Gorgeous country with very friendly people. If you can, plan a day or two in San Jose, where I'd recommend...

* Taking in a performance at the National Theatre

* Feeding the pigeons at the adjacent Plaza de la Cultura (Have a loved one snap film or video of you, and expect something out of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds)

* A nighttime road trip -- don't drive, but rather take a bus or taxi -- through San Jose or nearby Escazu and up to any number of viewpoint, or "mirador," restaurants that overlook the Costa Rican Central Valley. Many such places have great regional fare and, if you're lucky, folk dancing.

* Strolling through the downtown Craft Market, where you can rub shoulders with the locals and find some great one-of-a-kind thngs.

That said, San Jose has a certain charm, but it is a small city by global standards, and the disparity between rich and poor can be striking. That may get old to you, so perhaps spend the bulk of your time in outlying areas of the country, particularly north in the Monteverde region, where you must zipline or go on a canopy tour of the Cloud Forest Reserve; and the coasts, where you'll find the most interesting regional cuisine and decent stretches of ocean beaches. (Hint: There are probably more free and publicly accessible beaches, if not quite as well maintained, on the Caribbean coast vs. the Pacific. Also, I found the people of Limón Province, which houses the entire Costa Rican Caribbean coast, to be particularly cool.)

If you'll be in Costa Rica for a while and want to do something substantive, consider building houses with the Habitat for Humanity Costa Rica or Latin America affiliates, both of which are headquartered in San Jose. Check ahead with them though, as they aren't always building, and often their sites can be spread pretty far afield from the city. I'd recommend this over various "voluntourism" opportunities you may find in Costa Rica as Habitat employs overwhelmingly local paid staff and volunteers rather than primarily catering to do-good visitors (like you ). Also, families that go into these houses don't receive them for free, but rather finance them through a 25-year no-profit, no-interest mortgage, which is not only affordable, but helps them build equity, breaks dependence on local social housing programs, and contributes to regional revenue over a long term through property tax payments.

[Edited 3/13/14 7:51am]

Never been to Costa Rica but Central America in general is a beautiful place to visit. You can have mountainous regions with lush rainforests overlooking crystal-blue tropical beaches.

A co-worker went to Costa Rica and did the eco-tour thing with zip-lines and rock climbing. Safe and fun.

Enjoy!

went four years ago and loved it. my two cousins, and a friend, and i went in on a house for about a week in the guanacaste area. we hiked in a rain forest, and we also got free use of the hotel spa and lunch buffet. the house was in a gated community that also had a hotel on site and we could use the hotel facilities, too. local cuisine was not the best i've had of latin american cuisine. if we had known about the american-style supermarket earlier, we would have bought and cooked our own food at the house!

kibbles said: