Most souvenirs are forgettable within a week. They end up in a drawer, on a shelf, or at the back of a suitcase with a faint smell of sunscreen and airport duty-free perfume. But the best things you bring home from Costa Rica are different. They do not just remind you...
What makes a good surf spot? Any non-surfer might think it’s ridiculous how surfers group together fighting for the same waves despite having the entire coastline to choose from. With seemingly endless miles of breaking waves, why do surfers choose to sit within such...
Ingredients A delightful cocktail made with Don Julio Tequila. This cocktail has a beautiful presentation and is just delishious. You will want another when you're done... Serves 1 • 1 ½ oz. Don Julio Reposado tequila • ¾ oz. Cointreau • 1 oz. lemon juice • ½ oz....
Pitahaya (dragon fruit) is the kind of plant that feels like a friendly prank by nature: a cactus that behaves like a jungle climber, throws out aerial roots like grappling hooks, and saves its biggest floral performance for the middle of the night. In Costa...
Costa Rica has always been good at making things—clever, functional, beautiful things that fit the land and the climate. What’s new is the confidence: a generation of makers is taking heritage techniques (woodwork, clay, weaving, metalwork) and pairing them with...
Buying real estate in Costa Rica can feel like Canada or the U.S. at first glance: you find a place, make an offer, put down a deposit, complete due diligence, and close. The difference is that many of the guardrails you may be used to—industry regulation, a single...
Costa Rica has always attracted outsiders with big dreams: coffee barons, banana kings, surf nomads, eco-idealists, and retirees looking for a softer life under harder sunlight. But in the early 1970s, the country also drew a rarer breed—men with money they couldn’t...
Suggested lead photo A late-afternoon street scene: a cimarrona brass band leading a mascarada (giant papier-mâché heads) past a town church, with spectators on kerbs and mountains in the distance. What counts as a “mini-festival” in Costa Rica? A mini-festival is a...
Coastal Costa Rica does seafood brilliantly—if you order with a bit of strategy. The “tourist trap” version is usually the same three things everywhere (overpriced mahi-mahi, rubbery calamari, and a ceviche that tastes like it was assembled in an airport lounge). The...
Costa Rica has a way of sneaking up on people. You arrive for a “quick look”, you have one too many late-afternoon coffees with a view, you realise you’ve stopped checking the news every five minutes… and suddenly you’re pricing up sofas and learning the difference...
What makes death and mourning in Costa Rica feel so different? It feels different because grief here is shared out loud and handled fast, with neighbours, family, faith, and practical law all moving in the same direction. In many towns, a death doesn’t become a...
If you’ve spent any time on a Costa Rican highway, beach road, or farm track, you’ve seen them—big dark shapes riding invisible elevators of warm air, barely flapping, as if the rules of effort don’t apply. Then you spot the truly iconic moment: one perched on a fence...