San Jose – Costa Rica

Teatro Nacional – San Jose

San Jose – Costa Rica

I wasn’t expecting to like Costa Rica’s sprawling capital city, San Jose. I’d only heard bad things about it – dirty, unattractive, crime-ridden and with nothing to see or do.

I’d already visited several other Central American country’s capital cities – Tegucigalpa, Honduras; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Managua, Nicaragua – and had found them all ugly, non-nondescript modern, rather dangerous, slum-like cities not really worth visiting. I assumed San Jose would be just one more of those.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that San Jose is considerably different. It’s full of lovely city parks, interesting neighborhoods, great museums and gorgeous architecture, both historic and modern. The very day of my arrival, while exploring most of the city center, I already decided I quite like San Jose!

great architecture in San Jose

But the first thing I noticed as soon as I arrived was the cool weather. I’d heard from many locals that San Jose is ‘cold’, so I went prepared with a few warmer clothes, but I didn’t really expect it to be chilly. I figured it would just be somewhat less broiling that the Pacific coast beaches.

Arriving at midday from the stiflingly hot Punta Arenas port town, where I was sweating buckets just standing on a corner, I found myself suddenly alighting from the bus into fresh cool air accented by warm sunshine. I was astounded that the climate could be so very different in just a 2-hour drive from the coast.

By evening, I was very glad I had my warm clothes and pjs with me – San Jose gets down right cold at night! I also experienced two days with cloudy, breezy weather, when it was actually cold during the day as well. I had to wear long sleeves and a padded vest all afternoon wandering around the city’s pretty parks.

The reason for San Jose’s considerably cooler climate is its elevation at 1172 M / 3867 ft. It’s set in a very wide valley surrounded by high mountains looming off in the distance.

Casa Amarrilla

Full of low buildings, mostly 1-2 stories, San Jose sprawls over a huge area of rolling hills and has more of a giant town feeling than an intimidating city feeling.

Although it’s true that most of the city is comprised of your typical unattractive modern urban city center, there are also several regions filled with stunning historic homes or cool contemporary architecture. In addition, scattered throughout the entire downtown area are a huge variety of individual architectural wonders.

There are great parks full of huge old trees, vibrantly flowering trees, tropical vegetation, fountains, sculptures, pavilions, plentiful benches and lovely walkways.

Parque Nacional – San Jose

My favorite area of the city is situated in the eastern end of central San Jose, which encompasses three beautiful parks that are practically touching each other – Parque Nacional, Parque Espana and Parque Morazon.

Situated around these parks are many beautiful important historic buildings and museums. There’s Casa Amarrilla (yellow House) , the National Cultural Center and several grand government buildings constructed in cool modern architecture.

Another great bonus of visiting San Jose is that it’s full of incredible, super-amazing budget accommodations and hostels. I’m talking hostels and BnBs set in colossal historic family mansions that have been converted into accommodations.

Hostel Casa del Parque

These stunning houses with beautiful architecture, interiors, detailing and furniture are more like upscale boutique hotels than your average backpacker’s hostel. But at budget rates.

In fact, the San Jose hostels are some of the cheapest in the whole country! So not only do visitors get to luxuriate in beautiful old houses, they get to do so at much lower rates than they’ll find at Costa Rica’s many beaches, mountains and other tourist destinations.

I had intentionally decided to visit San Jose during Semana Santa – every Hispanic countries’ week-long Easter holiday. It’s every country’s biggest vacation holiday of the entire year. From Mexico down through all of Central America, local families and friends and business people desert their cities and towns to swarm out to their favorite beaches, mountains, lakes and other nature spots.

statue in Parque Nacional

I figured San Jose would be deserted, relieved of its usual congested streets, heavy traffic noise, pollution and hordes of pedestrians. My assumption proved correct. I had the distinct pleasure of enjoying San Jose’s beautiful parks, buildings and neighborhoods in near silence, with completely empty sidewalks & parks and practically no traffic what so ever. It was dreamy!

So I do have to point out that I experienced the city during extremely un-natural conditions. I’m not so sure I would love San Jose nearly as much if I’d visited during any other time of the year. No doubt the usual heavy traffic, hordes of people and construction noise would make daily life in the city considerably less pleasant.

But regardless of the city’s usual hustle and bustle, it does have a lot of amazing architecture, cool neighborhoods, lovely city parks and worthwhile museums. So San Jose is still considerably better than Central America’s other capital cities.

In fact, I’m declaring San Jose to be the best capital city in all of Central America! ….at least until I visit ultra-modern Panama City. Then let me reassess my views.

For now, however, I think San Jose is a great city and well worth 2-3 days on anyone’s itinerary to Costa Rica. At least for those enamored of architecture, museums and/or city parks. I particularly recommend the Parque Nacional area.

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