San José is where a Costa Rica trip starts and ends, and two days here earn their place. The pre-Columbian gold and jade collections are the best in Central America and exist nowhere else in the country, the 1897 National Theatre is the proudest building the coffee money bought, and Barrio Escalante has turned one street into the region’s most interesting eating. Poás and Irazú are both morning drives away.
Most travellers treat the capital as an airport with a city attached. That is worth reconsidering for two days: San José holds the national collections, an opera house paid for by coffee exporters, a working market trading since 1880, and the restaurant row that made Costa Rican cooking interesting again.
Coffee exporters taxed themselves to build it and it opened in 1897: marble stairs, a gilt foyer and a painted ceiling. The 35-minute guided tour runs in English or Spanish and covers the lobbies, the auditorium and the foyer. Better still, buy a seat for whatever is on that week.
Three floors underneath Plaza de la Cultura holding more than 1,500 pieces of pre-Columbian goldwork, plus the central bank’s currency collection. The animal figures and shaman pendants are the reason to come. A combined ticket also covers the Jade and National museums.
Trading since 1880 and listed as national cultural heritage, a full block of narrow alleys holding around 200 stalls and sodas. Come hungry: the lunch counters here feed people who work nearby rather than tour groups. Closed on Sundays.
The Bellavista barracks of 1917, whose outer walls still carry bullet damage from the 1948 civil war. Inside are pre-Columbian stone spheres, colonial rooms and the story of a country that then abolished its army. You enter through a glassed atrium full of butterflies.
Five floors on the west edge of Plaza de la Democracia holding the largest collection of American jade anywhere, roughly 7,000 pieces. The lighting is the point: pieces are lit from behind, so you see the translucency the carvers were working for.
One street, dozens of kitchens, and the reason San José stopped being somewhere you eat before a flight. Calle 33 runs from Lebanese tables to natural wine to Costa Rican craft beer. It fills on Friday and Saturday nights, so book or arrive before seven.
72 hectares that served as the country’s international airport until the early 1970s, now the city’s running loop, football ground and Sunday picnic. The old terminal at the south end is the Museo de Arte Costarricense, worth the detour for Féron’s bas-relief mural of Costa Rican history.
Laid out from 1894 by a French coffee entrepreneur and still the best hour the city offers on foot: tropical Victorian timber, neoclassical villas and Art Nouveau ironwork, much of it now hotels and bars. Finish at Stiefel Pub or walk on to Parque Morazán.
One of the most accessible active craters anywhere: a paved path from the car park to a platform above a sulphurous lake, about 37 km north of the city. SINAC requires a timed online reservation and rangers turn away anyone without one. Take the earliest slot, because cloud closes in by mid-morning.
Saturday mornings only, 7am to 12.30pm, an organic producers’ market that doubles as the city’s best breakfast. Growers sell their own coffee, chocolate and preserves, there is usually live music by ten, and the crowd is Josefino rather than visiting.
Costa Rican painting and sculpture in La Sabana’s former airport terminal.
A food hall and beer garden, and the easiest first stop of an evening.
Open-air souvenir stalls between Avenida Central and Avenida 2.
Cartago’s basilica, home of La Negrita and the country’s pilgrimage.
Painted oxcarts parade through San Antonio de Escazú, west of the city.
The city empties for Holy Week and much of it closes from the Thursday.
The culture ministry’s two-week arts festival takes over stages citywide.
Pilgrims walk the 22 km to Cartago’s basilica for the feast of La Negrita.
Lantern parades on the eve of the 15th, school bands through the streets on the day.
Illuminated floats and marching bands along Paseo Colón and around La Sabana.
Fairground rides, food stalls and bloodless bullfights at the Zapote showground.
The national horse parade fills downtown with sabanero riders and ox carts.
The main gateway, about 17 km northwest near Alajuela. Airport buses run to central San José every few minutes for a couple of dollars; a taxi or Uber takes 25 to 45 minutes in traffic.
INCOFER runs diesel commuter trains from Estación al Atlántico and Estación al Pacífico to Heredia, Alajuela and Cartago. Weekday peaks only, and tickets are bought at the window or on board.
There is no single station. Terminal 7-10 serves the Pacific, Gran Terminal del Caribe the Caribbean coast and the Nicaraguan border, and Tracopa at Plaza Víquez the far south and Panama.
Licensed taxis are red with a yellow triangle and should run the meter, the maría. Uber covers the Central Valley and is the simpler option after dark or with luggage.
Rice and black beans fried with onion and cilantro. Breakfast, daily.
Bar food. Rice, beans, chicharrones and pico de gallo in a bowl.
Beef broth with yuca, chayote, corn and plantain. A Sunday dish.
The set lunch: rice, beans, salad, plantain and a meat, on one plate.
Black bean soup with a boiled egg dropped in, plus rice and tortillas.
Pork and rice in corn dough, steamed in plantain leaf. A Christmas staple.
Sweet corn pancakes, eaten with natilla at breakfast or with coffee.
Chayote, potato or green plantain chopped with mince, scooped in tortillas.
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