Product Description
Beyond the deserted beaches of the Nicoya Peninsula and the visceral heights of the Monteverde cloud forests lies the real Costa Rica – a land of delicate pathos, forthright purity and hard-won pacifism. Tromp through virgin rain forest – sighting poison-dart frogs and howler monkeys along the way – or simply explore the local lore and laid-back beach scene with this comprehensive guide.

Less Is More – expanded ecofriendly coverage and loads of volunteer and learning opportunities make traveling with a conscience easier than ever.

The Wild Side – spot your favorite rain forest dwellers – scarlet macaws, caimans and more – with our expert-written color wildlife section.

Gaps On The Map – lose yourself in the seldom-visited corners of this ecological powerhouse with informed do-it-yourself content and more than 80 maps.

Charge It! – surf the world’s longest left at Pavones, hike through rain forest in Corcovado or drop into roaring rapids with our Adventure Travel chapter.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 24 reviews)

As always a good help

The lonely planet helped as as always to plan our vacation. We spend only one week in this interesting country, but managed to plan an interesting and packed two day trip. Instead of booking through the hotel and spending at least $250 per person we took all the information out of the book. Besides saving some money, we had a lot of information and explored the country a lot better than with a pre booked trip. As the book is from 2006 some of the prices have already increased. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to plan his trip on his own and/or wants background information on history, culture and people.
May 17, 2008

Culture Chauvinism by the Backpacker Set

I generally find Lonely Planet Guides quite helpful. This volume, sadly, was written by a couple of Ugly American Backpackers.

Their coverage of San Jose was positively absurd. The author's overstate crime dangers by a comical margin, and come off sounding like the snide "Ugly American" of bygone decades, looking down their noses at the sad, dirty third world. They also fail to comprehend the obvious: if you want to see what life is like for Costa Rica's citizens, you might want to spend some time in the city where most of them actually live.

If nothing else, Lonely Planet would do well to hire a third author that isn't allergic to cities; especially third world cities.

The editors might also simply practice the lost art of editing. Much good information is lost here, in a sea of snide.

April 05, 2008

So-So.

The detailed city maps are not very good, outdated with businesses that have gone away, etc. Moon guide books have way better maps than Lonely Planet. The hotel reviews I thought were way off base, and don't include some major hotels. All in all, let me just say this: Lonely Planet isn't the Bible. Check out other guide books and go with any of the major ones. If you buy Lonely Planet, also buy a map, because their city maps are wrong!
February 05, 2008

Find a new author Lonely Planet

If you want to enjoy traveling to Costa Rica I would recommend another book. If you want to spend your time lamenting about how Costa Rica has changed, how Americans are annoying, and be afraid to take your valuables out of your hotel safe than I recommend you check this book out. I would often read passages out loud to different people I was traveling with. You would think that Jaco is similar to Jersey but with more crack and lots of prostitutes from reading this book. In fact, when I went it was mostly families, a little sketch, but man get a grip. I read the chapter on San Jose and was to afraid to take my camera to the central market and downtown. What a regret! The people everywhere in Costa Rica were so nice. Downtown was crawling with tourists with their cameras and police. It wasn't even remotely sketchy. We could only get reservations in Tamarindo for Christmas day and I was terrified that it was going to be like Myrtle Beach on Spring Break. Yes there were lots of condos but it was still Costa Rica! Dirt Roads. you could walk from one end of town to the other in less then 10 minutes, everyone was nice, the beach was pretty. I just couldn't understand why the authors seemed to hate travel so much and be so hateful towards places where we were going.

Also, the book didn't give a lot of key information about how to get around without a car. We wasted so much time in La Fortuna trying to figure out how to get to the different places we wanted to go. It turns out there isn't a bus, there are only guided tours. They are all expensive. We finally hitchhiked which worked out well but I never go to go on the hanging bridges. I loved Cahuita (it wasn't dangerous) and Dominical. I loved Costa Rica. I am ready to go back.

I just wanted to warn people to stay away from this book. I love guidebooks. I am the kind of psycho that gets them from the library and reads through them even when I am not going anywhere. This one was the worst.
January 17, 2008

Pretty out of date

I'm an LP loyalist for all my travels, but of all the countries I've visited before, this LP guide seems to have the least accurate information. I only traveled to a small section of CR, flying into Liberia and staying in Playa Grande. Even in that narrow scope, I found listed restaurants that no longer existed and hotel descriptions that were quite off the mark. For example, I chose Hotel El Punto in Liberia as a staging place before flying out on my final night based on this description:

s/d/tr/q US$21/41/48/53 This converted elementary school is now one of the chicest hotels in Liberia, though it would definitely feel more at home in NYC than humble Guanacaste. Rooms here are ultramodern loft apartments with private showers, small kitchens, Japanese minimalist accents and plenty of MOMA worthy art. This spot is recommended as the rooms are severely underpriced.

The decor is more IKEA than Japanese or MOMA, but the room is decent and one of the nicer places in town. It cost $90 per night for 2 people, however. In Liberia, that is far from "severely underpriced" and more than double what was noted in LP. The staff said that they have been trying to tell LP for a long time that the prices are incorrect, as it doesn't suit them to have travelers becoming immediately disappointed upon their arrival.

LP was right in recommending Hotel Las Tortugas in Playa Grande, however. The value for what you get is incredible - right on the beach, great food, great staff, great price.

I did notice the negative tone that other reviewers mentioned, but being a person that typically wants to avoid tourist traps and exploitation of land or locals, it did not bother me that much.
November 02, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Waterproof Costa Rica Map
by International Travel Maps

Frommer's Costa Rica 2008 (Frommer's Complete)
by Eliot Greenspan

Frommer's Costa Rica 2007 (Frommer's Complete)
by Eliot Greenspan

Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica
by Toucan Maps
by Ray Krueger Koplin

Costa Rican Wildlife: An Introduction to Familiar Species (Pocket Naturalist - Waterford Press)
by James Kavanagh