One of the most pristine beaches in Costa Rica is home to luxury resorts, spectacular real estate, lush vegetation, sugary sands, and yellow-bellied snakes that slither right out of the ocean and give some people a good scare. Playa Flamingo is located on the Gold Coast of Guanacaste, one of the hottest tourist spots in Costa Rica, and it is here where sightings of Pelamis platura, yellow-bellied ...

One of the most significant information technology trends in recent years has been the learn-to-code movement, endorsed by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and even Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat. To this end, programming boot camps have emerged as popular teaching methods to introduce novices to the intricate world of coding. In Costa Rica, an international coding boot camp has chosen Playa...

Source: Sea Shepherd Readers of The Costa Rica Star are very familiar with our extensive reporting on the saga of Paul Watson, the controversial founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In late September, we reported on the Sea Shepherd chapter in Costa Rica, which is actively involved in the protection of sea turtles in our Caribbean coast. We now bring you an update by Sea Shephe...

The coastal community of Playa Ostional, located in the Guanacaste province, is home to one of the most magical beaches in the Gold Coast of Costa Rica. There is something about the sand on this beach that is attracting more and more sea turtles to massively arrive during nesting season. Although climate change is affecting sea turtle arrivals in other parts of Costa Rica, this is clearly not the ...

One of the most celebrated Hollywood films of last year has a curious connection to Costa Rica, Florida, Wall Street, and an outlandish financial scam. The film is The Wolf of Wall Street, a biopic directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort. The connection is Ira Lee Sorkin, a renowned attorney who once represented Mr. Belfort and later Bernard Madoff. Mr. Sorkin ...

On Day Three of her Costa Rica real estate adventure, Boston accountant Kristine Gorman gets even closer to fulfilling her dream of retiring in our country. On Days One and Two of her trip to Guanacaste, Kris and her family stayed in Playa Flamingo and were very close to making a formal offer on a home on a condo in Tamarindo Beach. To learn more about Kris and her expat mission, read our previous...

For many years, residents, business owners and tourists in the Manuel Antonio community of Quepos have complained about an increase in street-level crimes. From drug dealing to pick pocketing and from vehicle theft to illegal sidewalk sales, street crime has grown on the beach and extended into the pristine Manuel Antonio National Park, one of Costa Rica’s most visited natural attractions. Various...

Source: Flickr Life's a beach in Costa Rica; unfortunately, so is death sometimes. The number of tourists who come to enjoy Costa Rica continues to grow each year; alas, the number of those whose beach vacations turn fatal is also on the rise. Since 2009, researchers from the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: UNA) have been working on a comprehensive risk assessment study to...

Source: Flickr Of the three coastal provinces of Costa Rica, Guanacaste has the highest number of beaches that proudly display the Blue Ecological Flag. According to online news site Primero en Noticias, 51 beaches in Guanacaste meet the strict environmental conditions needed to receive the blue flags awarded by the Ministry of the Environment and the National Board of Tourism (Spanish initial...

More people have drowned along the 17 miles of the Central Pacific Coast, including Esterillos, Playa Hermosa, and Playa Bejuco, than any other stretch of Costa Rica. So why haven’t you heard a warning about it? World Life Expectancy reports Costa Rica as the 101st country out of 192 countries polled with 3.4 reported drownings for every 100,000 people. That’s almost triple the amount of deaths...

The abundance of outdoor activities hosted by Jaco never ceases to amaze. Did you know, from Jaco you have access to a gorgeous island filled with jet skis, kayaks, banana boats, volleyball, tropical fish to snorkel with, and loungers? Let me share with you my recent experience at Isla Tortuga. My day started with a gorgeous one and a half hour boat ride from Playa Herradura where I observed ju...

The Central Pacific Coast boasts some of the most gorgeous and most expansive beaches in the country. At one point, there is seventeen miles of uninterrupted beach to jog along, surf or fish in, or lounge by in appreciation of it’s magnificent power and beauty. January 19th was a sad day along the Central Pacific Coast where the ocean displayed it’s power. It was a typical Sunday, the beaches w...

Merrell Manistee: Conquering Costa Rica one step at a timeEver since I authored, Becoming an Expat: Costa Rica, I have received hundreds of questions from those who are planning trips to Costa Rica. Whether they were planning a research trip to potentially become expats themselves, or whether they were simply looking for a vacation in paradise, they all have similar questions. What should they pa...

Tamarindo Beach in Guanacaste Costa RicaAn oft-discussed topic among tourists and expats visiting Costa Rica is how little they can get for their hard-earned dollars here. This is a sentiment shared by the local population as well, who somehow make do with a lot less than their fellow North American and European complainants. An incredibly detailed report by blogger Tricia Lyman reveals that a co...

1 in 5 Canadian enjoy sex on the beach in Costa Rica For most people, sex on the beach involves mixing vodka and peach schnapps with orange and cranberry juice. For some Canadians visiting Costa Rica, however, sex on the beach involves mixing with each other in the sand. As recently reported by the Toronto Star, a survey by Expedia.ca indicates that visitors from Ontario and Quebec are more li...

Escape this winter to the land of perpetual summer on the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Blue skies, golden sun, tropical breezes, warm surf and soft sand await you. Sounds pretty good if you’re looking out the window at freezing rain, ice, snow and a heavy gray sky, doesn’t it? Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast stretches from the port town of Puntarenas to just before the surf town o...

Walk down the beaches of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and you’re likely to see multicolored crushed seashells, sea glass, and interesting rocks and pebbles along the white sand. What you won’t see as readily is trash. The Pacific beaches of Santa Teresa – Mal Pais, Playa Carmen, Playa Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa – on Costa Rica’s southern Nicoya Peninsula hold Ecological Blue Flag status. Costa...

Most people visiting Nosara head straight for Playa Guiones, which with its beautiful white sand and consistent surf break, is one of Costa Rica’s most favored surfing beaches. This breezy Blue-Flag beach is reputed to have the most consistent surf on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast with “surf-able waves here over 300 days a year,” reports the Visit Nosara tourism website. Guiones Point at the south...

There is no better way to relax – especially recently arrived on vacation – than with a massage. It really is amazing what 60 or 90 minutes of a professional therapist making your muscles and body unwind will do to produce feelings of bliss and well-being. Massage therapy benefits you by relaxing tight muscles, increasing circulation, releasing toxins, easing stress, and benefiting your whole b...

It is nearly the end of 2013. Are you looking for a quick week-long vacation to get away from it all? Before the holiday season really gets going, escape for a week to sunny Costa Rica on a 7-day Tropical Paradise Vacation. This 7-day Costa Rica vacation package from Costa Rica Special Deals really is a good travel deal. For only $365 USD per person (based on double occupancy), you get thre...

Normally, you don’t see tough, radical conservationists attending lectures by land developers. But there they were, 100 strong, from the Nature Conservancy, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and from all over Latin America – all raptly listening to how land development can actually preserve forests. Nervous before his formidable audience, Guillermo Piedra Gonzalez e...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your business press release, please contact us. Ylang Ylang Beach Resort in Costa Rica recently launched a new solar garden project making the resort nearly completely self-sustained when it comes to electricity needs. A collection of solar panels was placed throughout the property to harvest abundant solar energy and convert it to electricity fo...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to cover your business press release, please contact us. Stay at Peninsula Papagayo, Play Four Seasons Costa Rica Golf, Relax in the Privacy of Your Own Luxury Vacation Rental. Papagayo Luxury announces fall promotion for their private vacation home rentals at Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica: -Stay 7 nights, pay for 6 (valid Sep 1- Nov 14, 2013) -St...

There’s nothing better than a day at the beach. The sun, the surf … what could be more fun? Especially in Costa Rica, where the sun, sand and sea are warm all the time! Long beaches of gold, rich black, pearly white, beige and even pink sand, fringed with palm trees and other greenery – Costa Rica’s beaches are paradise! It seems like every surfer who visits Costa Rica agrees it is one of the b...

Introduction to Costa Rica If you’re looking for an epic environmentally friendly surf trip, Costa Rica should be high up on your list. As we’ll point out in this Costa Rica Surf Guide, there are so many cool things to see and do, especially along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Whether you’re looking to relax and completely disconnect or you’d like to incorporate a bit of adventure into ...

Everyone who has been diving out of Playas del Coco, Costa Rica has their own story. Whether it is seeing the biggest sea turtle you have ever seen come out of a hidden canyon on the back side of the Bat Islands, coming upon a group of adolescent Humpback Whales with their Mother calling in the distance out at Santa Elena Point, being engulfed by a huge school of fish only to have them ins...

If you are thinking about going to the north pacific of Costa Rica, we want to tell you about 3 popular destinations in this area. Playa Hermosa There are so many beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, it's no wonder that there is more than one Playa Hermosa! Don't get confused with this one and the one near Jaco - I'm talking about the one in Guanacaste. This beach is where most of the luxury homes a...

After living in San José for almost all my life (30 years) I decided that it was time for a change. I was tired of being in traffic jams for hours, breathing all the smoke from the cars, listening to people honking about everything, fighting for parking space at the shopping mall and all the stress that cities bring with them. I started to look for a job in the area of Guanacaste and I found a ...

Playas del Coco is one of the more well known beach towns in the country for both locals and tourists. Although it is one of the smaller beaches in the Guanacaste region, it is still full of nightlife and activities to do such as scuba diving, sport fishing, and snorkeling along with many bars and restaurants. During the main holidays such as New Year and Easter, Playas del Coco becomes packed wi...

Costa Rica often seems like it was made specifically for adventure travelers. Where else can you spend the morning scuba diving in the ocean, the afternoon swinging from tree to tree in the rainforest, and the evening at some incredible clubs, restaurants or hotels? And, just in case that isn’t quite enough to satisfy your craving for adventure, you can always get up the next day and hike ...

Obama’s new health care reform will provide a windfall of business opportunities for businesses in Costa Rica. Because forcing every American to have health insurance, will create between 20-40 million new patients in the US with access to medical services and that in turn create the need for the acquisition of more medical devices. Costa Rica’s Medical Devices industry is flourishing and has ...

Updated November 2017: With a total of 1228km of coastline to offer, it is no wonder Costa Rica is known for its countless beach destinations. It is also no surprise that travellers have a hard time deciding on which beach town to visit, since there are so many different options to consider. For the purpose of this post, we will focus on Costa Rica’s northern pacific beaches stretching from the...

When: Saturday, August 04, 2012 Where: Hotel Villa del Sueño, Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica Music: Los Piratas del Lago (The Pirates of the Lake) from 7PM - 10PM Cost: $10 per person; includes one free drink (beer, wine, well cocktail or soft drink) For tickets call Chip at 8702-8367 or Faith at 2672-4008 As you may know, the Playa Hermosa Association's Environmental Blue Flag Committ...

“What color sand do you like?” I asked the puzzled tourist. “Do you prefer pink or black, full of shells or soft under your feet. Are you going swimming or kayaking, surfing or paddle boarding?” All he did was ask which beach I liked best, and in return the poor man got drilled with twenty questions. It is a simple inquiry that is getting more difficult to answer the longer I live here. The str...

Nature made Costa Rica’s beaches beautiful, and the local government is making sure that they also remain clean thanks to the Bandera Azul Ecologica (Blue Ecologic Flag) program. The PBAE was created in 1996 with the objective of preventing or stopping pollution and to safeguard the public health. The program (which is an adaptation of a similar one launched in Europe back in 1985) has been promot...