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CENTRAL VALLEY:
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The main entryway to the country, the Central Valley offers a variety of
tourist, cultural and natural attractions, including Costa Rica's best
museums: the Gold, Jade, National, Costa Rican Art, La Salle Natural
Science, University of Costa Rica Insect and Children’s Contemporary Art
and Design Museums. In addition, this region is home to the architectural
jewel of Costa Rica: the National Theater. All of these are located in the
country’s capital.
The national parks located in the Valley—Poas, Braulio Carrillo, Irazu and
Turrialba— protect the region’s main volcanoes. All have road
infrastructure so that visitors can enjoy their birds, natural landscapes,
craters and forests.
The country’s capital, San Jose, is the seat of most government services;
however, the provincial capitals— Alajuela, Heredia and Cartago— offer a
variety of quality commercial and tourism services. As a tourism zone, the
Central Valley features two extraordinarily beautiful areas that in and of
themselves are true tourist destinations: Turrialba and Valle de los Santos.
The rural towns, for their part, are highly picturesque, and offer a glimpse of
old Costa Rica, with their houses of bahareque (a building material similar
to adobe but made of cattle dung and straw), large coffee plantations,
sugar mills and dairies.
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