In a ranking created by IESE Business School Center for Globalization and Strategy of the University of Navarra, Spain, denominated “Cities in Motion”, and particularly in the “Smartest City” Index (part of this ranking) San José, Costa Rica ranks in the lower end of the table reaching position 150 among 180 cities. The Cities in Motion Index (CIMI) evaluates a total of 66 indicators divided in...

As of this weekend the Parque de Diversiones, Costa Rica’s amusement park will be implementing a fast pass for its most popular attractions. The “fast pass” popular in most US amusement parks will allow the holders to cut down the waiting time in some of the attractions. The park explained they will sell a limited amount of fast passes every day but the decision on how many will be available wi...

Tourists that visited the country during 2016 spent in average US$1,369.00 and the total amount of visitors that year according to the Costa Rican Tourism Board was of over 2.6 million (considering all different points of access aerial and terrestrial according to statistics by the Costa Rica Tourism Board and Costa Rica Migration Office). For 2016 the total number of visitors considering all i...

Leonora Jimenez, director of Traffic magazine and organizer of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week San José (MBFW) has confirmed the names of five of the ten international designers that will participate in the fifth edition of the event that is scheduled for August 2-5 at the Real Intercontinental Hotel in Escazú. Shantall Lacayo from Nicaragua, Kris Goyri and Alfredo Martínez from Mexico, Karen Da...

Photo: Casa del Cielo - Four Seasons Costa Rica The Costa Rica Hotel Chamber affirms that the big diversity of tourists that Costa Rica receives justifies the existence of a wide variety of hotels. In the country, you can find one star hotels as well as hotels for the most demanding clients that want and expect the highest level of service. Even though many times the prices in Costa Rica are...

HBO GO is now available in Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. The subscription can be done online directly with HBO GO without having to go through a third-party company. For those that register the first month is free of charge, and starting the second month the subscription will generate a charge of US$10.00. If you already have a cable service with the package that includes HBO ...

According to a market report for Latin America and the Caribbean by air travel intelligence company Official Aviation Guide (OAG) Flightview, Costa Rica has the international airports with most flight cancellations in the region. This study is carried out every month by OAG, a company based in the United Kingdom that provides analytical tools, databases and reports to assess air travel trends a...

Roca Bruja or Witch Rock in Playa Naranjo, Guanacaste is one of the best surfing spots in Costa Rica, very well-known among local surfers but not as promoted for tourists who many times come and go without ever hearing about his fantastic spot. Roca Bruja originally Peña Bruja, Playa Naranjo is part of the Santa Rosa National Park, there are no constructions here or infrastructure of any sort e...

“Oscar Arias: Without a Shot Fired” is the name of the documentary based on the story of Nobel Peace award winner and former two-time president of Costa Rica Oscar Arias Sánchez. The documentary directed by Dawn Gifford Engle will be released in the Monte-Carlo Television Festival that is taking place in Monaco June 16-20. The synopsis included in the “Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo” rea...

Photo Credit: Rio Savegre Costa Rica Christian Lee / Fotografia Back in April costa Rica Costa Rica nominated Savegre River to be recognized as its fourth biosphere reserve, and this Wednesday afternoon the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program that was meeting in Paris, France, recognize...

Almost two years after his retirement, Floyd Mayweather shocked the world of combat sports by announcing today that he will indeed come back to fight one more time, and he will be taking on none other than MMA star Conor McGregor. Many in the industry, and fans around the world considered this fight “ridiculous” from the moment the possibility of it was mentioned, others saw it as a money-makin...

The ADEN Competitiveness Institute places Chile, Costa Rica and Panama in the top three positions when it comes to competitiveness in Latin America. This ranking is done every year since 2010 with the purpose of establishing how the countries in Latin America rank considering ten aspects: 1. Coverage of basic needs 2. Institutional aspects 3. Infrastructure 4. Macroeconomic stability 5. ...

This documentary by writer and traveler Gaia Vince takes viewers to explore this wonderful country. Vince and her family settled in the Pacific of Costa Rica for three months to find out why it is considered one of the happiest and most sustainable countries. The show consists of three episodes each close to 46 minutes; the show is available in Channel 4 in the UK and available online. ...

Photo Credit: TeleticaDeportes7/Facebook The male national soccer teams of Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago, came face to face this Tuesday, June 13, at the Costa Rica National Stadium as part of the Russia 2018 World Cup Qualifiers; Costa Rica did not have a great performance but was able to add valuable points with a win at home 2-1. Costa Rica opened up the score early in the match befo...

Over 2,000 triathletes will take part in the Ironman 70.3 scheduled to take place this June 18 in Carrillo, Guanacaste. Considering the large number of participants in the famous endurance competition the area expects between 8 to 10 thousand visitors to be in the area next weekend. According to the mayor of Carillo, Guanacaste, Carlos Cantillo, the county is has prepared accordingly and ...

A big number of people drink coffee on a regular basis and many of them develop a passion for this wonderful drink; if you are in Costa Rica you are lucky to be in a country that produces some of the best coffee in the world, so why not take a one-day coffee tour and learn more about this traditional beverage. There are many different options of coffee tours in Costa Rica, today we are going to...

This Sunday, June 11 at 5:42 a.m. the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, registered a new eruption, the column was not visible due to the cloudy conditions in the area at this hour. Neighbors of the area were able to capture the vapor in the river product of a small lahar to the North of the volcano.The Penjamo river shows a grayish coloration and a strong sulfur-like odor. The Rincón...

Photo Credit: Real Madrid Foundation / Facebook The Real Madrid Foundation and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) signed an agreement to develop new social-sports development projects in the Latin America and Caribbean region; Costa Rica will be one of the first countries to benefit from this agreement. The agreement was signed at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium by Luis Alberto Moreno,...

How can drinking beer help the environment? Costa Rican-based Cerveza Imperial, the world's first and only water positive beer, has chosen San Diego as one of two markets along with Denver for its re-launch. To spread its water positive concept of "giving more than it takes," Imperial will partner with Surfrider Foundation San Diego, California Surf Museum, Aaron Chang, and various clean-up events...

Title insurance is a resource commonly available and used in the United States, it is, however, not well-known in Costa Rica. Title insurance basically protects real estate owners and lenders against any property loss or damage they might experience because of liens or defects in the title to the property; in other words it protects against events that occurred in the past of the real estate pr...

Using a ¨modeling agency¨as front since 2009 several Costa Rican men are suspected of taking photos and videos of underage girls and uploading the material to different child pornography sites, as part of an international child pornography and human trafficking network. The investigation began in 2015 after the mother of a young girl reported the situation. A 36-year-old man with the last names...

American actor Adam West died yesterday in his home in Los Angeles, after a short battle with leukemia, he is survived by his wife, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. West was best known for portraying Batman in the 1960´s series and the 1966 film, when the series was cancelled West had trouble getting new film roles, but he reinvented himself doing voice-over work fo...

When we hear that Costa Rica is rich in biodiversity we usually think about birds, monkeys, felines, even snakes; spiders, however, are probably the last thing to come to mind, yet Costa Rica has more than 1,800 species of spiders, including, one of the most dangerous in the world. The Brazilian Wandering Spider (Genus: Phoneutria) considered one of the most dangerous spiders in the world is mo...

Costa Rican authorities arrested five men suspected of operating in a scam from Costa Rica through a call center operation. Initially Channel 7 news  in Costa Rica informed that the United States police was after the trace of 12 US fugitives and 1 Costa Rican: Donald Harold Dodt, Dino Nastasi, Thomas Sniffen, Sabrina Joy Mommers, Stephen Fink, Jordan Gavin, David Fairchild, Barry Harmelin, Patr...

The Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) has been aggressive in promoting the country as a destination for different forms of tourism and to different markets. Just this week the Minister of Tourism Mauricio Ventura announced the launching of  new campaign and country image “Costa Rica: My Choice, Naturally”; he also confirmed the interest in appealing to the European market and to also promote the ...

If you are a foreigner looking to buy real estate property in Costa Rica it is important you know that the Political Constitution protects private property and foreigners and nationals can enjoy the same rights in terms of acquiring and owning real estate property with just a couple of restrictions. Considering that most foreigners that want to invest in property in Costa Rica are looking to bu...

A study carried out by The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) for the Climate Change Direction of the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energie (MINAE), established that if the concentrations of contaminating particles in the air where within the limit established by the Word Health Organization, not only would the health and quality of life of the population ...

The Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra (PYSO) will have three presentations in Costa Rica, two of them for free and the third one will be a fund raiser. The first concert will take place this Sunday, June 11th at the National Theater in San José at 5 p.m.; those interested in attending have to consider there is a limited number of tickets available according to the capacity of the theater and th...

The University of Costa Rica (UCR) climbed 60 spots in the QS World University Rankings carried out by Quacquarelli Symonds Limited. “The ranking takes into consideration the institutions’ qualities, from employability of graduates to sports facilities and community engagement using the QS Stars audit which evaluated each institution against over 50 different indicators and and awards universit...

Costa Rica’s male national soccer team didn’t capitalize in the home advantage and draw 0-0 with Panama in the fifth round of the World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday night. The first half of the match was exciting and kept the audience at the edge of their seats, Costa Rica had several opportunities to score but in some cases Panama’s defense and goalkeeper responded adequately while in other time...

Father’s Day in Costa Rica is celebrated the third Sunday in June, which means this year it falls on June 18. There isn’t a particular tradition when it comes to celebrating Father’s Day, there are as many options as different types of dads. If you are looking to do something different from the traditional family lunch and the usual gifts which generally include, ties, socks or underwear, we...

There are many qualities that make Costa Rica the perfect place to make a real estate investment, its political and economic stability, the fact that it is the second most pacific country in Latin America, and of course the wonderful weather, nature and people; however, investing in a foreign country raises a lot of questions and this is why the first step should always be to consult a real estate...

In the event you are not familiar with what “zorbing” is, let’s start by explaining that it basically involves rolling downhill inside a globe or orb made of transparent plastic, it is also known as globe-riding or sphereing; so imagine yourself as a hamster inside one of those big plastic spheres, rolling down a gentle slope. Zorbing first started in New Zealand in the mid 1990s and has become...

Costa Rica went up 10 positions in the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) world ranking of meetings tourism, going from position 63 to position 53 among 200 countries. The Costa Rica Minister of Tourism, Mauricio Ventura explained that efforts have been done for the past two years to develop an aggressive strategy that will allow the country to compete in this area of the ...

If you are a user of the highway between Escazú and Caldera, (Route 27), take into consideration that as of this Thursday, June 8th the payment of the toll fees will increase in 120 colones ($0.21). According to concessionary Globalvia, the raise in the fee obeys to the fluctuation of the exchange rate in the past few weeks. The toll in Escazú will go from 350 to 370 colones for passenger ve...

Just like in 2016, this year’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week San José was declared by the Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and the Minister of Culture a “cultural interest” event. The event announced this week the list of 43 models selected to take part of the 2017 Fashion Week that will take place August 2-5 at the Real Intercontinental Hotel. According to Leonora Jimenez, director o...

Costa Rica is taking a leading role in motivating the international community to take action towards the decontamination of the oceans. As part of the celebration of World Oceans Day this June 8, Costa Rica will host the Global Dialogue about Oceans June 8th and 9th in the Villa Caletas Hotel in the Central Pacific of Costa Rica. Over 100 high level representatives from different countries ...

The LGBTI diversity march will take place June 25 in Costa Rica; this event has been taking place for 8 years and it’s a space to celebrate and promote the rights of the LGBTI community. Bands, floats, dancing, shows and other attractions are part of the march that starts at Paseo Colón and finishes in the Plaza de las Garantías Sociales in San José. The organization of the event has already...

The National University’s Volcanology and Seismology Research Institute (OVSICORI) reported an eruption that reached 1,000 meters above the crater, 3,708 meters above sea level (12.162,24 ft.), began at 8:50 a.m. local time this Tuesday and was still in progress at 10:05 a.m. This past Friday, June 2 the Poás Volcano registered constant activity with small size eruptions and redcolumns of gases...

Many foreigners that come to Costa Rica whether on vacation or to live in the country for a period of time end up falling in love with the country and many times they choose to invest in land or property . The problems start after the purchase when the new owner neglects to look after the investment properly, the land is left “abandoned” or "Unmaintained"  to a certain extent and next thing you...