You can now carry out face-to-face interactions with Spirit Airlines representatives in downtown San José, Costa Rica, thanks to an alliance with a Costa Rican travel agency. The office is located near the city's main thoroughfare, Paseo Colón, north of the Centro Colón building. The budget airline said that because Costa Rica is one of their main points of operation in Central America, the ...

Travel Excellence is the first company in Costa Rica to be certified for gender equality in the workplace (a program initialed SIGIG in Costa Rica). The Technical Standards Institute of Costa Rica (Inteco) issued a national gender equality standard in December 2013 with input from the National Institute of Women (INAMU) which sets out the requirements for an organization to achieve gender equal...

While air service through Florida has already started resuming after Hurricane Irma unleashed its destruction over the southeastern U.S. state this past weekend, American Airlines announced they were extending a suspension of flights between San José and Florida until this Friday, September 15. The airline's remaining eight flights scheduled for the remainder of the week have been canceled. ...

More details are starting to become available on the deadly small aircraft crash early this morning near the Pavas, San José airport which affected six individuals. However, Nature Air, who operated the flight, said they were not making public statements on the event due to the fact that the crash is under investigation by the Civil Aviation Department. A woman identified as Costa Rican Marí...

A plane operated by NatureAir with five passengers plus a pilot on board crashed into a river in Pavas, a western sector of San José, Costa Rica early this morning which were confirmed by the airline. It is confirmed that five passengers were on board, and one of them, a woman estimated to be 40 years old, died as a result of the crash. Information on the identities and nationalities of the pas...

Costa Rica's Ministry of Transportation and Public Works announced that repairs have been made to the damaged ferry dock in Paquera on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, thus allowing service to resume between Puntarenas and Paquera on Tuesday, September 5. The service, which is used by locals and tourists alike to connect to Puntarenas and points beyond, was suspended August 15 when par...

The emergency situation currently faced by several areas in Texas has caused the cancellation of flights to and from several countries to Houston, among them, Costa Rica where so far 19 flights have been cancelled, as reported by Aeris, the company in charge of the Juan Santamaría International Airport in Costa Rica. The flights were scheduled between Saturday and this past Tuesday, August 29 a...

Hotel owners in Costa Rica are leading an effort to draft legislation that would tax vacation rentals such as condominiums and other lodgings that currently fall into a legal gray area. The proposal, which is close to being introduced in the Legislative Assembly, would apply a hotel tax on rentals in Costa Rica booked through online platforms such as Airbnb, FlipKey, Tripping.com, HomeAway and ...

Paquera, Puntarenas suffered damage to its dock last week when a ferry apparently crashed into it due to rough seas. The Ministry of Transportation and Public Works (MOPT) said they are giving priority attention to the dock's repairs given its importance for transportation of people and goods between Puntarenas and the Paquera/Tambor region. The ferry company, Naviera Tambor, is providing ma...

The 17th edition of the Travel Show Expo is scheduled for August 23 at the Aurola Holiday Inn Hotel in San José and it will gather close to 100 companies in the tourism industry, including hotels, car rentals, restaurants, tour operators, and local artisans, among others. The event will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with companies representing products, services and offers of al...

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) today announced Global Projects For All, a university-wide initiative that will provide all students with access to an off-campus project experience. To serve the growing demand for off-campus projects, the Global Projects Program has added 18 new project centers since 2009. This year WPI will add programs in Massachusetts, Costa Rica, Japan, and Switzerlan...

What is better for Costa Rican tourism than an adorable talking sloth? A beautiful neuroscientist, yoga teacher and adventurer named Brittany Fair is better. In the last decade, Costa Rica achieved a 54% increase in tourists. Compare that to an 85% tourist increase for Panama, and a staggering 158% increase for Nicaragua, and you can see that Central American tourism is a highly competitive bus...

  The low-cost airline, Volaris Costa Rica, announced this week the launch of a new route connecting  San José, Costa Rica (SJO) with Mexico City (MEX). "In addition to strengthening its connectivity in the region, the service will encourage social, cultural and economic exchange between both nations," the company said in a statement. Starting September 14, the service will operate three...

Southwest Airlines announced yesterday a sale on nonstop flights to and from San José, Costa Rica during their winter season which starts November 5. Grab a low fare to the Miami area (via Ft. Lauderdale), to Houston (Hobby), and/or Baltimore/Washington, DC (BWI), with some new nonstop routes being offered, and some great advance fares. Current daily nonstop Southwest service between both Liberi...

The annual Credomatic Music Festival is a great opportunity to beat the rainy season blues in Costa Rica. Concerts by a wide range of world class performers are offered at some of the country's best hotels throughout the month of August. Many venues offer packages that combine a hotel stay with concert entrance and other amenities. If you haven't taken advantage of green -or low - season ...

Nonstop flights from London's Gatwick airport to Costa Rica's Daniel Oduber Quiros International Airport in Liberia are available from £299 round-trip. Hurry before they are gone! These dirt cheap fares are for travel from August 29 – September 5, 2017. The flights can be found on SKYSCANNER According to the airline website, "Thomson Airways was set up in 1962 (formally Britannia) and has...

If your travel plans in and out of Costa Rica include any of these South American countries, be advised that to get back into Costa Rica you will need to have an official document attesting to having received a yellow fever vaccine. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela have yellow fever risk areas in many parts of their territories, and you will be required to present proof of yo...

Costa Rican domestic airline Nature Air, is going through some internal changes that have caused problems this week in their regular operations. According to Aeroinfo Costa Rica, the company has recently fired its General Manager and four of its small plans were not allowed to fly this week because of problems with its rental contracts. According to Aeris' operation manager, company in charge o...

The British engineering firm, Mott MacDonald, announced yesterday the delivery of the much-awaited masterplan for the proposed new international airport in Orotina, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The project will replace Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria International Airport, which will be unable to meet future passenger demand beyond 2026. The 12-month feasibility study forecasts a demand of 7.8 million...

Book by July 27, 2017 on Southwest for these great international fares. Tickets are nonrefundable. Seats, travel days, and markets are limited, and some blackout dates apply. Travel dates may vary for cities outside the contiguous U.S. And, also, points bookings do not include government fees that start from $5.60 per one-way flight, said the airline on their site. See below for the complete...

Want to see more of Costa Rica? Domestic flights on NatureAir can get you from place to place in far less time than it takes to drive, and reach destinations that span from Tortuguero in the northern Caribbean to the Osa Peninsula in the southern Pacific. From now until August 31, while supplies last, the airline is offering a 6-ticket package for US$199 to residents and nationals. Each o...

Spirit Airlines opened on Saturday, July 1, a new sales and customer service office in Costa Rica to better serve local customers, said the airline. The office will be open Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. and Saturdays, 8:00 a.m. - 12 p.m. Phone queries can be made via (506) 4032-9449, where Spirit representatives will assist customers, "with the kindness and courtesy you deserve." With ove...

Last week, Costa Rica hosted a meeting of the Central American Council of Tourism at which ideas were discussed to promote tourism investment in the region, said the Costa Rican tourism Institute (ICT). Central America's Tourism Ministers, businessmen and representatives of the region's tourism chambers participated in this first "Forum of Exchange of Experiences for the Promotion of Tourism In...

National Geographic Kids and LEGO City are collaborating on a special partnership to inspire children to explore, discover and learn about jungles and the importance of their preservation. As part of the initiative, LEGO City & National Geographic Kids will launch an exciting new competition on July 1 to win a National Geographic Family Expedition to the jungles of Costa Rica in Central Ame...

In April this year, KLM Royal Dutch Airline announced they would start two weekly direct flights between Amsterdam and Costa Rica to accommodate growing European winter tourism to the tropical vacation haven starting October 31, 2017. This week the airline said they would be increasing that service to Costa Rica in the first quarter of 2018 with an additional flight. The third weekly flight ...

If you are in Costa Rica and want to plan some tours in the country or if you have exceeded your 90 day stay and need to leave for a couple of days visit the Expo Viajes (Travel Expo) this weekend at the Whyndam Hotel in Cariari, Heredia and plan your next adventure in or out of the country at convenient prices. The travel expo brings together 50 companies from the tourism industry, all of whic...

According to the Tourism and Travel Competitiveness Report 2017 carried out by the World Economic Forum every two years, the countries in the Central America region have shown little progress in the conditions offered to tourists. Panama was the best ranked, taking position 35 followed by Costa Rica in position 38. El Salvador was the country that took more steps back losing 14 positions in the...

The General Direction of Migration in Costa Rica will eliminate, starting August 2017, the paper forms used for the registry of entry and exit of passengers at the Juan Santamaría International Airport. Starting August 15 the registry will be done automatically through the digital reading of the passport. According to the Migration Director, Gisela Yockchen, this is the first of a series of ...

With thousands of unresolved refugee applications, and more coming in each day, the country's Ombudsman's Office urged the country to comply with deadlines established under the law for processing the cases. In May alone this year 501 people applied for refugee status in Costa Rica, according to the General Directorate of Migration, bringing the total of pending refugee applications to 3,519. ...

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...

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...

The President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solis, and now-resigned Minister of Public Works and Transport (MOPT), Carlos Villalta, together with the Executive Director of the National Roadways Council (CONAVI), German Valverde, last week carried out an inspection of National Route N606, the road linking the Inter-American Highway with Monteverde. The windy, bumpy 17.5 kilometer stretch is at...

As the city has taken shape and built up around it, the Gran Hotel, facing onto the National Theater and Plaza de la Culture in downtown San José, has held on to its style The hotel closed in June of 2016 to begin the major overhaul that is being directed by OBP architectural firm, and under guidelines for historical buildings so that the main characteristics of the building will be preserved, ...

The Government of Panama announced Friday it will reduce the stay in the country for Nicaraguan, Colombian and Venezuelan tourists from 180 to 90 days as part of a policy of tightening controls over foreigner visitors. This, and other controls by Panama, may lessen some of the flow of undocumented migrants into Costa Rica over its southern border. The Panamanian migration service has detected f...

“A major IT system failure” caused the cancelation of all British Airways flights to and from Heathrow and Gatwick, London yesterday and through this Sunday morning, causing the airports to become severely congested and affecting thousands of travelers. British Airways operates direct flights from London to Costa Rica All checking and operational systems were affected by what they believe was ...

The Costa Rican Tourism Institute announced the opening of a direct air connection between Costa Rica and Peru, the first direct connection to South America. The LATAM flight between San José, Costa Rica and Lima, Peru will facilitate connections to other South American countries. LATAM Airlines Group S.A. is a South American airline holding company incorporated under Chilean law and headqua...

Are you due for a U.S. passport renewal in 2017? If so, better get going on it soon. The U.S. State Department is expecting a tsunami of applications for either renewals or new passports this year. Why the hordes of people? No, it’s not due to the Trump presidency. U.S. passports last for ten years, and it was ten years ago that rules were changed requiring Americans traveling by air to Mexico,...

Costa Rica's tourist minister, Mauricio Ventura, announced today a new direct route on Southwest between Florida and Costa Rica. Starting November 5, just in time for winter travel from the U.S., the airline will operate a daily connection between the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San José, Costa Rica. To celebrate this new r...

As a result of the recent visit of the Costa Rica President Luis Guillermo Solís and the Minister of Tourism Mauricio Ventura to Spain, an agreement was signed with the Spanish aviation company Iberia to promote Costa Rica to the Italian market. Iberia will be using two direct flights Milan-Madrid and Roma-Madrid to connect both cities and their travelers with San José, Costa Rica; in order to ...

The Zurich-based Swiss airline, Edelweiss Air, which operates flights to many European cities, North America, Asia, North Africa and the Caribbean, will start offering direct travel to and from Costa Rica May 9, said Enio Cubillo, director general of Costa Rica's Civil Aviation Department. The plans were announced last year by the President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solis, and the Ministe...