Local Guides World
Top Tourist attractions in San José, Costa Rica
Top Rated Tourist attractions in San José
Top Reviewed Tourist attractions in San José
Simón Bolívar Zoo and Botanical Garden
La Sabana Park
Parque Nacional
National Theater of Costa Rica
National Museum of Costa Rica
La Sabana Park
Pre-Columbian Gold Museum
Museo del Jade
Plaza de la Cultura
Museum of Costa Rican Art
Spirogyra Butterfly Garden
Parque Diversiones
Reviews
Absolutely beautiful garden! We had a wonderful time there watching the butterflies and enjoying the sunshine and the contemplation walk along the river!
What a serene place! At first I was not sure my taxi had taken me to the right spot but I was there! Friendly English speaking reception. The garden was small but very beautiful and there were many of the large blue butterflies, other types, and an amazing place to watch newly hatched butterflies. I sat near the waterfall and took it in in peace for some time. There is also a hike you can take in the woods to the river which was nice. Lots of steps and quite steep in places. I am glad I came. Entrance was about $7USD.
Soooooo worth going to. Lots of butterflies, and very beautiful peaceful place. Highly recommend.
I was there furing the holidays at night they do fireworks shows and you can use the rides. Recommended for teenagers and kids. The rides are nice and fast so you can use almost all of them.
Great for Children and adults
Fairytale experience, walk along butterflies.
You can keep walking for a little sircle hiking 30 minutes +- enjoy the jungle vibes
You can keep walking for a little sircle hiking 30 minutes +- enjoy the jungle vibes
An absolute nightmare especially for children. The capacity quotas are oversold, which causes waiting times of more than an hour and a half at the games, prepaid food delivery, and use of the restrooms. Many games stopped for maintenance on days when they sold massive school packages, which denotes lack of programming, logistics, and zero customer service. Those conditions are exhaustive, deceptioning, and fraudulent.
One of the best museums in Costa Rica! Relatively new museum with a good collection. on Sundays 2 tickets for the price of 1.
It's surprising to see a natural environment with butterflies as soon you enter.
It's located in an old barrack that is part of Costa Rica's history.
They have some stone pieces of pre- Columbian times and have a small, but interesting collection from colonial times to XX century.
It's located in an old barrack that is part of Costa Rica's history.
They have some stone pieces of pre- Columbian times and have a small, but interesting collection from colonial times to XX century.
Great park! Lots of space to hang out, exercise, and people watch! Great view of the mountains!
Without a doubt one of the best museums in Latin America (trust me I’ve been to almost all of them). The national museum beautifully captures in modern exhibits and a state of the art museum the history and culture of the country. If you only have time for 1 museum this is it. It’s worth every dollar and includes a butterfly sanctuary (those with Lepidopterophobia beware!). The museum should take you about 1.5 hours to see it all.
Tiene varios restaurantes alrededor, el teatro y otras cosas más.
Such a beautiful park to walk or run in the mornings. There are some police in place in some parts of the park. There are also some occasional trash you would see around.
8800 CRC well spent. Lots of fascinating history about the people who used to live in the region of what's now Costa Rica, many centuries ago. There's also some beautiful art on display by Faba, as well as the history of the Costa Rican currency, which predates what is currently in place.
The toilet facilities are clean and staff are friendly.
The toilet facilities are clean and staff are friendly.
5 floors of cool terracotta sculptures. Loved it.
Fun and interesting museum, and best of all, it’s free! They also have free parking. This is worth a visit in San José for all art lovers. We especially enjoyed the gold room.
With the visit! Very well done exhibits.
Nice museum, worth a visit while you're in San Jose.
I read about this theater in the Lonely Planet guide which promised it would be an excellent tour, and it was! The theater is grand and gives a glimpse into the culture and history of the area. The knowledgeable tour guide and the clever surprise made it fun and fascinating. Please note that English tours are given at 1 and 4 o’clock while Spanish tours are given at 2 and 3 o’clock. We had people in our group from Algeria, France, China, and California, so it was extra fun. This was well worth the time and the money.
A very attractive museum with five floors of exhibits. Although I enjoyed my visit, I felt that 1) the price for foreigners was very steep, 2) much of the pottery lacked labels to give background information about the objects, and 3) the name of the museum is a bit misleading, as only one room out of the five floors contained jade. Most of the museum is dedicated to pottery. Still worth a visit, if you know what to expect.
Nice quiet park with plenty of seating options.
The park's natural beauty and lush greenery offer a peaceful escape from the city's hustle and bustle.
It's a great place for a leisurely stroll or a picnic.
Giving it four stars because, while beautiful, the park can get crowded, and some areas need a bit more maintenance. Nonetheless, a lovely spot to connect with nature in the heart of the city.
The park's natural beauty and lush greenery offer a peaceful escape from the city's hustle and bustle.
It's a great place for a leisurely stroll or a picnic.
Giving it four stars because, while beautiful, the park can get crowded, and some areas need a bit more maintenance. Nonetheless, a lovely spot to connect with nature in the heart of the city.
Amazing! Beautiful. Want to see a show there now.
Very nice park with everything that you could ask for. They have fields for playing football, soccer, baseball and volleyball. Additionally there's lots of trails for running and riding your bike. There's also a couple playgrounds for kids.
On the weekends you can sit there and watch several baseball games and soccer games going on with the locals. There's also a couple bathrooms that cost about 300 CRC.
On the weekends you can sit there and watch several baseball games and soccer games going on with the locals. There's also a couple bathrooms that cost about 300 CRC.
Excellent museum. They offer English and Spanish descriptions. Highly recommend
Tiene cosas históricas y bonitas, pero a la vez es arruinado por los piedreros y gente chusma que abunda en la capital Josefina. Es una lástima, porque San José cuenta con lugares icónicos como la Plaza de la Cultura, que desafortunadamente es opacada por los malos olores, la gente fea que hay, y la falta de promoción a visita de estos lugares históricos.
Historical journey thru the beginning of metallurgy in Costa Rica. Beautiful exhibits. The entire museum is underground with state of the art security.
Lugares históricos en el Centro el cual puedes visitar de Día mejor que de noche ya que se vuelve inseguro e incómodo el área del centro de San José.
I really enjoyed the museum. The building has a very interesting history and there's a lot of respect for the story of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica and the conquest by the conquistadors. Lots to learn and see, and really knowledgeable and friendly staff. The butterfly garden was a nice surprise as well.
If you like to read about the exhibits, you should plan to spend more than 2 hours!
A high quality national museum representative of the various time periods of Costa Rican history including a great display of Pre-Colonization artifacts of stone and gold. A great place to spend a few hours with your family or even traveling solo. Added bonus was the Mariposa room / Butterfly enclosure. Disfrute todo!
Even if you don't have time to do the tour pop into the foyer and have a look round or grab a coffee in the lovely cafe. Definitely worth it
Sería bonito y educativo aprovechar la plaza para micro exposiciones de cultura con diferentes temáticas. El lugar no refleja tanta cultura como la que nos gustaría que cada costarricense tuviese.
Beautiful Art, love the room where the history of Costa Rica is carved out of wood walls, very Beautiful
Definitely a park for everyone. Sports, strolling, jogging, picnicking, etc. It's a beautiful, spacious, place that is safe and clean. On weekends It's filled with families enjoying the CR sunshine and exercise enthusiasts alike. Fun for everyone, free, well-groomed, and quiet.
This place is so amazing and we learned so much about Costa Rican history. Little did we know Spaniards were so cruel towards the indigenous people back in the days. The museum also has butterfly garden with probably thousands of butterflies flying all over. Highly recommend it if you have children.
Park dedicated to depiction of unity of the five countries of the Central America and specially ours women folks that forced the mighty William Walker to run
It is a great museum, with the best display of jade and history of a country that I have attended. Definitely a must visit when you come to Costa Rica
What a beautiful museum. Plenty of parking. Attendants are courteous. Great history in the upstairs display. What an amazing piece of history and beautiful art pieces. I would recommend someone to guide you thru and tell its history.
Great park to walk/run for exercise or simply to enjoy the peace and quiet within San Jose. There are several sculptures throughout the park along with open areas for kids to play.
A large park in the middle of the town. I enjoyed seeing a clean and green park with different options to do recreational activities.
Small, but beautiful. The animals are out and very active. Very reasonable entry fee.
It was ok. We did find it more interesting than the jade museum.
I learned so much about the indigenous people trying to hangon to their culture.
Beautiful building. The tour is inexpensive, the guides do an amazing job and the interior is amazing. Definitely worth it.
Interesting museum to visit, particularly explaining the rich history behind Costa Rica. Would recommend visiting for at least a couple of hours to really get a good time to see everything.
Great park to wander through. Lots of people and activity
Lots of historical information
Lots of historical information
A must see! It's gorgeous and has so much history. We were fortunate enough to have a couple of actors as our guides. They were hilarious and informative. I got so many beautiful pictures
We walked in thinking it was a small garden. The butterfly garden is beautiful, and a good size, but there is a side entrance to the forrest. It's huge. I recommend hiking shoes, water, and bug spray
It was entirely decent. It was about $8 equivalent to go in and was worth the money. It's not a big zoo and some of the animal enclosures were a bit on the sad side. Still, a great variety of local animals most of whom seemed pretty happy.
There was hardly anyone when we went today (Friday). It felt like we had the zoo to ourselves. Of course this also meant the shop and restaurant were closed. My son really wanted to see the monkeys and we definitely had fun.
A bit depressing if you have spent any time outside of San Jose with wildlife. The areas for the animals are pitifully small and they look bored. There are several things from years gone by just there, uninhabited. There are some squirrels running around etc who were the only sign of happiness. Needs a good revamp. The turtle and crocodile section was depressing with them barely visible and clambering on each other to avoid the murky moss water
It took us a couple of days to explore just half of the park, but the experience was still amazing. We watched the sun set and walked around many of the attractions and cool artwork for the majority of the time we were there. Great place for people of all ages to hang out, play, work out, or relax.
Great museum. A lot about the indigenous people but the gold work was exceptional. Felt the lighting could have been better, lots of reflections in the pics which I found annoying.
Wonderful free museum with excellent art. Indoor galleries and a sculpture garden. Shaded seating inside and out and clean restrooms. Just outside of LA Sabana Park.
Beautiful facility. Staff was pleasant and helpful. Lots of vendors in the center courtyard on the day I was there with food and various items.
Absolutely lovely place! The staff were kind and we were given a discount for being students (5 dollars each). There was a butterfly exhibit that was beautiful and peaceful. The trail to the river was also very nice, and we could take walking sticks for free. In total, it's about an hour. Definitely recommend!
Awesome expo of contemporary art and pre-Colombian history… along with a view on the presence of indigenous tribes of Costa Rica.
Sitio muy concurrido en San José, Costa Rica. En la parte de abajo están el Museo del Oro Precolombino, el Museo Numismático y una muestra de la colección de arte plástica del país. Desde allí, se puede llegar caminando al Museo del Jade, el Museo Nacional, la Plaza de la Democracia, el Parque nacional, entre otras atracciones. También, encontrarán en la peatonal: Hoteles (recomiendo El Maragato, con excelente relación calidad - precio), bancos, tiendas, restaurantes, librerías, entre otros; transporte variado y más...¡Visítala!
Beautiful place to visit. The tours are really nice. My only negative complaint is that the tour guide (female 6/18) was not nice to the locals and super friendly to the expats (specially Europeans and Americans). Her English was okay and it felt like she was drill in the locals to speak in English when she herself had a lot of room for growth. The make guide was hilarious and super friendly.
This was the 1st airport in Costa Rica. Beautifully restored building has been repurposed as a contemporary art museum. Very interesting exhibits and a scilpture garden. Must see the Gold Room. Formerly it was the executive lounge.
Good place to walkaround. Good place to let the animals go around. However there is no lion. Just birds, some snakes, frogs, etc,.
Small place, but the ambience feels relaxing and natural.
Small place, but the ambience feels relaxing and natural.
This museum is fantastic. The grounds surrounding it are spectacular (although sometimes the people in the park outside can seem sorta sketchy). You can see the Legislative Assembly building from the front door and there's a fantastic park across the street. I especially liked the statues and modern art out front-- even the bike rack is artistic. The inside of the museum is impressive as well.
Beautiful garden with several different species of butterflies. Very tranquil walk through the garden.
It wasn’t very busy when we attended, we encountered only two other people when inside, aside from the staff working.
They also have a nice small hike down to the river called the ‘Contemplation Walk’. Highly recommended.
It wasn’t very busy when we attended, we encountered only two other people when inside, aside from the staff working.
They also have a nice small hike down to the river called the ‘Contemplation Walk’. Highly recommended.
🇨🇷Bonito lugar para sentarse 🪑 y descansar un momento después de caminar cuando andas conociendo aquí y cuenta con museos al rededor y con espacios para la foto del recuerdo.
Super cool free museum (that doesn't even accept donations!) in the heart of San Jose. Walkable and situated in a park, the place used to be an airport for the city and the 'gold room' tells that history. Pictures do not do it justice.
This museum has wonderful displays of gold artifacts and jewelry. Throughout the exhibit, there are touch screen displays that enhance the learning experience and explain the intricacies and really give you an appreciation of this fascinating culture. A must see while in San Jose Costa Rica.
A fabulous little museum located in the lovely Sabana Park. Some really interesting artworks, with the incredible gold mural upstairs, telling the story of Costa Rica down the centuries, being the undoubted highlight. We spent a long time in this room (with no other visitors there, which was nice).
A great find, and somewhere you must visit if you're in the park!
A great find, and somewhere you must visit if you're in the park!
Not tooooo bad. Yes it's small, but could be worse.
Bit expensive tho with 7 USD for foreigners (typical racism in Latinamerica for foreigners), locals less.
See my insta for some photos and videos:
📷 Riborich
Bit expensive tho with 7 USD for foreigners (typical racism in Latinamerica for foreigners), locals less.
See my insta for some photos and videos:
📷 Riborich
Nice place, not super huge compared to other countries. but big for Costa Rica :-)
This is a very large park. The lakes there have been drained; there is no water in them. There are many trees, walking paths, football (soccer) fields and a large stadium. There were not many people there when we visited on a weekday morning. It looks a little unkept.
Beautiful project!! The butterflies seem to have plenty of space and yummy flowers. The gardens are gorgeous and peaceful to just sit in and enjoy the environment. We saw ~8 butterfly species and ~5 passion flowers. There's a nice little hike through a wooded area by the river on the back of the property. A small cafe with drinks too.
Hope this project succeeds and continues to expand, you clearly care about what you do!
Feedback: some young guests were trying to catch/touch the butterflies. It may be helpful to place warning signs that this will kill the insects.
Hope this project succeeds and continues to expand, you clearly care about what you do!
Feedback: some young guests were trying to catch/touch the butterflies. It may be helpful to place warning signs that this will kill the insects.
You can complete the park in less than 5 hours ( with fast pass) and have a blast with your kids and family.
Only negative things:
No drink package with refills.
No food package
Disorganized lines in Entrance to buy tickets ang get inside the park.
Loss and found is far from the park. Is actually outside the park.
Not that many attractions or machines. Is a small park.
Employees look like they hate their life and job. Not everyone of course, but majority of them especially in the machines and entrance are not friendly or nice to the people.
Only negative things:
No drink package with refills.
No food package
Disorganized lines in Entrance to buy tickets ang get inside the park.
Loss and found is far from the park. Is actually outside the park.
Not that many attractions or machines. Is a small park.
Employees look like they hate their life and job. Not everyone of course, but majority of them especially in the machines and entrance are not friendly or nice to the people.
It doesn't have the size or the animal range of European capitals zoos, but still has decent appeal due to the more natural design and some interesting animals like a rescued jaguar and macaws. If you are in town, it's worth a quick visit.
I decided to spend the day in parque de diversiones, was my birthday, the only thing that didn't fitted was they don't have anything special for birthdays, was weird! However we had a nice day, attention is good, parking is big enough and the sunset was incredible to see in the Torre. At night a game failed and security people had a tuf behaviour but was understandable cause they didn't want us to record. As a recommendation bring extra clothes to change, comfortable shoes and have fun!
Great overall experience here though really long lineups today, but it was Sunday and the first day of the year which I'm assuming made it busier than usual. Weirdness at the gate when buying tickets online, but we worked through it. On busy days like today the rapid pass is completely worth it.
This is one of my favorites park in San José. It's really clean and peaceful. There are different plants that make it even better.😍
you have the train station nearby, about 1-2 minutes walking. There's a university (UIA) nearby, as well. TSE, next to it basically. It got different statues of people who were important. Finally, this is a really nice place to take pictures.
you have the train station nearby, about 1-2 minutes walking. There's a university (UIA) nearby, as well. TSE, next to it basically. It got different statues of people who were important. Finally, this is a really nice place to take pictures.
Nice small park. Loved the big trees and all the benched you could sit on.
Historical spot with most of the original architecture intact. It's a gorgeous place and worth spending some time watching a play. They also have a cafe and it's a cute little spot with a variety of options. This spot is great for a date or just a night out.
For 31 days I had seen a new type of bird every single day on my Costa Rica trip. I had 1 hour left before having to leave for the airport and I thought I'd try one park to find one bird that was new. Though this park is small and busy, if you look up you'll see many little birds flying around having fun. I found my final new bird here and I couldn't have been happier flying home. There's also a cafe called Otoya that is around the corner that has the best coffee in town. Go here and rest my friend, you deserve it.
I was here on a food tour of city that included this theater because it was on the route.
Its a very nice structure, and i like the story behind one of the sculptures (the one on the right, mother and baby). The artists defiance in past.
Was only in lobby and looking for 5 min, but very nice theater.''
Like this review below if the info helps
Its a very nice structure, and i like the story behind one of the sculptures (the one on the right, mother and baby). The artists defiance in past.
Was only in lobby and looking for 5 min, but very nice theater.''
Like this review below if the info helps
Interesting but small.
This is a nice family spot if you have some time with the kids. The animals were great although very few and it advertised as a botanical garden but there is very little information about the plants. It is not a place to visit to find out about the plants and animals of Costa Rica but it was a pleasant place to take a stroll and see some interesting things. The bathrooms were clean.
This is a nice family spot if you have some time with the kids. The animals were great although very few and it advertised as a botanical garden but there is very little information about the plants. It is not a place to visit to find out about the plants and animals of Costa Rica but it was a pleasant place to take a stroll and see some interesting things. The bathrooms were clean.
Very repetitive and not very well curated. $16 each for Americans, $5 each if you have a Costa Rican student ID.
60% pottery of all nomenclatures, 20% art exhibit of Salvador Dali (who was one weird dude), 20% jade in various formats.
Was interesting the first 30min but there’s a lot of historical context lacking. Also not interactive in the least bit.
That said, better than sitting at home for $5.
60% pottery of all nomenclatures, 20% art exhibit of Salvador Dali (who was one weird dude), 20% jade in various formats.
Was interesting the first 30min but there’s a lot of historical context lacking. Also not interactive in the least bit.
That said, better than sitting at home for $5.
Yet another great park in the San jose systems. big and beautiful diverse .a great place to hang out and just relax
This place was one of the coolest places I went to during my trip! First off there was AC which is great! There were so many different exhibits and wonderful things to look at. The museum was spacious and even with a good amount of people walking around it didn’t feel crowded at all. There was such a wide variety of stuff to look at, you could really spend all day there. It was about $6 a ticket and totally worth it. We spent about three hours there but you could have spent even more time.
I felt that while the museum was lovely, it was a little overpriced for tourists. There are three levels - the basement is the gold, the second level has a geography exhibit, and the main level currently has an exhibit about coins. I've been to other gold museums in Latin America and this one was relatively similar, though there were quite a lot of unique pieces that i admit i had never seen in other similar museums. The geographical exhibit was interesting but can be skipped through relatively quickly (i did appreciate all the signage in English). The coins exhibit will only be interesting to you if you're into the history of coins. Personally i liked it but did find it a little repetitive. Overall - good activity to do if you find yourself in downtown San Jose with some free time to kill but not necessarily a must see.
Pictures can't capture how much fun one can have at this place! There's so much to do that a single visit is not enough, especially if one did not buy the fast-track pass.
In our case, we didn't, and at least I regret it 😅 but would recommend doing it if it is the first time you go and want to explore the different attractions and rides.
There's a little bit of everything! The excitement of roller-coasters (and many different types of roller-coasters), to the cool refreshing "breeze" you get from the splash 🌊 to the nice little educational farm and "old village" located inside of the park. No matter what you are looking for, there's something for everyone.
Food and sweets are readily available inside of the park, and you also have the option to do some shopping beforehand and take your goodies with you inside of the park. There are eating and non-eating areas, so beware of that.
Finally, belongings. Some rides do not allow scarfs, hats, backpacks, purses, glasses, and anything in between. Because of this, there are lockers that you can rent inside of the pack to leave your belongings at. They assign a locker number and give you the key to it. You also need to leave your ID there until the end of the day when you go pick your belongings up. This is just so that you're careful not to lose the key.
Hope this was helpful! Go have lots of fun! 🎢🎡
In our case, we didn't, and at least I regret it 😅 but would recommend doing it if it is the first time you go and want to explore the different attractions and rides.
There's a little bit of everything! The excitement of roller-coasters (and many different types of roller-coasters), to the cool refreshing "breeze" you get from the splash 🌊 to the nice little educational farm and "old village" located inside of the park. No matter what you are looking for, there's something for everyone.
Food and sweets are readily available inside of the park, and you also have the option to do some shopping beforehand and take your goodies with you inside of the park. There are eating and non-eating areas, so beware of that.
Finally, belongings. Some rides do not allow scarfs, hats, backpacks, purses, glasses, and anything in between. Because of this, there are lockers that you can rent inside of the pack to leave your belongings at. They assign a locker number and give you the key to it. You also need to leave your ID there until the end of the day when you go pick your belongings up. This is just so that you're careful not to lose the key.
Hope this was helpful! Go have lots of fun! 🎢🎡
I haven't been to this park in a long time and was pleasantly surpiesed. Plenty of green, fountains and the iconic "Monumento Nacional". A nice place for a downtown break.
Plaza de la Cultura es un lugar (spot) tradicional, pero que desafortunadamente se queda sólo con el nombre, es decir, más allá de las diferentes expresiones urbanas que esporádicamente se dan durante el año, no hay un espacio cultural permanente. Se desaprovecha el tránsito tan amplio de personas durante el día. Asimismo, hay pocos espacios para tomar asiento, salvo que uno lo haga en las orillas.
I love all the activities here! I wish more parks were like this 💖 Ride horses, rent a paddle boat (but not since 2020🤦♂️😭), grassy areas with sun as well as areas shaded well with many trees, two stadiums, an arena where people were roller skating and then later teams practices on rollerblades :) and more
This park is lovely, a great place to practice many different sports or spend family time.
The trees in the park are all native species, making it a good place for bird watching right in the middle of the city.
There are multiple places to get a good coffee nearby.
Very safe during day time, but dangerous after dark.
The trees in the park are all native species, making it a good place for bird watching right in the middle of the city.
There are multiple places to get a good coffee nearby.
Very safe during day time, but dangerous after dark.