San José

Costa Rica · 6 sights · guided virtual tour

Welcome to San José, the capital and largest city of Costa Rica, lying in the centre of the country in the Central Valley. Named in honour of Joseph of Nazareth, the city was founded in 1736 and has been Costa Rica's capital three times over its history. Today it is the seat of national government and the country's major transport hub, and more than a million people pass through it every day. San José is known among Latin American cities for its high quality of life, and UNESCO recognises it as a Design City. Let us start in the city centre, then set off to the volcanoes, cloud forests and beaches beyond.

Sights

1. National Theatre of Costa Rica ▶ Listen

   

   Step inside the National Theatre of Costa Rica, considered the finest historic building in the capital. It opened to the public on 21 October 1897 with a performance of Goethe's Faust, and it seats 1,140 people. Imagine the city back then, home to only around 19,000 people. The theatre was a cultural jewel of a time when coffee exports brought the country its success, and its exquisite interior and lavish furnishings still reflect that prosperity.

2. Arenal Volcano ▶ Listen

   

   About 90 kilometres northwest of San José rises the perfect cone of Arenal Volcano, 1,633 metres high. Geologically it is young, thought to be less than 7,500 years old. For hundreds of years it lay dormant, its summit covered in dense vegetation, until 1968, when it erupted unexpectedly and destroyed the small town of Tabacón. That eruption went on until 2010, making it the tenth longest volcanic eruption on Earth since 1750.

3. Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve ▶ Listen

   

   Walk into the misty world of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, along the Cordillera de Tilarán. Founded in 1972, it protects over 10,500 hectares of cloud forest, 90 percent of it virgin forest. The biodiversity here is astonishing: over 2,500 plant species, 100 species of mammals and 400 species of birds. Keep an eye out for orchids, because this reserve holds the most orchid species found in a single place.

4. Poás Volcano ▶ Listen

   

   In central Costa Rica stands Poás Volcano, an active stratovolcano 2,697 metres high, within its own national park. It has erupted 40 times since 1828. After a strong eruption in April 2017, visitors and residents had to be evacuated, and the volcano and park stayed closed for nearly 17 months, with a safety perimeter of 2.5 kilometres around the erupting crater.

5. Pre-Columbian Gold Museum ▶ Listen

   

   Head underground, beneath the Plaza de la Cultura, into the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, run by the Central Bank of Costa Rica. Its collection holds 1,586 gold objects, along with ceramics, stone and jade, the oldest gold dating back to the centuries before Christ. You will find frogs, eagles, jaguars and alligators crafted in gold, and a life-sized warrior figure adorned with gold ornaments. In Costa Rican history, gold was a symbol of authority. Look out, too, for a replica of a grave with 88 gold objects, found on a banana plantation in the 1950s.

6. Manuel Antonio National Park ▶ Listen

   

   On the Pacific coast, just south of the town of Quepos, lies Manuel Antonio National Park. It was established in 1972, when the local community wanted to protect the natural environment from development, and also protested against beach restrictions imposed on locals by foreign owners. Although it is small on land, it is the most popular of Costa Rica's national parks. Expect beaches, rocky islands, tropical forest trails and a great diversity of wildlife.

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