Central Valley Features

Central Valley Features

  • Top Reasons to Go

    Coffee: Get up close and personal with harvesting and processing on coffee tours at two of the valley's many plantations: Café Britt and... read more

  • Volcán Irazú

    The word Irazú is likely a corruption of Iztaru, a long-ago indigenous community whose name translated as "hill of thunder." The name... read more

  • Eco-Lodges in the Central Valley

    Suburbia oozes out with each passing year, eating up once-idyllic Central Valley land, but it's still surprisingly easy to find vast undeveloped... read more

  • Speaking Costa Rican

    Spanish in Costa Rica tends to be localized. This is a land where eloquent speech and creative verbal expression are highly valued. For example... read more

  • A National Hero

    When the Costa Ricans drove U.S. invader Walker's army from their country in 1856, they chased his troops to Rivas, Nicaragua. The army of filibusters... read more

  • La Negrita

    On the night of August 1 and well into the early-morning hours of August 2, the road to Cartago from San José clogs with worshippers... read more

  • White-Water Thrills

    You're struggling to hang on and paddle, you can't hear a thing over the roar, and you were just slammed with a mighty wall of water. Sound like... read more

  • Faith and Folklore

    The Central Valley wears its tradition, both religious and secular, on its collective sleeve. Costa Rica's biggest annual religious festival... read more