Heredia

city in Costa Rica

7.8km

Cartago (Costa Rica)

Cartago is a city in Costa Rica.

19km

Quesada

city in Alajuela, Costa Rica

58km

La Fortuna

La Fortuna de San Carlos is a small town in the north of Costa Rica.

85km

Boquete

place in Chiriquí, Panama

222km

Isla de Ometepe

island

238km

Managua

Capital of Nicaragua

340km

Cocos Island National Park

Cocos Island is a nationally protected jungle-covered island and national park off the coast of Costa Rica. It's also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

588km

San José, Costa Rica

capital of Costa Rica

5m

National Theatre of Costa Rica

698m

Pre-Columbian Gold Museum

An underground museum below Plaza de la Cultura. The collection consists of 1,600 pieces of pre-Columbian gold work dating from 500 AD to 1500 AD. Although not of the quality seen in the Andes, the animal pieces are very impressive and make the museum a must-see for those interested in art or history. The museum explains the processing and production of the pieces as well as their social, cultural, and religious meanings. The entrance fee includes the Numismatic Museum and the Temporary Exhibition Galleries, which are inside the same labyrinthine complex. There is a nice museum shop and a tourist office at the entrance.

767m

Museo del Jade Marco Fidel Tristán Castro

The museum has relocated to a large modern building next to the Artesanal Market. Most tourist maps still show the old location across from Hotel Hemingway, but the new location is 4 blocks away and closer to the Plaza de la Cultura. The brand new complex is now one of the hemisphere's premier museums and is worth the sizable entry fee. It hosts the largest collection of precolumbian jade in the Americas and explains how these impressive pieces were produced. The museum displays a wide variety of other objects made of gold, stone, bone, ceramics, and shells. There is a smattering of objects similar to those at the Museo de Oro (gold pieces) and Museo Nacional (stone spheres and ceramics). You can gain insight into the daily lives of the people in the precolumbian era with numerous bilingual English-Spanish. If you only have time for visiting one museum, this is the recommended choice, albeit the craftsmanship of the pieces at the Museo de Oro is higher.

1.1km

Parque Zoológico Nacional Simón Bolívar

An almost hidden zoo in Barrio Amón, some of the most representative animals are available in this small zoo. There are many big cats, including a non native lion, the serpentarium is one of the most interesting spots, with colorful (and dangerous) snakes available.

1.3km

Museum of Contemporary Art and Design

Definitely the main institution in Costa Rica dedicated to the broadcasting of contemporary art. Information on exhibitions, schedules and admission fees can be found at their website.

1.3km

Museo Nacional de Costa Rica

The museum includes a large butterfly garden (with many morpho butterflies) and a collection of large stone spheres from the Diquis Valley near the Pacific Ocean, a permanent precolumbian exhibition, the barracks, the rooms of the army general and his family, and a couple of temporal exhibits at the time. The museum building is an old fort called Cuartel Bellavista, in this place the Army was symbolically abolished by then president Jose Figueres Ferrer on December 1, 1948, after the last civil war and armed conflict in the country.

1.3km

Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels, Cartago

church building in Cartago, Costa Rica

20km

Irazú Volcano

mountain in Costa Rica

26km

Braulio Carrillo National Park

Popular for the Holdridge's toad, the solitary eagle, the bare-necked umbrella bird, as well as several species of hummingbirds. It also has several different micro climates. There are several hiking trails in the park. The longest one from Puesto Barva to La Selva is a difficult and 4-day long trail. But there are other shorter trails include Los Botarramas and El Ciebo available.

27km

Poás Volcano National Park

The park is a popular destination for both foreign and Costa Rican tourists. Poás allows tourists to see into the crater of an active volcano. You can often smell sulfur from the crater while visiting the peak, and a couple of hiking trails to see Lake Botos, an acid water lake on a dormant crater.There are many guided tours offered to the volcano through private tour companies or you can catch a daily "tourist" bus provided by the TUASA bus company. The 10.0149079-84.21614711 TUASA bus to Poás will take you to the top of the volcano and then return you to Alajuela after several hours—leaves at 9AM, return 12:30PM or 2:30PM (ask!), US$3 return.Make sure the volcano is not closed due to activity. Probably, it is best to buy the ticket during the bus ride to the volcano (if possible) or at most a day before. The bus driver will know whether it is closed or not. Getting a refund, if the volcano is closed, seems not properly working.

33km

Tapantí National Park

Tapantí National Park, sometimes called Orosí National Park, is a National Park in the Pacific La Amistad Conservation Area of Costa Rica located on the edge of the Talamanca Range, near Cartago. It protects forests to the north of Chirripó National Park, and also contains part of the Orosí River. The area known as Macizo de la Muerte was added to the park on January 14, 2000.

36km

Turrialba

city in Costa Rica

44km

Quepos

district and town in Puntarenas, Costa Rica

55km

Tárcoles River

river in Costa Rica

64km

La Fortuna Waterfall, Costa Rica

Stone steps lead to the bottom. Take a swimsuit for the pool in the lovely stream below. The entrance is accessible by road, so a cab works fine too. Once you pay to go in, you are free to stay as long as you'd like. It's about a 10-min hike down to the waterfall and 20 min back up.

86km

Arenal Volcano

mountain

90km

Monteverde and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserves

protected area

90km

Tortuguero National Park

national park

92km

Limón Province

province of Costa Rica

96km

Lake Arenal

artificial lake in Costa Rica

107km