With the Costa Rica real estate market continuing to boom in 2022, more and more wannabe expats are faced with that most important question of where to invest…
Here’s a broad overview of Costa Rica’s 7 provinces that might help…
San Jose
The province of San Jose is smack-dab in the center of the country, in the so-called “central valley.” It is where the capital is located, as well as Costa Rica’s oldest and largest international airport.
It is the seat of big business in Costa Rica. However, as a tourist attraction, it is lacking in many respects. Most tourists tend to want to spend as little time as possible in the big city.
It is actually the central part of the Gran Area Metropolitana (or GAM) where half the population of the entire country resides.
Even though tourists tend to want to skip San Jose, to the extent possible, many expats do call it home. After all, San Jose does have the largest and most cosmopolitan selection in terms of shopping, medical care, restaurants, nightlife, and services.
So, if you really want to be where the big city action is, San Jose could be the place for you.
However, the big city is not the whole story of San Jose, since it also encompasses a broad swath of the towering Talamanca mountain range (highest in the country) and the canton nearest and dearest to my heart of Perez Zeledon.
Perez Zeledon is home to Costa Rica’s highest peak, Chirripo, and the largest city outside of the GAM, San Isidro de El General. It’s a place where one can have his or her cake and eat it too, by living in high altitude coolness, while being an hour or less from the gorgeous Costa Ballena coastline. That’s why I moved here around 12 years ago.
Heredia
Heredia is the province immediately to San Jose’s north. Its principle city of the same name makes up part of the GAM.
Reasons to live there are similar to what was said above with respect to San Jose. However, there are some urban, yet more rural, communities like San Rafael and Santo Domingo that are quite nice and a bit away from the hustle and bustle, yet close enough for you to be able to engage in it on a moment’s notice.
Alajuela
This is the province that makes up the northwest quadrant of the GAM and it’s where the Juan Santamaria International airport is located.
However, it also includes areas to the north like the canton of San Carlos, with the popular tourist town of La Fortuna and the ever-looming Arenal Volcano.
The La Fortuna/Arenal area is also one that is popular with expats. It is covered in lush green tropical rain forest and it is where the country’s largest lake, Lake Arenal, is located. Lake Arenal is a man-made lake and damn that supplies hydro-electric power to a large portion of the country.
Since tourism is always a primary factor in the real estate market and Arenal is one of Costa Rica’s biggest tourism draws, the La Fortuna/Arenal area of Alajuela has seen some real estate action, albeit not to the extent of many of the beach areas.
Cartago
Cartago is the eastern quadrant of the GAM and includes the highlands of its principle city, also named Cartago, as well as Caribbean slope zones, like the beautiful area of Turrialba.
I’ve always thought that Cartago was a beautiful province and even considered moving there before I fled the big city and moved to Perez Zeledon.
Cartago is home to Costa Rica’s tallest (and active) volcanos, Irazu and Turrialba, the latter of which has in recent years been Costa Rica’s “most active” volcano.
The area I used to always enjoy visiting when I lived in the San Jose area for my first 10 years, is the Orosi Valley. This is a gorgeously green high altitude region where quite a few expats call home.
Puntarenas
This is the province that encompasses a large portion of the Pacific coastline, from the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula all the way down to Panama.
There are so many areas of Puntarenas that we could talk about in terms of both tourism and real estate. However, many expats confuse the port city of Puntarenas with the entire province by the same name. The port city of Puntarenas is the capital of the province, but it’s really not a popular city for expats to live in.
The most popular tourism and expat areas of Puntarenas, include the following…
- Nicoya Peninsula Beaches (Santa Teresa, Mal Pais, Montezuma)
- Jaco
- Quepos/Manuel Antonio
- The Costa Ballena Beaches (Dominical, Uvita and Ojochal)
- The Osa Peninsula
As you can see, there is a lot to choose from with Puntarenas and all of the areas I just listed have long been major tourism draws and now are major areas of expat real estate interest.
The real estate market has been extremely active in all of these areas.
Guanacaste
The is the northwestern province that includes the northern Pacific coast all the way to Nicaragua. In fact, at one time most of this province was part of Nicaragua.
Guanacaste includes the “Gold Coast” beach areas of Tamarindo, Flamingo and Coco (and many others) that came to fame in the early to mid-2000’s. The market overheated and completely crashed around 2007.
However, these days it has come roaring back. Perhaps the hottest and priciest market in the country these days is the Nicoya Peninsula hip surfer beach town of Nosara.
Guanacaste has many beautiful beach areas to choose from. However, also keep in mind that it is the hottest and driest province of Costa Rica.
So, if you’re an expat looking for a cool micro-climate and year-round lush greenery, Guanacaste probably won’t do it for you.
Limon
Like Puntarenas on the Pacific, the province of Limon hugs and encompasses the entire Caribbean coast. Most of the areas to the north of the port city and capital of Limon are inaccessible and fairly uninhabitable.
However, to the south of the port city you’ll find some of Costa Rica’s most beautiful beach areas. I’m talking about the beaches of Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and many others. These areas are somewhat remote and they encompass a lot of protected zones and indigenous reserves. Therefore, the ability to invest there and have full title to your property could be an issue.
I’ve always thought of Limon as a great place to visit, but not the best area of the country to safely invest in. However, like always, a safe investment can be secured by adequate due diligence and I am sure that can be accomplished in Limon if you’re an expat in love with that area.
I hope this brief overview of the 7 provinces will be of some assistance in helping you decide where to invest and make Costa Rica your home.
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