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Costa Rica is a Central American country of great tourist potential that is valued as one of the most visited international destinations. One of its main economical incomes is the tourism.
DEMOCRATIC, PEACEFUL, COUNTRY WITHOUT ARMY SINCE 1949. 

Although the country is small and it covers just 0.03% of the surface of the planet, it has the privilege of being the habitat of 6% of the existent biodiversity in the entire world. 25.58% of its territory is protected under diverse conservation categories.
Costa Rica, also offers an excellent scenario for the investments and the establishment of important international companies, thanks to its population's grateful academic level, to the good standard of modern services and its sociopolitical stability. 

KNOWING COSTA RICA
Costa Rica extends majestically from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and its extension is 51000 km2.
If one makes a journey thru the provinces of Costa Rica, it is easy to realize that in any other place you can meet fields with so many landscape variations and climate like in here.  
Costa Rica is one of the most precious tourist destinations in the planet. This small earth piece gathers all the necessary components to satisfy the pleasure of thousands of travelers that visit it every year.
Costa Rica is divided in 7 provinces that are: San José, Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia, Guanacaste, Puntarenas and Limon. All of them together offer an attractive tourist destination of almost limitless possibilities of enjoyment, that they include extensive rain forests, volcanoes, rivers, beaches and many natural resources preserved by an important National Park organization and forest reserves.

San José

San José is the most populated province in the country. Located in the Central Valley, it extends toward the northeast, crossing the impressive mountains of the Central Mountain Range that include national parks, forest reserves and fertile lands where coffee plantations are Abundant.
The capital of Costa Rica, San José, is located in the Central Valley. It is an extensive flat land surrounded by majestic volcanoes and green hills that confirms the natural wealth that exists in the whole national territory.
It was founded in the first half of the XVIII century. San José is today a city where visitors from all over the world converge; it is a city of places of interest, as well as of faces and colors that reflect the history of a town.
Its architecture is diverse, as it is the people that walk its streets. In the north sector of the city are found the most refined samples of urbanism from the beginning of the last century. There is a great quantity of houses and buildings built with European inspiration, but with a deep sense of the Costa Rican style.
Among the most representative places in the city, you can find the National Theater, a pride of the Costa Ricans and historical house of the best national and foreigner artists. The theater was founded in 1897, after the determination of merchants, intellectuals and politicians that knew how to identify the importance of an opera house that could shelter the best artistic productions of the world.
Nevertheless, a list of museums of world class, parks, hotels, theaters and historical buildings are some other options that the thousands of tourists that visit San José annually can discover. 
From the city, the visitors can choose dozens of One Day Tours to the most admirable natural places inside and outside of the Central Valley, besides they can have access to a great quantity of adventure sports and exploration activities.

Heredia

With a territory of 2.656 km2 and a population of 75 000 inhabitants, Heredia is the smallest province in Costa Rica, a town appreciated by its colonial tradition and architecture from long ago.
A good number of adobe houses can be appreciated along different Heredian communities like: Barva and Santo Domingo. The city of Heredia, well known as Ciudad de las Flores¨ (The City of the Flowers), was founded in 1706, after the initiative of about150 families settled down in that place.
In Heredia there are still great quantities of coffee plantations, many of which have been adapted to carry out guided visits with tourists. It results easy to enjoy the captivating process of the harvest, drying and roast of the coffee.
Among the natural marvels of the province of Heredia, it’s found the Barva volcano, a formidable colossus located on the west part of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, and that it raises up to 2.906 meters above sea level. The vegetation around this sleeping giant is wonderful; an ideal place for the observation of birds, especially for those that dream of spotting the magnificent quetzal.  
On the other hand, the Braulio Carrillo National Park represents the biggest natural wealth, near to the Central Valley. A tropical rain forest, home for hundreds of species of plants and animals. 
The dense vegetation of the park preserves a great quantity of cascades and rivers, some of which are used in sport adventures. The Sarapiquí River is another of the attractions of the province of Heredia. This majestic river travels through dense vegetation where the birds are plentiful and it possesses an ideal current for those who enjoy the rapids with a moderated grade of difficulty.  
The mountainous areas of Heredia, just before crossing the Central Mountain Range, are characterized by their big extensions of forests and pleasant climate. Many people choose these green and cool places to settle down and to live far from the noisy city.

Guanacaste

Generous and warm province, Guanacaste is known by its cattle production and spectacular beaches. It is the driest region in Costa Rica, especially in its coastal areas.  
Guanacaste passed to be part of Costa Rica in 1824; until then it remained as a party attributed to the General Headquarter of Guatemala. Certainly this territory holds a very important natural and cultural wealth for the economy of Costa Rica. Some of the best beach hotels of the world are located in the beaches of Guanacaste.
Guanacaste is very well known for its beaches and the sun, and that is exactly what the visitors find along the coastal line, where the hotels, cabins and restaurants are plentiful; some very luxurious, other modest ones, but that they guarantee the visitor a perfect option for each budget.
Panama Beach, in the north of the province, is one of the good options for the tourism. A serene place of white sand and calm waters that invite’s to pass a weekend without concerns.
Coco Beach figures among the most popular places for its night life and great quantity of visitors, and without traveling to far you can arrive to Flamingo Beach, an ideal place for those who like a mixture of hotels with class and a tranquil atmosphere.
You can find also Ocotal and Hermosa Beaches, among the most popular in the coast  of Guanacaste. Playa Grande (Big Beach) is located a little more to the south, and together with the Las Baulas National Park, it is the sanctuary for thousands of baula turtles that end up laying their eggs on these costs every year.
Tamarindo offers a mixture of beaches of white sand and mangroves; of marine birds and iguanas that transform it into a paradise and a perfect place for those who want to live in harmony with the nature.
Many other beaches along the coast of Guanacaste complete an incomparable natural offer. Carrillo Beach, Ostional Beach, Manzanillo Beach or Coyote Beach, are some of those destinations that beautify the biggest province of Costa Rica.
In Guanacaste you can taste delicious dishes, very characteristic of its people and that with the time they became authentic Costa Rican tradition. The Santa Rosa National Park is located on the north of the province; this is a jewel of the tropical dry forest that possesses an extraordinary biological inventory.
On the Guanacaste Mountain Range, there are some volcanoes as: Tenorio, Orosi, Miravalles and Rincon de la Vieja, this last one is surrounded by a National Park of the same name.
There’s no doubt that Guanacaste is a privileged land. It possesses a mixture of dry and rain forest, warm beaches, vast flat lands and an impressive volcanic mountain range; a natural world willing to being explored.

Puntarenas

Well known as “La Perla del Pacifico” (Pearl of the Pacific), Puntarenas is the most extensive province of Costa Rica, with an area of 11.276 Km2. Their main attractions are in the coastal line of the Pacific that extends for more than 804, 67 km until the frontier with Panama.  
This vast province offers a variation of beaches, national parks and natural reserves with an extraordinary ecological importance, because it is a transition area between the dry tropical lands of Guanacaste and the green forests of the Central Pacific.
The port of Caldera and the city of Puntarenas, receive daily hundreds of tourists coming from the numerous cruises that dock in the coast. Some of these ships travel going to the channel of Panama, allowing their passengers to explore the interior of Costa Rica, and meeting them a few days later with the cruise in port Limon, in the Caribbean.
The Carara Biological Reserve constitutes one of the best exponents in the natural patrimony of Puntarenas. This reserve has an extension of 4.694,35 hectares of forests and swamps.
Nowadays, there are available to the tourists only some areas of the reserve, but professional guides that are allowed to explore some restricted areas can be hired.
The Manuel Antonio National Park is another excellent destination of the province of Puntarenas. With its impressive beaches of white sand, the blue waters of the Pacific and hundreds of hectares of rain forest, this park is one of the smallest from Costa Rica, but also one of those most visited ones.
Manuel Antonio is one of the few places in Costa Rica where still inhabits the squirrel monkey. Inside the park there are also more than 100 species of mammals and same number of species of birds.
In Puntarenas is also distinguished the Corcovado National Park, located to the south pacific, and that it constitutes an important habitat of endemic species as the Golden toad as well as the Tárcoles river which margins are guarded by hundreds of American crocodiles.
The good food, especially the seafood, besides the famous carnivals that are carried out every summer and its people's warm treatment, are some of the nice surprises that the tourists that visit this province receive.

Cartago

Also known as The Old Metropolis, Cartago was the capital of Costa Rica until 1823, and then the city of San Jose took over that title. It is a relatively small province, with hardly 3.124 km2 and almost 35 000 inhabitants.
This is the most important region in Costa Rica as regards colonial art. Maybe, the best example is the temple of Orosi that dates from 1743, a historical jewel that has been witness of the birth of a nation.
Cartago possesses a humid tropical climate; its mountainous system comprises two mountain ranges, the Central Mountain , where the volcanoes Irazú and Turrialba are located. The Talamanca Mountain range is the other great mountainous formation of the province. In it raises the imposing Chirripó Hill, the highest point in Costa Rica, located at 3.600 meters above sea level.
Cartago is a land of traditions and religiosity. Toward the north it is the Guayabo national monument, located in the outskirts of the city of Turrialba. In Guayabo the visitors can admire enigmatic constructions that date from pre-Columbian time. It is one of the biggest archaeological areas that have been discovered in the country. Mounds, bridges, fields and tiles, as well as an aqueduct that works still, are some of the vestiges of the old cultures.
The pilgrimage towards the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles in Cartago downtown, is the most important religious activity in Costa Rica. It takes place on August 2nd and to it, millions of people of the whole country go.
But, maybe, the main attraction of Cartago is the Irazú volcano, a splendid giant that is still active and its five craters bring thousands of tourists annually.
It is the volcano of more altitude in the country, with 3.432 meters above sea level. In it, borns several springs that supply the watershed of the rivers Chirripó, Reventazón, Sarapiquí and Grande de Tárcoles.

Alajuela

It is one of the most extensive provinces in Costa Rica, and it is known as the “Land of the Mangoes”. Its territory extends toward the north, until the border with Nicaragua. Alajuela was founded in 1782 and it is the cradle of famous historical characters as Juan Santamaría, the national hero that burned down the Meson de Rivas in 1856.
This province possesses an beautiful natural wealth, its unequal topography comprises from rain forest until the exuberant flat lands of the north zone. The tourists can choose to visit two of the most impressive active volcanoes in the country: the Arenal volcano, in San Carlos' city and the Poás Volcano, in the Central Volcanic Mountain range.
The Poás volcano is one of the most splendid volcanoes in Costa Rica for its beautiful panorama. To its surroundings different habitats can be appreciated; from the cloud forest until areas with scarce vegetation, where it grows species that have adapted to the emissions of gases and the climatic factor characteristic of volcano.
The Arenal volcano, with its beautiful conical silhouette, is one of the most active of the world. But without a doubt its enchant is accentuated every night, when the colorful eruptions and the rivers of lava can be appreciated. Many hotels of the place offer views of the volcano and of its night show.  
In Alajuela are found also the picturesque cities of San Ramon, Zarcero and Sarchí, where crafts can be bought and to admire the work in wood and the paintings of the Costa Rican artisans.  
During the last decades, Alajuela has become an obligatory passage  for all those lovers of the natural wealth of Costa Rica.

Limón

The Caribbean province is a natural paradise, formed by a combination of thick jungles, imposing mountains and like paradise beaches. Limon possesses the highest percentage of protected lands in Costa Rica, and it possesses an extensive variety of flora and fauna. Its vegetation is exuberant, as well as the cultures that converge in the whole province.  
The highway that takes to Limon from San José, spans the majestic Braulio Carrillo National Park. In this point begins a beautiful trip toward the Caribbean lowlands and a significant change in temperature and landscape is experienced.
Maybe, the most exuberant region in Limon is the Tortuguero National Park, in the north part of the province. A vast extension of protected land and the most important place in the Atlantic coast of the American continent for the green turtle to lay its eggs.  
The city of Limon is the first point of the visitors' arrival. It is an essential port for the economy of Costa Rica and it is the best example of the multicultural encounter that this region has lived along the history.
Traveling south, at a hour of distance, find Cahuita, a typical village of the Caribbean, this town has become a destination for the tourists, because it does not only represent the essence of a culture, but also for the beauty of the Cahuita National Park that protects an important extension of coral reef.
The calm waters in this place, is apt for the lovers of the “snorkeling”, because the show under the water is wonderful, a wide reef chain made up of different coral classes and occupied by an immense variety of tropical fish.
Another important point in the Caribbean province is Puerto Viejo, at just 30 minutes from Cahuita. In this town a deep respect is breathed by the cultural identity of its inhabitants. Music, beaches and food very characteristic of the place, are the elements that attract thousands of tourists through the year.  
Along the coastal area, the visitors find a good quantity of lodging options. Most of hotels and cabins are small and conformed by traditional Bungalows, a construction type very peculiar of the Caribbean.
The Gandoca Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge is located exactly at the end of the coastal line, almost by the frontier with Panama. This refuge protects about 4500 hectares of beaches and sea, place where 4 species of turtles lay their eggs.
In Manzanillo you can rent a kayak to travel the calm swamps in search of birds and typical reptiles of the area.  
The province of Limon possesses an unique culture in Costa Rica, a way of living that you can appreciate with all its splendor in the traditional carnivals that they carried out every year, an experience of rhythms and euphoric and captivating colors.
Information courtesy of the Destinos Magazine.