Costa Rica - Tourism, travel, and recreation



Popular tourist sights in San José are the National Museum, National Theater, and the Central Bank's gold exhibition. Other attractions include the Irazú and Poás volcanoes, brief jungle excursions, and the Pacific beaches. Popular recreations are bird-watching, mountain climbing, swimming, water skiing, and deep-sea fishing. Football (soccer) is the national sport, and there are matches every Sunday morning in San José from May through October. Horseback riding is widely available.

Visitors to Costa Rica must have passports. US citizens may travel on a tourist card available at consulates and transportation companies. In 2000, Costa Rica received 1,088,075 tourists, of whom 40% were from the US. Revenues from tourism reached $1.2 billion. There were 29,497 hotel rooms with a 59% occupancy rate that year.

In 2002 the US Department of State estimated the daily cost of staying in San José at $201.

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