the next major city. There is an extensive network of bus routes within the country with reasonable fares. Most major tourist destinations in Costa Rica are serviced by at least two daily buses from and to San José. Departures are very punctual, though routes often take longer than expected. The bus system is a safe and fun way to see a lot of the country cheaply and not have to worry about car rentals. It is highly recommended!

Another easy way to get around Costa Rica is to use the services of mini-vans. At most hotels the receptionist is able to assist travellers who want to travel across the country by arranging for the services of a driver. Rates are reasonable, the drivers know the roads well, the vans are clean and comfortable, and they take you from door to door. Taxis are available in most large cities. They are usually inexpensive, charging only a few dollars to get to most places within the city. Official taxis are red with a yellow triangle on the side. If you are alone, especially if you are female, always ride in the back seat. If you choose to hitchhike, Costa Ricans are generally very friendly and helpful, particularly in more rural areas where traffic on the dirt roads can be light. As always, be gracious and offer a bit of money, which will probably be declined.

There is a US $26 exit fee at the Juan Santamaría Airport. This must be paid in cash or by Visa (in which case it will be processed as a cash advance). The fee can also be paid in advance at some hotels.

In Pre-Columbian times the indigenous people were part of the Intermediate Area located between the Mesoamerican and Andean cultural regions. During Spanish Colonial times the principal city in Central America was Guatemala City. Costa Rica's distance from this hub led to difficulty in establishing trade routes and was one of the reasons that Costa Ricans developed in relative isolation and with little oversight from the Spanish Monarchy (the Crown). This isolation allowed the colony to develop free of intervention by the Crown, it also meant that it failed to share in the prosperity of the colonies, making Costa Rica the poorest Spanish colony in Central America.

Another reason for this poverty was the lack of indigenous peoples to use for slave labour. While many Spaniards in the other colonies had slaves to work their land, many Costa Rican settlers had to work their own land. For all these reasons, Costa Rica was by and large unappreciated and overlooked by the Crown, and left to develop on its own. This all led to Costa Rica's development as a more egalitarian society.

Later, when Central America gained its independence from Spain, Costa Rica's isolation was a major reason for the breakup of the isthmus into the smaller states that exist today. Costa Rica's membership in the newly formed Federal Republic of Central America, now free of Spanish rule, was short lived. The local population had little allegiance to the government in Guatemala City, in part because of the history of isolation during colonial times. Costa Rica's disinterest in participating as a province in a greater Central American Government was one of the deciding factors in the break-up of the fledgling federation into independent states, which still exist today.

However, all of the Central American Nations still celebrate the 15th September as their independence day. The construction of the railways in the nineteenth century was funded by the United Fruit Company, in exchange for land. This led to a major economic shift in the nation; in which fruit would come to rival the coffee trades as a major Costa Rican export.