The whole country of Costa Rica is worthwhile visiting. But realistically, most people who want to visit would like to be within a half hour of a nice beach unless your main reason for coming is something other than vacationing – perhaps dental of medical reasons.

With that in mind, I will argue there are 5 major places that people would come to ‘visit’ Costa Rica.

Now, obviously we prefer the Sámara and Nosara area. But let me give you 5 different locations in Costa Rica that people tend to go to as their ‘destination’ or ‘home base’ while in the country.

Sámara and Nosara areas (where the Prados del Sol units are.)

• A ‘family’ area, less crowded, especially in the green/rainy season

• A touristy area – lots of things around for tourists to do, trips, zip lines, fishing, coffee tours, turtles and more – see our ______ page for details

• Most of the time I fly into Liberia if this is the only area I’m going to visit

Tamarindo Area (an hour of North of the Prados del Sol units)

• The “wild” area, bars and more, in the green/rainy season it is a busy ‘happening’ place. In the high/dry season – good luck finding parking within a mile of any beach!

• A touristy area – again, lots of things around for tourists to do.

• Tamarindo is closer to Liberia and Volcanos and Playa Conchall

Jaco Area

• Similar to Sámara and Nosara, but closer to the San Jose airport, from what I’ve seen fewer of the touristy trips, but still enough to keep most people busy.

• A little more expensive I’m told due to it’s proximity to San Jose

Limon

• If you like it hot and humid, Limon is the more humid beach area. I’m told that Europeans prefer Limon because of the humidity, but North Americans prefer Guanacaste (Sámara and Nosara/Tamarindo)

San Jose

• If you want to visit the cultural spots, museums, theatre, major government offices, bank head offices, San Jose is the place to go.