This guide contains all the practical travel information you need places to stay and eat, tourist information resources, travel advice, emergency contacts and more plus condensed sections on history and geography that give you good background knowledge of the destination. Plus, this edition is now in full color throughout. The authors are fascinated with the destination and their passion comes across in the text, which is lively, revealing and a pleasure to read. Sidebars highlight unusual facts and tell of local legends, adding to your travel experience. Detailed town and regional maps make planning day-trips or city tours easy. Adventures covered range from town sightseeing tours and nature watching to sea kayaking and organized jungle excursions. Travelers looking for a more relaxed vacation may want to sign up for language classes or take a course on traditional regional cooking these cultural adventures will introduce you to the people and afford you a truly unique travel experience. We travel to grow – our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise – sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners never before turned, helping you learn about the world in a new way – Adventure Guides make that possible. "I am here in Costa Rica in an internet cafe and had to take the time to tell everyone what a good book this is. It really gave us everything we needed to plan our trip and now that we are here, we use it to find just about everything. If you have not visited Costa Rica yet, get a copy of this book and come on down — it is fabulous." — PURA VIDA!