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Planning your next vacation? You might be used to staying in hotels and resorts, but maybe you should consider vacation rentals. More independent travelers are choosing to rent private homes and apartments these days instead of hotels, using websites like Airbnb and VRBO.

Vacation rentals are often the most economic travel option for families and groups of friends, giving more space and amenities at better value than a hotel room. Living like the locals also helps to give that authentic travel e

You want to visit Santa Teresa, Costa Rica – named one of the most beautiful beaches in the world with some of the best surfing in Costa Rica. But where is it and how do you get there?

Santa Teresa Beach is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica on the southern Nicoya Peninsula. There are three ways to get to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica:  driving, domestic flight or boat taxi.

Hotel Tropico Latino is a Santa Teresa beachfront hotel at beautiful Playa Carmen. Hotel Tropico Latino specializes in 

Celebrate the sea turtles of Costa Rica every November at the Matapalo Sea Turtle Festival.

The annual sea turtle festival on Nov. 15 and 16 at Matapalo Beach, halfway between Manuel Antonio National Park and Dominical on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast, celebrates the Matapalo Sea Turtle Conservation Project and hatching of baby sea turtles. This year’s festival celebrates the project’s 25^th anniversary.

Matapalo Beach is a main nesting area for three species of sea turtles in Costa Rica. Ev

Educational tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of travel and tourism. Not just for students, educational travel is about learning and being involved in community action projects while traveling and relaxing on vacation.

Costa Rica offers a wide variety of educational travel and volunteer opportunities for people of all ages. An excellent destination for educational tourism and volunteer groups is Lirio Lodge by Tortuguero in Costa Rica.

The Costa Rica eco-lodge is located in an area of

Right behind Sweden and Norway as the top Green Countries in the World, is the little Central American nation of Costa Rica.

According to the recently released 2014 Global Green Economy Index™ (GGEI), Costa Rica is the third best Green Country in the World.

The Global Green Economy Index™ (GGEI) measures the green economic performance of 60 countries and 70 cities in the world. The GGEI also assesses the public’s perception of a nation’s green performance. The fourth edition of the GGEI, publish

Now getting to the South Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica will be easier than ever with a new 30-minute flight between San Jose and Limon on Nature Air.

Starting Dec. 1, travelers to Costa Rica can fly from San Jose and the Central Valley to the Caribbean port city of Limon on daily flights with the Costa Rican airline Nature Air. Flights depart from the Juan Santamaria International Airport by San Jose at 5:50 a.m., and arrive to the Limon airport at 6:20 a.m. Return flights depart Limon daily at

The exciting Manuel Antonio Stand-Up Paddle Games 2014 will come to the Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica, in December.

At the Marina Pez Vela in Quepos, Costa Rica on Dec. 13 and 14, 2014, athletes will compete in four events in the popular sport of stand-up paddle boarding. There will be a 300-meter time-trial race, a 300-meter competitive race, an obstacle course, and distance racing in three events: 1.5, 4.5 or 9 kilometers. The competition is open to three categories: adults, teens and c

This time of year as chilly winter weather freezes the northern countries, heading into Christmas, you are not alone if you start to daydream about a tropical beach holiday.

Keep on dreaming because there is a 7-day Costa Rica beach vacation ready to turn your dreams into reality.

Horizontes travel agency has combined two outstanding Costa Rica beach destinations for their Quiet Ocean Gateway Costa Rica tropical beach holiday.

To start, you should fly into the Daniel Oduber International Airport

The transition from rainy season to summer season in Costa Rica is a time of abundant wildlife. Rivers, streams, lakes and ponds are full of water, vegetation is lush, and settings are ideal for capturing Costa Rica’s exotic wildlife on camera.

This is especially true on a river trip. In the Nosara Costa Rica area on the Nicoya Peninsula, the Nosara River Safari gives visitors a really close look at animal and plant life while cruising on the Nosara and Montana rivers onboard a quiet electric-mot

Doing yoga outdoors has many benefits, and the beach in Costa Rica is an ideal place to practice your poses. Besides fresh air and killer scenery, your body has to work a lot harder to do yoga in the sand. It takes balance, concentration and strength to hold yoga poses on an uneven unstable surface, so you get more of a full-body workout.

Here are six reasons why yoga is fun on the beach, from Nancy Goodfellow, resident yoga instructor and co-owner of Pranamar Oceanfront Villas & Yoga Retreat in

What does eco-tourism and being sustainable really mean? Is that just recycling the trash or turning off a few lights?

At Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in Costa Rica, sustainability means much more. The Costa Rica rainforest lodge is one of only three dozen hotels in Costa Rica that have received the highest rating of Five Leaves in the Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program (CST).

Created by the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT), the CST program rates and certifies tourism businesses base

Green season at Rincon de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, means more water flowing everywhere. Time for those exhilarating river tubing trips on the Negro River. And time for waterfalls.

Four major waterfalls flow at Rincon de la Vieja by Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin, and all of them have pools where you can swim in refreshing, pure water. Getting there is an adventure – either by hiking or horseback riding. Almost all waterfall tours from the Hacienda Guachipelin Adventure Center last

There is a lot of talk in travel about eco-tourism and being sustainable. But what does that really mean? Is that simply turning off a few lights, not wasting water and recycling the trash?

According to the United Nations, sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Costa Rica pioneered sustainable tourism over the past decade through its Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program (CST), validated as a glo

For families, Costa Rica is a fun, safe and easy family vacation destination. Costa Rica was even voted this year’s most recommended travel hotspot!

Located in Central America, Costa Rica is easily accessible from North America and Europe with numerous daily flights to two international airports. It is one of the safest countries in the region, is affordable, focused on tourism, and English is widely spoken.

Costa Rica offers you sunny beaches, stunning rainforest, breathtaking volcanoes and mou

Besides the Arenal Volcano, Manuel Antonio is one of the most visited vacation destinations in Costa Rica.

Located on the Central Pacific Coast, Manuel Antonio was named one of the Top 25 Beaches in the World in TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards for 2014. In past years, Manuel Antonio Costa Rica has earned accolades like ““Number one beach in Central America”, “12 Most Beautiful National Parks of the World” and in the list of “1,000 Places to See before You Die.” With rainforest trees fille

Guanacaste– known as the “sunny side” of Costa Rica – is one of the most popular areas in the country. The northwestern province, named after Costa Rica’s national tree the Guanacaste, is home to seven national parks.

The nearly-always sunny climate is dry and hot, creating its unique dry tropical forest habitat. Vast rolling plains, foothills and low coastal mountains, and the towering Guanacaste Mountain Range with its powerful volcanoes create an interesting topography and microclimates rich

What goes on in the rainforest when we’re not there? At Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living community in Costa Rica, they’re finding out with the help of a few hidden camera traps.

Camera traps placed in the rainforest at Portasol – located on the Central Pacific Coast between Manuel Antonio and Dominical – have captured images of such exotic Costa Rican animals as this ocelot, followed by a tayra and a nine-banded armadillo. The cameras have been placed in the 200-acre Portasol Biological Re

Recommended as one of the best places to go in 2014 by CNN and National Geographic, Nosara, Costa Rica is now easier and more affordable to visit than ever. Leading luxury hotel in Nosara, L'acqua Viva Resort & Spa, is currently offering special green season rates to all guests who make direct reservations with the hotel.

From now through June 30, 2014, all guests who make direct reservations or online reservations will receive a 25% discount on all room rates.

Come later in the year, and take ad

The slow-moving sloths of Costa Rica are streaking into the limelight with their own weeklong online special program. Starting June 20, 2014, Animal Planet and Animalist will stream daily footage from the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica.

Cute and cuddly sloths of the Caribbean Costa Rica have been in the spotlight since last year’s program “Meet the Sloths” aired on Animal Planet. The two-hour special program will run again on June 21 at 8:00 a.m. EST. The story follows a year in the lives of five

“Without water, there can be no life. Without clean water, there can be no healthy life.”

This is the driving force behind the worldwide environmental organization Waterkeeper Alliance. Based in the United States, the Waterkeeper Alliance aspires to protect every major watershed around the world, to advocate for every person’s right to clean water and the equitable use of water resources globally.

Water is at the center of the world’s most pressing issues today: security, scarcity, energy, clima