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A colleague of mine and I both traveled out of Costa Rica for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. He to Western Europe and I to the western United States. What we both found when people learned we lived in Costa Rica was surprising. Everyone said they either loved visiting Costa Rica or wanted to go there; but many also commented on how expensive it was to travel to Costa Rica.

It’s true.

If you plan to vacation in Costa Rica for a couple of weeks, and only stay at all-inclusive resorts or medi

What are the best places to visit in Costa Rica? What are the best things to do in Costa Rica?

I get these questions a lot. Having lived in Costa Rica for 12 years, working in the tourism industry, I field questions from extended family, friends, friends of friends, and even complete strangers if I happen to mention that's where I live. They all ask the same thing, "If I were to visit Costa Rica, where should I go and what should I do?"

Start small, I always recommend. Choose two or three destinat

What are the best places to visit in Costa Rica? What are the best things to do in Costa Rica?

I get these questions a lot. Having lived in Costa Rica for 12 years, working in the tourism industry, I field questions from extended family, friends, friends of friends, and even complete strangers if I happen to mention that’s where I live. They all ask the same thing, “If I were to visit Costa Rica, where should I go and what should I do?”

Start small, I always recommend. Choose two or three destinat

It’s the new year, and that means it’s time for Costa Rica’s summer festival season! Known for their gregarious, fun-loving style, Costa Ricans’ enthusiasm is contagious when the country celebrates its numerous fiestas, festivals and horse parades from January to April. Plan your travel to Costa Rica to experience these fun cultural events with rich local traditions, tasty cuisine and vibrant music. Besides the main festivals, every town and community has its own “turno” (a country fair) to enj

You’ve traveled to Costa Rica, fallen in love with the country, and bought a beautiful property to call home. Maybe you’re planning to retire in Costa Rica or simply have a Costa Rica vacation home. It's time to create your dream home in Costa Rica.

The beginning stage of construction is the time for planning ahead for all of the features you would like in your new home – music system, alarm system, air-conditioning, appliances, aesthetic details, etc.

Home construction in Costa Rica is mostly sol

Planning to come to the Costa Rica Caribbean Coast on vacation? While the drive from San Jose to Puerto Viejo is pretty, there is a much easier way to get to Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. Fly!

It takes about four hours to drive the 217 kilometers to Puerto Viejo from San Jose. The stretch on Route 32 through the Braulio Carrillo National Park is certainly very beautiful, but can also be treacherous when raining, foggy, or after dark – a good portion of the time.

Save yourself the headache and stre

As you head south along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica from Jaco down past Quepos/Manuel Antonio toward Dominical, vast forests of palm trees stretch for miles along the highway.

Lush and thickly planted, with emerald ferns growing on the trunks and a dense carpet of green underneath, the palms always remind me of a tropical enchanted forest.

These immense plantations are African Palms, and their oil production is one of the largest agricultural industries in Costa Rica. Palm oil – not to be conf

Christmas is right around the corner, and with it are holidays and school vacations. For a fun adventure in the sun with rainforest, beaches and volcanoes, head to Costa Rica for your family vacation.

Costa Rica is a top family vacation destination for warm tropical sunshine and seas, beautiful beaches, rainforest adventures, affordable easy travel and plenty of kid-friendly activities. It is one of the safest countries in Central America and English is widely spoken.

What makes Costa Rica so grea

It is once again time for whale watching in Costa Rica!

The 2015 whale-watching season in Costa Rica gets going every year in August and September in southern Costa Rica. In Uvita Beach, there is a Festival of Whales & Dolphins every year in September. The annual festival marks the peak of the annual migration of southern Pacific Humpback Whales to the Ballena National Marine Park in Costa Rica. 

Less than an hour north of the Ballena National Marine Park, Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living e

Whether you are traveling for a couple of days, a few weeks, or even months, all of that sitting, standing, carrying and hefting luggage does a number on your body and especially your back and neck. You may even have been suffering from back and neck pain before your trip from stress, tension, overworking, etc.

Yoga can help. There are several easy yoga poses you can do almost anywhere to help ease many of the common symptoms of traveler’s back pain. You can do these poses at the airport, in your

Vacation rentals in Costa Rica are very popular, and often the most economical travel option for families and groups of friends. Pay per night for multiple hotel rooms, with maybe only breakfast included? Or stay in a Costa Rica beach rental for a few days, weeks or month with plenty more space and luxury amenities, at much lower prices than a luxury beach hotel.

The North Pacific Coast of Guanacaste, Costa Rica is known for beautiful beaches. You can pretty much find it all here – white sand, go

The cute and cuddly sloths of Costa Rica will once again feature in international television and online programming. The award-winning production Nature will air a two-part program called Nature’s Miracle Orphans on PBS on September 23 and 30, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. (ET). After each broadcast, the episode will be available for online streaming at pbs.org/nature. Nature is a production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET. Nature’s Miracle Orphans is a BBC Production. The series has been consistently

Learn all there is to know about Atenas, Costa Rica in this super handy guide from Pure Life Development of Atenas. If you have any questions on anything to do with Atenas, Costa Rica, get in touch with Atenas Costa Rica realtors, Dennis Easters and Gerardo Gonzalez Porras. They have been successfully helping customers buy and sell real estate in Costa Rica, do land development and home construction in Costa Rica for 10 years.

Your Guide to Living in Atenas, Costa Rica

With an ideal location, Aten

It is said that "the best place to learn about culture is at the dinner table!"

So starting your Thailand vacation with a Thai cuisine class or a course from a Thailand Cooking School offers you the cultural experience and other benefits. Some of these benefits are:

1. the trip to the market will teach you how to select fresh ingredients and which fruits make your body hot and which counter them by making your body cold and which not to combine together.

2. You will learn what makes the difference

The Nicoya Peninsula in the northwest region of Costa Rica in Central America is known as a “Blue Zone”. That means people here are more than twice as likely as elsewhere to reach a healthy age of at least 90 and frequently live to be over 100.

U.S. author and researcher Dan Buettner’s 2008 book, “The Blue Zones”, is written about his research with National Geographic and the world’s top longevity scientists to identify places around the world where people live measurably longer and better. After

Pay per night for a hotel room, with maybe breakfast included? Or, enjoy a private spacious condo or beach house that lets you have your own, comfortable “home away from home” while on vacation?

Over the past 10 years, vacation rentals in Costa Rica have become very popular, and it’s no wonder. Vacation rentals can be a really economic travel option for families, groups of friends, and couples. Staying in privately-owned apartments or homes that are rented by the day, week or month gives vacation

Nearly all of Costa Rica’s two million-plus tourists each year visit at least one beach during their vacation. Logistics are easy given that the San Jose International Airport is a little less than one hour from the closest Pacific Coast beach, and it only takes 30 minutes or so to get to the coast from the Liberia International Airport in Guanacaste in the north Pacific.

Called “El Coco” by Costa Ricans or “Coco Beach” by foreign visitors and residents, Playa del Coco is one of the oldest beach

Finding your bliss is easy on a Costa Rica beach vacation at Hotel Tropico Latino.

With inspiring daily yoga classes, Costa Rica yoga retreat vacations, and the marvelous natural spa at the beachfront hotel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, there is no better way to relax.

Imagine having a soothing massage or relaxing in a yoga class while listening to the rhythmic sound of ocean waves (real ones, not recorded), enjoying cool sea breezes, and looking out at shimmering white sand and the brilliant blue

The start of Caribbean Summer in Costa Rica is the time for special deals. The climate on the Caribbean Coast varies from the rest of Costa Rica. Most of the year, the Caribbean Coast maintains its forever green landscape from regular tropical rain showers. Then, when the rest of Costa Rica enters peak rainy season in September and October, the sun comes out over the Caribbean.

Costa Rica's southern Caribbean Coast has everything you're looking for in a beach vacation – adventure, romance, decad

Costa Rica’s real estate market is on the rise again and foreign investors are heading to the popular Central American country for retirement or a simpler place to live, or to invest in a Costa Rica vacation home or other property investment. The good news is that foreigners can legally own property in Costa Rica.

Even the savviest home buyer should pause before entering into a real estate deal in a foreign country. There is no way to know everything you need to without years of on-the-ground exp