Many Costa Rica guides provide hotel, restaurant, and arrival information, but Lonely Planet's stands out from the pack.

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Product Description

Stroll through pristine cloud forests and peer into simmering volcanoes, catch the perfect turquoise wave and howl back at howler monkeys, gaze at the waters of the Caribbean and the Pacific from the top of Mt Chirripo - Costa Rica is an adventurer's dream. Packed with expert advice on making the most of your trip, our authoritative guide will help you discover your own paradise in the land of pura vida.

• GET WILD - our full-color wildlife guide gets you in touch with the swingers, the swimmers and the slitherers • GO NATURAL - an expert ecologist gives you the scoop on Costa Rica's stunning national parks in our environment chapter • TAKE IT OUTSIDE - our adventure travel chapter has you covered, from hiking and surfing to rafting and kayaking • GET AROUND - 77 user-friendly maps, more than any other guidebook to Costa Rica • REST EASY - from treehouse hammocks to luxury ecolodges, accommodations to please every style and budget

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205597 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Destination: Costa Rica

Surfer dudes, bird nerds, hiking fiends, mountain trekkers, back-to-the-land fans, beach bums and party animals have all found something in common in Costa Rica. The waves are prime, the natural beauty staggering, the pace of life slow, the beer plentiful and the locals friendly. A stronghold of peace in a region torn by strife, this tiny nation attracts a stream of more than a million eager visitors annually.

The country stands apart from its Central American neighbors on various points. The first is that it has no army. Armed forces were abolished after the 1948 civil war, and Costa Rica has avoided the despotic dictatorships, military coups and internal turmoil that have plagued other countries in the region.

The country is also unique globally for its enlightened approach to conservation. More than 27% of the country is protected in one form or another, and more than 14% is within its national park system. Lush jungles are home to playful monkeys, languid sloths, crocodiles, countless lizards, poison-dart frogs and a mind-boggling assortment of exotic birds, insects and butterflies. Endangered sea turtles nest on both coasts and cloud forests protect elusive birds and jungle cats.

Thrill seekers can fly through the forests on zip lines, peer into boiling volcanoes, surf oversized waves, scuba dive with dolphins and whales and come face-to-face with poisonous snakes - all in the course of a normal day. Then again, if you have some serious chilling to do, you can always lounge in a hammock and enjoy the pure life, or pura vida - a national expression that sums up the desire to live the best, most hassle-free existence.

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Customer Reviews

Necessary to know what to avoid
Just got back from Costa Rica (2 wks), and had a good time, though it wasn't without serious disappointment.

While there we noticed that almost all the guidebooks people were carrying around were Lonely Planet (LP). But everywhere we stayed that LP raved about was very disappointing, and the few places we stayed that were very understated in LP were excellent.

My theory is that so many people are using LP that if a place gets a rave recommendation the business just pours in. They jack up their prices, sit back and rest on their reputation, and the facility and service deteriorate. But the money keeps pouring in because of that great LP review. Meanwhile the underrated places have to work their butts off to get business. Even though LP CR is only 2 years old, the prices of the highly rated hotels were off by as much as 50%, whereas the ones with understated descriptions were right on.

Generally, I like using LP, but for CR I would say that too many people do. Grab a different guidebook and cross-ref it with LP. If it has a nice sounding place that's not in LP, stay there!

We also used Frommer's even though it doesn't have much of a selection of budget places. Frommer's descriptions are so much more colorful and accurate. You get the impression that they only write about places for which they have first-hand knowledge. Plus Frommer's 2004 edition is new and the prices were exactly right. But, it's not sufficient by itself because it just doesn't list enough places.

Our rule of thumb for LP CR: If LP writes more than half a column about a hotel or lodge, avoid it! It will be overrated by now, with ridiculously high prices, and an inattentive staff.

Next gripe related to the advice in this guidebook: all the concerns and warnings are grossly exagerated. The roads are bad, but they don't swallow cars and break axles. There may be some crime, but there aren't people learching in the shadows to flatten your tires every time you stop. The busy season doesn't fill every hotel -- in fact without reservations, we got our first choice of hotels every night. I wonder how much more fun my trip would have been if I hadn't let this book make me so defensive!

Here's a tip for Costa Rican hotels: it doesn't matter how expensive the place is, the showers are lousy, with very little hot water and terrible water pressure. So don't pay $45 for a place just because it has hot showers when the place next door is only $25.

Great Guide; Excellent vacation
I ended up a few weeks and travelling through parts of Central America. This travel guide is one of the ones I took with me, and I highly recommend it.

This guide proved to be invaluable, and saved me a lot of headaches and money. Traveling solo, I rarely make reservations or plans until I actually get there. This is what I did when I got to Costa Rica.

Thanks to this LP guide I can report the following highlights: $7 per night hotel room in San Jose, watching a live volcano (Arenal), spending time in the hot springs at the base of a live volcano, visiting a coffee plantation, hiking through Cloud Forest, and seeing several breathtaking waterfalls. Travelling through Nicaragua to Tortugero to watch the endangered turtles lay eggs was definitely a worthwhile adventure.

A few words of advice: If you are going to visit the rain forest, bring a poncho. It rains in the rain forest. A lot, especially during the rainy season. Perhaps that is why they call it a rain forest. Secondly, visit the local tourist offices in San Jose. I went in looking for some free maps, and got a lot of good advice. It never hurts to have some extra advice about where to go to supplement the guide.

A little dense, it becomes hard to visualize places when planning a trip, but the real value is when you are the ground and moving. Highly recommended.

Least helpful travel book I've ever used
I bought this book before a trip to Costa Rica, based on the "Lonely Planet" name alone. Lonely Planet usually publishes the best travel books, but not in this case. We found that the directions to many of the establishments were incorrect, as were the descriptions. Some of the locals even pointed out parts of the book that were blatantly incorrect, such as certain restaurants or bars that were in a different part of town than stated in the book. This particular book could have used a better fact-checker. I will not be taking it with me on my next trip to Costa Rica.