San José in 3 Days

San José in 3 Days

Day 1 You'll See:

  • Plaza de la Cultura
  • Avenida Central
  • Museo Nacional de Costa Rica
  • Kalu Cafe
  • Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura

Day 2 You'll See:

  • Poas Volcano
  • La Paz Waterfall Gardens
  • Hills of Heredia
  • INBio Park

Day 3 You'll See:  Monteverde

  • Museo de Arte Costarricense
  • Parque La Sabana
  • Restaurante Nuestra Tierra

Day 1

Plaza de la Cultura - Located in the heart of downtown San Jose, on Bulevar Avenida Central, your group will find Plaza de la Cultura. This architecturally remarkable concrete plaza is located in between calles 3 and 5, a large social area typically packed with Costa Rican locals. Inside the plaza, you can slurp ice cream cones and admire San Jose street life, consisting of, on any given day, juggling clowns, various vendors, and teens cruising around. This is a truly interesting and authentic place to people watch and photograph local life. In the 1970s this was the prime spot to socialize and sell goods, today honoring the legacy of Costa Rica pre-Columbian indigenous culture. Within lies a scene of performances, demonstrations, and various celebrations. While here you may choose to visit the Gold Museum, or Museo del Banco Central de Costa Rica, a celebrated and highly traversed cultural institution within the plaza.

Avenida Central - Avenida Central is the Pedestrian Mall located at the very center of San Jose, Costa Rica. Located along the main street, or Central Calle, this area of the city is known as the financial district, the most thriving area in the whole city. Here your group will find a continuation of local street life and street performers, as well as many vendors and hawkers along the way. Avenida Central is located between calle 6 and calle 9, taking up an entire eight blocks full of plazas, shopping, local eateries, major fast food chains, and local post offices and banks. One big thing about Avenida Central is that it is vehicle free, meant only for pedestrians on foot. This allows your group to enjoy all the street vendors to the fullest, selling everything from shirts to lotto tickets, as well as different department stores selling electronics, clothing, books, crafts, and local treasures.

Museo Nacional de Costa Rica - Welcome to the national museum of Costa Rica, located in the heart of the country's capital in San Jose. Museo Nacional de Costa Rica is located within Cuesta de Moras on Calle 17, within the old Bellavista Fortress. This historically important building is crenelated and ochre-colored, the site of the original military barracks for San Jose. Outside the museum, you will see a beautiful glassed-in atrium which holds a wonderful butterfly garden. Inside you will get a quick survey of Costa Rican history, from period furniture and military equipment to artifacts from ancient and recent area digs. From the east, you will find a courtyard with pre-Columbian artifacts and colonial period canyons, from there a chronological assortment of Costa Rican geological, colonial, archaeological, religious, and modern history.  See pre-Columbian stone tables, metates, ceramics, and gold within the Sala de Oro, as well as 18th-century furniture and a special exhibit on the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias!

Kalu Cafe -  Located on calle 31 in San Jose, this cozy, modern, and casual cafe opened in late 2007 and has since then gained quite the local and international following. Ms. Ratton, head chef and owner, sees the act of dining together as a habit worth preserving in today's world and considers her cafe a good way to start. She herself is of French and Costa Rican origin and brings the flavor of each into her dishes. The menu consists of dishes that creatively combine the best features of modern cuisine and the highest quality fresh and local ingredients. Sample such delicious and beloved dishes as clasica nicoise, Pollo Thai, panino de Cabra, or patatas bravas. Check out the Cafeotheque, the onsite space for the discussion of coffee and culture in San Jose. Here you can buy local coffee to take home and peruse other local treasures, as well as see any social events that may be happening!

Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura - El Centro Nacional de Arte y Cultura, or National Center of Art and Culture, of San Jose, is located on Calle 15, between Parque Espana and Parque Nacional. This building used to be the old Costa Rican liquor factory, otherwise known as la Antigua FANAL. Today this one block complex has been transformed into a large performing arts campus featuring the finest local dance, art, and theatre. Here you will find the Ministry of Culture as well as the MADC, or Contemporary Art and Design Museum. There are many daily theatre performances within this complex, though most if not all of the performances shown here are strictly presented in Spanish. See samples of national and international plastic in the contemporary art museum, dance rituals in Fanal theater, and various cultural and artistic local events within the outside plaza and amphitheater. The simplicity of lines and distribution of internal spaces make this place special, as do the internal artifacts and local educational opportunities found within.

Day 2

Poas Volcano - Poas Volcano, nestled deep within Poas National Park, is an active, 2,708-metre stratovolcano in central Costa Rica. Poas National Park is a small, 5,600-hectare parcel of protected land that includes cloud forest, tropical rainforest, and various upland habitats throughout. Poas Volcano has erupted a total of 39 times since 1878, it’s last major eruption happening in 1954 according to some, 2011 according to others. The crater itself is 1,050 feet deep, and at almost a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide it is also considered to be the largest active crater in the world. Take the various trails through the cloud forest and Lake Botos and view the hummingbirds, tanagers, flycatchers, and quetzal alongside the sulfuric, bubbling, and green rain fed lakes. There is a modern style visitor center and a small museum on site, which both do their part to explain and interpret the geothermal and ecological attractions within the park, as well as a cafe serving coffee, hot drinks, sandwiches, and snacks!

La Paz Waterfall Gardens - La Paz Waterfall Gardens is the absolute #1 most visited privately owned eco-attraction in Costa Rica, a 70-acre true tropical wonderland. At La Paz Gardens you will find the best hiking near San Jose, the most famous waterfalls in Costa Rica, and a celebrated rescued wildlife preserve with over 100 species of animals. Once here spend some dedicated time within the aviary, with over 40 species of local bird inside, the insect or butterfly observatory, the serpentarium, jungle cat hangout, monkey hangout, various petting zoos, and orchid and other flower gardens. While here opt-in to take the mid-morning gardens tour, a bilingual and relaxing tour option that takes you through the aforementioned jungle cat area, aviary, monkey hangout, and to Casita de la Paz. It will be quite easy to see why this is considered to be the best eco-park in the country! There are excellent lunch buffet options from Calibre's here when you get hungry, as well.

Hills of Heredia - Just a short drive from the capital city of San Jose, deep within the north central mountain region of Costa Rica, your group will find your next stop, Hills of Heredia. This small, quaint Central American province is particularly known for its lush untouched beauty, as well as its extensive outdoor recreation options. This entire region is known for its coffee plantations and stunning volcanoes, holding within its boundaries Braulio Carrillo National Park and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. You will have the chance to see the active Poas and Irazu volcanoes, as well as the most famous waterfalls in the country. At the other end of the scope, your group will also find many historically authentic 18th century houses, including Basilica of Immaculate Conception, built in 1797, as well as the old presidential House of Culture. A visit to Cafe Britt will allow you to tour the beloved Heredia gardens, the famous company coffee roaster, and here locally known tales of folklore, history, and culture, providing a great introduction to this region.

INBio Park -  Welcome to INBio Park, or INBio Parque, the ecological park located just minutes away from San Jose in Santo Domingo. This todo Naturaleza park is a perfect introduction into everything that is natural Costa Rica, itself being dedicated to scientific research that promotes the conservation of the country's rich biodiversity. A guided tour will begin with a short presentation about the park and its vast diversity, then lead to walking among the number of trials with different samples of the local ecosystems. See bits of a rain forest, pre-montane forests, wetland, and dry forest and all the creatures within each before ending with a presentation about conservation and national park preservation internationally. You will see frogs, butterflies, iguanas, sloths, birds, alligators, turtles, and snakes, as well as several different and uniquely beautiful orchids, heliconia, and bromeliads. Explore the medicinal herbs garden before heading over to Restaurante Heliconias, the perfect place to find a quick and delicious bite to eat!

Day 3

SabanaMuseo de Arte Costarricense - Bienvenidos a la Museo de Arte Costarricense, the large Spanish-style structure that is fully dedicated to the conservation, exhibition, and promotions of arts within the country. Before becoming this famous museum this location served as the main airport terminal for San Jose until 1955, under the name of El Coco La Sabana International Airport. Newly remodeled recently, this museum now hosts the best regional art and other Costa Rican artist exhibits. It is considered to be the largest and most important collection of Costa Rican artist work from colonial time to present. The permanent collection within consists of over 6,000 pieces, various masterpieces from artist such as Juan Manuel Sanchez, Max Jimenez, and Lola Fernandez. The back patio of this museum, which used to be the old tarmac, is now a beautiful and large sculpture garden, a free attraction which anchors the eastern edge of La Sabana Parque.

Parque La Sabana - Parque La Sabana, or La Sabana Metropolitan Park, is the country's largest and most significant urban park located in downtown San Jose. Known as the "lungs of San Jose," Parque La Sabana is the large solid expanse of green that used to be the old El Coco La Sabana airport (until about the mid-1940s) and is today the site of El Museo de Arte Costarricense and Gimnasio Nacional. Enjoy the 72-hectare space full of shady trees, open play areas, a central lake, and much cultural significance to the local community. To the western end of the park, you will find Paseo Colon, as well as Gimnasio Nacional, the 40,000 seat stadium that plays host to national soccer tournaments and various popular performances such as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. This green space is a highly popular place to come jog and exercise, as well as take part in some basketball, tennis, swimming, kite-flying, or even aerobics classes!

Restaurante Nuestra Tierra - This touristy yet highly popular eatery was designed to recreate the feel of an old Costa Rican homestead kitchen, or local provincial ranch. The wait staff will impress you with their traditional folk costume, as will the overall atmosphere of the restaurant with its heavy wooden tables, bench seating, bunches of bananas and onions overhanging, and uniquely painted enamel mugs hanging from the ceiling. The meals are traditionally served on banana leaves in quite large portions, making it easy to share plates, and the service is inexplicably quick, making this an overall very pleasant eating experience. Within the walls of Restaurante Nuestra Tierra, you will find the freshest and delicious local ingredients making up common dishes such as fried plantains, rice, beans, vegetables, pork, beef, chicken, and fish. You can choose to sit on one side of the eatery with views of the busy calle 15 or on the opposite side with great vistas of rural Central Valley!


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