Top choice in San José
Though josefinos mainly do their shopping at chain supermarkets, San José’s crowded indoor markets retain an old-world, authentic feel. This main market, lined with vendors hawking everything from spices and coffee beans to pura vida souvenir T-shirts. It's all super cheap, and likely made in China or Nicaragua (not the coffee beans, though).
In December Mercado Central sometimes has extended hours and is open on Sundays. While browsing, try an ice cream cone, or a quick ceviche at Poseidon.
0.37 MILES
On the southern side of the Plaza de la Cultura resides the Teatro Nacional, San José’s most revered building. Constructed in 1897, it features a columned…
19.53 MILES
This polished storybook garden complex just east of Volcán Poás offers the most easily digestible cultural experience in the Central Valley and is the…
0.67 MILES
This museum houses the world’s largest collection of American jade (pronounced ‘ha-day’ in Spanish), with an ample exhibition space of five floors…
Museo de Oro Precolombino y Numismática
0.38 MILES
This three-in-one museum houses an extensive collection of Costa Rica's most priceless pieces of pre-Columbian gold and other artifacts, including…
Catarata del Toro & the Blue Falls
25.47 MILES
Find a beautiful 90m-tall waterfall that cascades into a volcanic crater (free for overnight guests) and two trail options through virgin forest (one 4…
27.2 MILES
In front of the Church of San Rafael, this park was a normal plaza until the 1960s, when a gardener named Evangelisto Blanco became inspired to shave the…
0.73 MILES
Entered via a beautiful glassed-in atrium housing an exotic butterfly garden, this museum provides a quick survey of Costa Rican history. Exhibits of pre…
14.09 MILES
About 10km west of Alajuela is this well-designed animal park with more than 115 species of bird on colorful, squawking display. The tranquil 14-hectare…
0.13 MILES
The Mercado Borbón is a true sensory experience of sights and smells, and you might catch the daily hand-truck race among the workers. The focus is on…
0.2 MILES
On the north side of Parque Central is this theatre, which was built in 1928 in a beaux-arts style. It is named after the well-known Costa Rican tenor…
0.22 MILES
The city’s central park is more of a run-down plaza than a park. At its center is a grandiose bandstand that looks as if it was designed by Mussolini:…
0.27 MILES
East of Parque Central, the Renaissance-style Catedral Metropolitana was built in 1871 after the previous cathedral was destroyed in an earthquake. The…
0.37 MILES
This architecturally unremarkable concrete plaza in the heart of downtown is usually packed with locals slurping ice-cream cones and admiring the wide…
0.37 MILES
On the southern side of the Plaza de la Cultura resides the Teatro Nacional, San José’s most revered building. Constructed in 1897, it features a columned…
8. Museo de Oro Precolombino y Numismática
0.38 MILES
This three-in-one museum houses an extensive collection of Costa Rica's most priceless pieces of pre-Columbian gold and other artifacts, including…