Hotel Grano de Oro San Jose Costa Rica

Image by Costa Rican Resource via FlickrAfter visitng many hotels and dropping groups off almost on average 40 weeks out of the year at hotels in Costa Rica. The Grano de Oro has given our guest a 100% satisfaction rate. I think it is because they have kept it nice and small, kept the staff full, and excellent service. Hope you enjoy the blog and if you have comments on the Grano de Oro would love to hear them?

The Pozuelo cookie is one of the best cookies Costa Rica has to offer. The family Pozuelo in Costa Rica is a well-known family for generations having started the very successful Pozuelo cookie factory which still sits in the center of San Jose. The Pozuelo family wanted to be close to their cookie factory as most people do, the smell is amazing. The family lived in the center of San Jose in a beautiful home that has now been turned into what we consider the best hotel in San Jose, Grano de Oro. Here we will tell you why?

San Jose is filled with some nice hotels just like any capital city. You can find the big Marriots, Real Intercontinentals, and the list goes on which are all great places but if you stay in them chances are you have stayed in something similar before. The Grano de Oro offers something just a little bit different and almost reminds you of a unique place in Europe where so many times you find a great place to stay that is not one of the chains.

Grano de Oro is in the center of San Jose five blocks from the Central Park La Sabana. It is completely refurbished but the history behind the whole city is left on the walls through pictures, antiques, and even the people who come and eat in the restaurant. San Jose is not one of those capital cities that is a must-see for tourists. However, when you stay at Grano de Oro you really feel the history as you hear about the coffee boom and the different buildings and places of San Jose. You leave this hotel not only saying to yourself what wonderful rooms, food, and service but you also gain an interest for this capital city which if you look deep enough does have some interesting history. For tourists, San Jose is sort of over shadowed by the volcanoes, rivers, and rainforests of Costa Rica but hotel Grano de Oro lives up to its name as being just a little “Grain of Gold” tucked away in the capital city of San Jose.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Afternoon + evening in San Jose, Costa Rica (ask.metafilter.com)
• Grano De Oro Group : Bolivia (kiva.org)

Costa Rica's Top Honeymoon Spots

Image via WikipediaLa Paz Waterfall Gardens is one of Costa Rica's best places to honeymoon. Yes, it took a pretty big hit from an earthquake one and a half year ago but it has made quite the come back. It is not on the beach but located at an elevation of around 6,000ft in the lush majestic cloud-forest. This is one of the most romantic places you can imagine when it comes to a honeymoon in Costa Rica. If you want something almost as nice but to bring the price down a bit you can still relax in the comfort  of the cloudforest in a small hoetl called Villa Blanca. This is a hotel that is located in the San Lorenzo Cloud Forest on the way to the Arenal Volcano. This would actually be a great area for a wedding but also a excellent spot for a few days of a honeymoon to just relax.

Arenas del Mar Resort

Another place of interest might be the beach of course. When thinking of the beach in Costa Rica you might want to go to the less crowded beaches but you also want to make sure you are at some of the more beautfiul beaches. When it comes to beauty the beach of Manuel Antonio is hard to beat. This a a beach can be very crowded but if you find the right spot you can find a hotel that fits just right for a honeymoon and the one we suggest is the Arenas del Mar Resort. This resort keeps you away from all the traffic and busy touristy areas of the Manuel Antonio areas but still allows you to enjoy the amazing beauties of the area.

Hotel Casa Turire

Another hotel area we often use for honeymoons for couples that enjoy a little of adventure is the Turrialba area. there are two hotels in this area that are very small and we have had excellent reviews from our honeymoon couples about them. One is the Caaa Turire which only has 16 rooms and one is a honeymoon suite which is absolutely spectaculuar. This particular hotel would actually make a great place for the actual wedding ceremony if you were interested in doing a destination wedding. The second hotel is called Hacienda Tayutic which is nearby but at a bit higher elevation. It is just as nice but a bit more rustic and also very beautiful grounds for the actual wedding ceremony with a small chapel. There are two hotels that if you are in the area are definately worth staying the night at. If you are interested in planning your honeymoon just contact us http://www.crrtravel.com/ or info@crrtravel.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo (luxist.com)
• Promising Costa Rica Tourism Figures Demonstrate Signs of Worldwide Economic Recovery (prweb.com)
• Costa Rica Marriotts celebrate non-stop flights from New York with $101 rates (gadling.com)
• Experts in Honeymoons in Costa Rica Since 1998

Origin of Spheres

Image via Wikipedia The pre-Columbian stone spheres found in the south Pacific region of Costa Rica have had all kinds of guesses made about their origin. They are so big and heavy, the heaviest 15 tons, that one of the guesses were that they were put there by aliens. Wrong! Archaeologist Ifigenia Quintanilla has put an end to speculation. The spheres were made by the indigenous people of the region.They were carved with hatchets, and they were a sign of power. Quintanilla says it is a way to make a statement. 15 tons says a lot.

University March

Image via Wikipedia Once again Costa Rica showed the world it was a democracy. 10,000 students, faculty and administrators from Costa Rica’s public universities marched to president Chinchilla’s house. They set up a stage with loudspeakers and gave the Costa Rican president an earful. They want more funding for the universities. More scientific equipment, more field study and more scholarships.

Chinchilla had in mind an increase of around 5% for university budgets. The marchers were thinking more along the lines of at least 11%. Will they get it? Time will tell. But it is nice to see people so concerned about higher education. I might add, that as usual Costa Rica did all this peacefully.

Costa Rica's Early Influence

Image via Wikipedia The Old and the New World met in Costa Rica when Christopher Columbus landed here in 1502. In the years that followed, the largest city in Central America was Guatemala City. Costa Rica was so far from this city that it was difficult to develop trade routes. But there was an upside to this. Because Costa Rica was so far removed from the center of Spanish activity, it was allowed to develop without supervision from the The Crown. This was a blessing in disguise. Isolation meant the Spanish did not enslave the people to work on their land. Although the Costa Rican people were separated from the “big money” in Guatemala City, it certainly did not hurt them.

Today Costa Rica is no longer isolated, but sought after as a vacation land and a permanent home to people from all over the world. Those years of isolation did not hurt the people either. Few countries are as well known for their “nice people” as Costa Rica. While Costa Rica was considered by the Spanish as one of the poorest places in Central America, today it has one of the most stable economies in Latin America. The Conquistadors left Costa Rica alone, and Costa Rica certainly made the best of it.

Interesting Costa Rica Information

Image via Wikipedia Here are some facts about Costa Rica that you might have missed:

1. Costa Rica abolished its army permanently in 1949.

2. It is the only Latin American country on the list of the world’s oldest 22 democracies.


3. It is among the top Latin American countries on the Human Development Index.

4. On the Environmental Performance Index, Costa Rica is number three in the world and number one in the Americas.

5. The Costa Rican government plans to be the first carbon neutral country.

6. Costa Rica ranks first on the Happy Planet Index, which measures long and fulfilling lives.

7. Costa Rica is the greenest country on the planet.

Thank you, Wikipedia

Family Adventure Specialist
The Costa Rican Resource
http://www.crrtravel.com/
mail.crrtravel.com
info@crrtravel.com

The Costa Rican Astronaut

Image via Wikipedia Did you know that Costa Rica had an astronaut? His name is Franklin Chang, and he is a real hero here. Chang has made seven voyages into outer space. Not only has this inspired a nation, but it has made this agricultural economy of Costa Rica, where only 6 to 7% of the university students study science, start thinking more about science.

Chang is the astronaut and co-director of Ad Astra Rocket Lab. He has plans to use plasma-fueled rockets to rid space of obsolete satellites. Currently there is no way to retrieve satellites once they cease to function. Chang was not expecting Ticos to invest a lot of money in his project, but he has been overwhelmed by their support of this project. One man makes a difference.

Costa Rica-China Relations

Image via Wikipedia Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue, does not think that there is anything unusual about Costa Rica’s recognition of China, nor is it odd that China is Costa Rica’s number two trade partner. After all China is the third largest economy in the world right now. He thinks that the conspiracy talk about China wanting to control Central America is unfounded. Most likely China just wants to make money.

China does consider Costa Rica’s recognition as a feather in its cap, and it hopes that other countries will follow suit. China has tried to show appreciation by furnishing Costa Rica with gifts. China’s most elaborate gift to Costa Rica is the 83 million dollar soccer stadium, soon to be finished. The former US ambassador to Costa Rica, Frank McNeil, who also served some time in a post in East Asia, thinks such gifts are legitimate, but he does suggest that in the future Costa Ricans be allowed to work on projects, even if they are gifts. No Tico labor was used in the construction of the stadium. The Ambassador feels that the gift did not help Costa Rica develop because it offered no jobs.

No, Not my Address!

Image via Wikipedia The one thing you do not want to hear in Costa Rica is the question: “What’s your address?”

Addresses in Costa Rica are basically the directions to your house. Giving someone your address is like writing an essay. For example, my address is San Jose de la Montana, the main road out of Barva, 200 meters before the church, on the right, with the wooden gate. That is what you write on the envelope of you letter, in Spanish. Other addresses are even more involved than that. A couple that Mary and I met at immigration started to give us their address on the back of an envelope. They ran out of paper. We settled for their phone number.

We moved recently, and I do not even know my new address. It has something to do with so many meters passed the two bars and around the bend, the first right. That’s why I got a P.O. Box.

However, this address system, as convoluted as it sounds, is amazingly efficient. I have had to find several people using this address method, and I always found them without a problem. If you can’t find them, then all you have to do is ask once you have gone as far as the address will take you. It seems like all the people in Costa Rica know one another. They even know me, and I do not speak the language very well. An American friend of mine could not quite get to my house using my address. So after he got to my village, he stopped in the grocery store, which also serves as a welcome center, and asked if anyone knew me.

“Si, he is the gringo hombre,” the clerk replied. “He lives back there.”

San Jose, the capitol, is going to spend over a million dollars to put numbers on streets and houses. Taxi drivers love the idea, but will it work for the general public? I’m not so sure. I still think people are going to say, “I live a hundred meters past the Shell station on the right, next to the Dairy Queen.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Costa Rica Marriotts celebrate non-stop flights from New York with $101 rates (gadling.com)

They are Waiting for You

Image via Wikipedia Costa Rica's Juan Santamaria airpot is so neat and compact that I often wish Newark and Miami were just like it. But in order to serve you better the airport operators have just finished 30 million dollars worth of work. They have doubled the immigration area, and they have expended the departure hall. Interesting enough, it is still neat and compact. With all the new additions, you can still very easily find your way around. They expect to finish up another 10 million dollar piece of work by the end of the year. When all four expansion phases are completed, the airport will have the capacity to handle an increase in passengers from now until 2029.

So come on down!