When travel to Caribbean or Central America comes to mind, immediately a few places like Jamaica, Cuba and Dominican Republic come to mind. There are of course many other destinations like Barbados, Trinidad, St Vincent and Antigua.

They are all beautiful and perhaps none more so than St Vincent. However, for diversity, size and 2 distinct oceans on both sides, none of them matches Costa Rica with its beautiful spanish people, great food and Caribbean and Pacific Oceans to boot.

Try Costa Rica, you just might like it.

Travelocity has fares from the US for as little as $600.

Travelocity has Canadian fares for about 1400 Plus the dreaded Canadian Govt airline taxes. Try flying from Buffalo or United States if you are a Canadian on the other side of the border.

European fares tend to be a bit more expensive, so try to take 10 or 14 days to truly enjoy the atmosphere.

Hotels in San Jose run from an astonishingly low $35 per night to about $240 with the medium prices being between $60 and $110.
Don’t expect 5 star hotels, there are probably only about 2 of those in the country, but you can expect 4-5 star service because the people are so friendly and laid back.

Try to spend a few days on the Pacific side soaking up the atmosphere which is just terrific. To do this, if you flew into San Jose like most of us do, book a flight from San Jose’s international airport to the pacific ( about 15 minutes ride on the plane ).

Remember the native language is spanish but fully 40% of the population can understand english if you speak slowly and nearly 100% of the hotel staff in 2 star hotels and up will understand your english even if you speak rapidly ( don’t do that though ), lol.

Good luck and happy traveling.