Airlines

Travelair- Domestic flights in Costa Rica, AKA Nature Air.

SANSA- part of the TACA group. Domestic flights.

LACSA- (part of the TACA group), Costa Rica's international airline, reservation page.

Aeorperlas- The regional airline for Panama.

La Costeña- The regional airline for Nicaragua.

Isleña- The regional airline for Honduras.

Inter- The regional airline for Guatemala.

Art & Artisans

Deirdre Hyde- Fine artist from Britain that resides in an concentrates on Costa Rica.

A Costa Rican artisan's store that specializes in Chorotega pottery.

A wide variety of contemporary and traditional artists are represented at Galaria Namu

A brief introduction to the production of Chorotega pottery.

Natural paper products made from renewable resources.

Hand made cigars from Costa Rica.

Bicycles

Travel Library- An excellent resource. Check out the bicycling pages

Ken Kifer bike pages- Whole world of bicycling information.

Our bicycle travelogues

Buses Public & Private

Relatively up to date public bus schedule with a map that will pop up all of the information you need (terminal locator map, schedule, price, company name and phone number) for more than 50 destinations. (unfortunately a somewhat unreliable server, if this site is unavailable there is a more limited bus schedule here)

A Safe Passage specializes in facilitating public bus service from Alajeula to the rest of Costa Rica. We've never used them but have had only good reports from others who have.

Air conditioned, leather seated, 8-12 passenger running on set routes, and available for charter from Interbus.

Fantasy Bus (Grayline Buses) from $25 anywhere in the country. More expensive than public buses, but more flexible routes too.

Butterfly Gardens

The La Paz waterfall is the backdrop for a lepidoterium with over 4,000 butterflies in a netted dome.

Spirogyra in San José supports sustainable butterfly "ranching" by rural peoples by exporting to collectors and admission fees to their garden. This coservation effort enhances both the environment and the economic situation of the Ticos involved.

Selvatura adjacent to the Santa Elena Reserve (Monteverde) claims the largest butterfly garden in Costa Rica. They also offer canopy tours, and a hummingbird garden.

Lankester (@Costa-Rica-Guide) has a butterfly enclosure that is included with admission to the botainical gardens and orchid collection.

Canopy Tours

The Rainforest Aerial Tram operates two open air gondolas, one on the Caribbean slopes near the northern border of Braulio Carillo National Park, and the other a few minutes from Jacó beach on the Central Pacific coast. Each ride also includes a guided nature walk.

Turu Ba Ri is an Eco-adventure oriented theme park opened in April, 2003. Includes a gondola, and platform/traverse/zip type canopy tour.

Canopy Safari is an 18 platform, 3 rappel, and zipline tour of the treetops near Manuel Antonio. There are trails for investigation closer to the ground, and a pool in stream to cool off after your exertions.

SkyWalk is 1.6 miles (2.5 km) of trails and six suspension bridges above and in the tree tops near Monteverde. The longest bridge is about 800 feet (243 meters). One of the best bargains at $US 15 for adults. SkyTrek is the zipline/cable traverse segment from the same company. $40 for adults.

Selvatura adjacent to the Santa Elena Reserve (Monteverde) has bridges and ziplines priced separately. The walking tour consists of 8 bridges from 223 to 480 feet (68 to 160 metes) along a total route of 1.8 miles (3 Kilometers). The ziplines follow a similar route using 14 platforms. Selvatura also claims the largest butterfly garden in Costa Rica.

The Arenal hanging bridges (website sometimes down) consists of eight fixed bridges, from 26 to 72 feet (8 to 22 meters) long, and six hanging bridges, 127 to 320 feet (48 to 98 meters) long. The bridges make four stream crossings and wind in an out of the canopy along 2 miles (3.1 km) of trails.

RainMaker Canopy Walk 19 miles (30 km) north of Manuel Antonio consists of six suspension bridges totaling 820 feet (250 meters) between platforms anchored to rainforest giants. RainMaker also offers a guided river hike.

RiosParaiso Canopy Flight north of Manuel Antonio is a pure adrenaline, six zipline, thrill ride, whether you choose to do it during the day or by moonlight. Access to the course is by horseback. (GaiaLink tours is the sole representative)

The Original Canopy Tour offers views of the tree tops using bridges, ladders, ziplines and rappels at no less than seven locations
Kazm Canyon, Hacienda Guachipelin- is the original commercial canopy tour. It starts with a plunge down a cliff face from the "diving board", continues with 10 platforms, rappels and wall climbs, cable zip lines and the "tarzan swing".
Monteverde Cloud Forest- includes the usual plus a unique rope ladder 72 feet (22 meters) up the hollow center of a strangler fig tree.
Mahogany Park, San Mateo- caters to cruise ship passengers and the resort hotels of San José and Manuel Antonio with 10 platforms, 7 horizontal traverses and a rappel.
Drake Bay, Peninsula de Osa- Built at the junction of two rivers, this tour includes 7 platforms, 4 traverse cables (the longest is 230 feet, 70 meters), a suspended walkway and an 82 foot (25 meter) rappel.

The canopy tours at Pacuare Lodge, Termales del Bosque San Carlos, and Tabacon Resort were built by the original canopy tour for the respective resorts.

CR Arenal's Canopy Tour begins with a 40 minute horseback ride and is a combination of platforms, cable traverses, and rappels with a view of the lake and volcano, as well as the treetops.

Communities/Regions

Unofficial webpage of the Osa Peninsula maintained by Corcovado.org has information on travel and community projects.

Nosara- official web site of the beaches and community of Nosara.

Southern Nicoya Peninsula- official web site of playas Tambor, Montezuma, Santa Teresa, Malpais, Manzanillo and the community of Cobano. Also has a good map of Puntarenas and ferry information.

Tamarindo beach (Nicoya) official web site including an active local bulletin board.

Consular Information

For US citizens

For Canadian citizens

For citizens of the UK

Credit Cards/ATMs

Mastercard/Cirrus/Mestro ATM locator. You can also call customer service in the US collect from Costa Rica (636) 722-7111 for assistance with ATM locations, card replacement or any other questions you may have.

VISA/Plus system ATM locator

Forums & Bulletin Boards

Quick, accurate, informed responses to questions about budget travel in Central America on Lonely Planet's ThornTree.

Fodor's travel forum for Central America is quite active, and the place to ask if you need information on more upscale travel. (Warning-this board added annoying pop-over and pop-up advertisements in mid-2004 and lost their recommended rating from us).

Like Fodors, Frommer's bulletin board will have more information on resorts and rental cars but is less active and uses spectacularly annoying undertonenetwork.com pop-under advertising.

Lively community bulletin board for Tamarindo beach. Post questions about the region and rental or lodging wanted inquiries.

Forum and classifieds from Discovery press, established by the author of Choose Costa Rica, for retirees and residents who often enjoy answering questions for travelers. Can post requests for items needed (bike, surf board, rental house) and general questions.

Relatively Active Forum maintained by the Associated Residents of Costa Rica with categories like Moving to Costa Rica, Travel, Residency, Communication & the Internet.

An active forum from the Virtual Tourist for Central America and the Caribbean is a good place to get answers to travel questions.

Boots-n-all Forum on Central America concentrates on Round the World travels. Relatively inactive.

Semi-active board mainly for retirees and residents.in Costa Rica on an excellent all around website. Some travel information.

Fairly active, but broadly based board on travel to Central and South America from travelerspoint UK

Travel and Tourism Forum in Spanish from Univision.com

'Costa Rica Forum' in German
Deutschsprachiges Forum mit ausfuehrlichen Informationen ueber Land, Leute, Unterkuenfte, Fluege etc. Fuer alle, die sich fuer Costa Rica interessieren oder einfach mal informieren wollen.

Actief forum van Costarica.pagina.nl (Active Forum/Bulletin Board in Dutch)

Guides & Tours

An outfitter that organizes treks up Chirripó and into Corcovado.

Rancho Merced National Wildlife refuge. Especially known for the excellent birding, tours to Ballena, and horseback riding.

We mostly travel independently, so haven't used Costa Rica Trails (a tour company) but they come highly recommended.

Kids Stuff

Children's stories about the rain forests, and other resources to share with your children.

Illustrated glossary of rainforest terms.

Kids pages on Sea turtles. The main index is realistic, but depressing because we are killing the worlds turtles. There are more upbeat pages including, The Remarkable Journey of Adelita, Project Paola, student art, and how to build a turtle ice cream sundae.

Lodging/Hotels
Tortuguero | Arenal | Central Valley | Southern Pacific |

Tortuguero Area

Parismina Lodge (not in the park, but provides tours from its proximal location).

Turtle Beach Lodge

Laguna Lodge

Arenal Area

The Arenal Observatory Lodge is probably the best place to stay to experience the volcano.

We were the first guests ever at the Arenal Vista Lodge. They were a few days away from opening, but it was our honeymoon, Sue's birthday, and we didn't like the looks of any of the camping spots we had passed on our bikes (see photo to the left). We talked owner into letting us give the staff (who were in the middle of training) a test run.

Southern Pacific Coast

Rancho Merced National Wildlife refuge. You can stay in the reserve. Especially known for the excellent birding, tours to Ballena, and horseback riding.

Central Valley

Cabinas El Colibrí 47. Dutch/Tica couple run this small property in Turrúcares de Alajuela, about 20 km from the airport

Maps @Costa-Rica-Guide.com

Costa Rica Satellite Image Art: Large format glossy prints of Costa Rica.

Colorado State University- Real time satellite images and movies of Costa Rica.

University of Alberta, Canada- data maps of Costa Rica showing forest coverage, drainages, and soil types.

PeakWare- relief map of Costa Rica from 512,000 feet (152 km) showing the mountain features.

CentralAmerica.com- Map of downtown San José, Costa Rica and the greater San José area.

WorldHeadquaters- Map of National Parks with links to descriptions, and Map of Nature Reserves with links to descriptions.

TopoZone- No Maps of Costa Rica Here. But, the maps of the United States are so good we had to include this link.

costaricamap.com- So you don't think we're leading you astray, you should know that the map is free but they charge US$5.00 for shipping and handling. You might try our pdf download instead, US$2.95 and no hidden charges ;-)

Maptak.com- Costa Rica Map resources for webmasters, WAP mobile phone data, and a cool layered flash map that allows you to look at National Parks, how much sun a`nd rain different areas get on average etc. Also, two historical maps of Costa Rica including a treasure map of Isla del Coco.

Falling Rain is a strange name for a site that gives geographical data but if you are trying to quickly identify the general location of a city in Costa Rica, want the coordinates, weather or altitude, this is the site.

Nederlandstalige pagina's (Dutch Language)

Costarica.pagina.nl, meer dan 400 links over Costa Rica.
(more than 400 useful
links about Costa Rica)

Actief forum van Costarica.pagina.nl

Newspapers & Classifieds

AM Costa Rica is our favorite online news source because of the hometown feel. You can view the classifieds online and list employment and rental property wanted classifieds for free.

La Prensa Libre is a free online newpaper in Spanish

La Republica in Spanish, by subscription only ($US 8 per month)

Not a full fledged newspaper but excellent online classifieds free to list and free to read from costarica.com

Inside Costa Rica is a daily news magazine

La Nacion posts their top stories online in English as well as the full version in Spanish for registered users (free registration).

The Tico Times, "Costa Rica's leading English Language Newspaper."

The Voice of Nosara, A monthly online newspaper for the community of Nosara. Free

SuperEconomicos.com probably the best online classifieds for Costa Rica. In Spanish.

El Heraldo Online Headlines and top stories for free, full content $US 24 per year, in Spanish.

Weekly online newspaper in English for Honduras

Photography@Costa-Rica-Guide

Except where explicitly stated the photographs below are ©, please respect their authors.

Free Jungle Photos beautiful photographs for you to use, no questions asked. Sponsored by Cariblue Hotel

BCMorrow took some beautiful photographs that create a virtual typical trip to Costa Rica.

Richard Garrigues' extensive collection of Costa Rican bird photographs.

Philip Greenspun's Costa Rica photos lives at Photo.net, the best general photography resource on the internet.

A selection of photography links

Rafting/Kayaking/Canoeing

Canoe Costa Rica has been providing tours for over 30 years and has top quality gear.

Rainforest Conservation

Project Gaia was, and hopefully will be again, an animal rescue and rehabilitation shelter near Manuel Antonio.

The Corcovado Foundation is a local non-profit organization, supporting conservation, and protection efforts in the Osa Peninsula rainforest.

Illustrated list of rainforest items in everyday use.

What do rainforests mean to those who do not live there, and why should we practice conservation?

Kids stories about the Rain forests from the rainforest alliance.

The Rainforest Action Network was where Ray volunteered his time as an undergraduate at CU. They have excellent statistics on rainforest depletion, and resources for teachers and students.

Recipes

Costa rican cuisine is at its best for holidays, and this recipe for Christmas tamales is no exception.

A recipe for coffee? If you've ever had a cup from the chorreador de café you'll never go back!

Rental Cars

A good place to get an idea of costs and availability is Tierra Verde

Science

New York Botanical Gardens absolutely spectacular scientific web site on the mushrooms (macro fungi) of Costa Rica.

Search engine for the Missouri Botanical Garden's VAST (VAScular Tropics) nomenclature database.

Satellite images and movies from RAMDIS at Colorado State University.

Butterflies from the Devonian Botanic Garden, University of Alberta.

Picture Guide to the Ant Genera of Costa Rica.

Quetzal Cam Live, see nests adults and unfortunately weasels attacking.

Cloud forest alive- Insect photos and information.

A Ph.D. in biochemistry requires me to include this tongue in cheek Career Guide for Scientists.

Study abroad opportunities in Costa Rica, with the University of Costa Rica

Surfing

Tide tables for a number of regions on the Costa Rican Shoreline.

The surfing travel guide of Costa Rica has good break descriptions, tons of pictures, and the most overpriced map of Costa Rica on the web.

Maps of wave height, direction, period and forecasts in Central America are updated daily using data from NOAA on this site.

Wavehunters has information as well as tours available for the whole world including Cost Rica.

Turtles

You can track the travels of several sea turtles around the globe and get more information on turtles at the Caribbean Conservation Corporation website.

Green turtle (tortuga Verde, Chelonia mydas mydas, Species Account)

Hawksbill (tortuga Carey, Eretmochelys imbricata, Species Account)

Kids pages on Sea turtles. The main index is realistic, but depressing because we are killing the worlds turtles. There are more upbeat pages including, The Remarkable Journey of Adelita, Project Paola, student art, and how to build a turtle ice cream sundae.

Information on the conservation efforts in Marino las Baulas National Park, and on leatherback turtles is available from www.leatherback.org

Unusual Products

Hand made cigars from Costa Rica. Using Cuban seed.

Every baseball used in the World Series (and any MLB game) is hand made in Turrialba.

Volcanoes

Scientific site in Spanish tracking the activity of the volcanoes of Costa Rica

USGS volcanoes of the world

Arenal.net has the latest lava flow and eruption information for Volcán Arenal as well as some great pictures. Diagrams show how the volcano works, and how it has changed over the past decade.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History volcanoes of the world

Weather @Costa-Rica-Guide.com

Current weather conditions for a number of locations around Costa Rica, as well as lists of average temperatures, rainfall, and humidity (there are a few errors in these lists but they are pretty easy to spot because they don't match with neighboring areas) and tide tables.

Whales

Humpback whale fact sheet.

Whales of the world

Wheelchair Accessibility

Tours using a lift van are available from GoWithWheelchairs.com

Yoga

Samasati yoga retreat on the Caribbean

Río Chirripó retreat has a studio and offers "gourmet vegetarian cusine"