30-year-old Josh Byrne and his wife Bianca traveled to Costa Rica earlier this week to celebrate their honeymoon after getting married last weekend on a farm in New Hampshire. As they were traveling over a bridge a flash flood dragged the car they were driving into the river. Bianca was able to make it out alive, but so far, there are no signs of Byrne. The couple was vacationing in the area of...

The Association of Tour Operators (ASOTU) welcomes visitors to the Marino Ballena National Park all year, but especially in September for the height of whale watching season on Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast. Humpback whales can be seen along many parts of Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast from July - October each year when they give birth to their calves in the area's warm waters. Th...

BALTIMORE, MD (PRWEB) JUNE 13, 2016 - For decades, Costa Rica has been among the world’s premier retirement destinations. It’s a country that is nearly carbon neutral, sustainably producing most of its power without increasing greenhouse gasses. It’s a country with no standing army. It’s a country whose people consistently rank among the Costa Rica is Once Again the Happiest Nation According to N...

Source: Kalon Surf School DOMINICAL, Costa Rica, March 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kalon Surf is celebrating five years as Costa Rica's premiere luxury surf coaching resort.  To commemorate the occasion, the resort is proud to introduce two exciting new features: sous-vide cooking and a brand new ocean-view spa. The spa is situated right in the jungle and offers a breathtaking view of Costa Ri...

Rebelution DOMINICAL DE OSA, Costa Rica - March 25, 2016 - PRLog -- Rebelution will be performing for their first time in Costa Rica. "Reggae to the Rescue" will be hosted by the surf mecca of Dominical, on July 16th, 2016, and will take place at Patrons. The organizers are donating 100% of the funds raised to benefit Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary, a non profit organization, and help them expand ...

Source: Hills of Portalon Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica – January 11, 2016 /MarketersMedia/ — The Ridges of Portalon, a micro-community of the master planned development the Hills of Portalon, announced today the upcoming sale to the public of their recently opened whitewater ocean-view lots. The Ridges of Portalon is located in Costa Rica between Dominical and Quepos/Manuel Antonio and is antici...

Source: Christopher Gillette Facebook The charismatic biologist and wildlife photographer Christopher Gillette is currently on his sixth visit to Costa Rica. Mr. Gillette, better known as Crocodile Chris, has appeared on various television programs broadcast by the Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, History, and E! Entertainment. According to a report by Teletica Channel 7 News, Mr. Gillette a...

Source: Kalon Surf School (PRWEB) June 25, 2015 – Dominical, Costa Rica – June 23, 2015 – Kalon Surf, Costa Rica’s premiere luxury surf coaching resort, has just announced a brand new partnership with Firewire Surfboards. As the leading surf coaching luxury hotel in the country, Kalon is always looking to align with other like-minded companies that focus on shared principles of sustainability,...

Source: Vamos Rent a Car (Newswire.net) Manuel Antonio, Puntarenas -- This week Vamos Rent-A-Car partnered with the Costa Verde Hotel in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica to offer complimentary services for tourists to the area.  Manuel Antonio National Park is a popular destination due to its protected beaches and hiking trails.  With its 150,000+ annual visitors, another rental car choice is welcom...

Beach house in Costa Rica The ongoing economic recovery of the United States is having a positive impact on select housing markets in Costa Rica.   Whereas real estate development was particularly strong last year in the province of Guanacaste, analysts are seeing greater construction activity in the province of Puntarenas, particularly in the Central and Southern Pacific Coasts. Ac...

Beach house in Costa Rica Washington, Mar 4 (EFE; additional context by The Costa Rica Star).- The pace of new home sales in the United States increased 0.2 percent in January to an annual rate of 481,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. In Costa Rica, the first quarter of 2015 indicates strong interest in new construction and the mortgage markets. Here's the Real Estate S...

Beach house in Costa Rica As part of an effort to make real estate listings in Costa Rica more attractive to house hunters, homeowners are now following the advice of their agents and selling their properties furnished. This trend is particularly on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica where new listings of homes located in coastal communities near the beach are  including furniture in order to swe...

One of the most grueling adventure races in the world is the Coastal Challenge, sometimes known as the Rainforest Run in Costa Rica. The Coastal Challenge is in the category of long-distance trail running, and this Friday the competition wrapped up with an absolute and dominating victory by South African adventure racer Iain Don-Wauchope. According to Fiorella Masis of national newpaper La Naci...

Costa Rica is a land of many attractive sunsets, and one of the best spots to see the sun go down amidst vanilla skies that seemed to have floated out of a Monet painting is Dominical, one of the prettiest coastal towns in our country. In recent years, Playa Dominical has attracted tourists who wish to keep this wonderful tourism secret all to themselves. As previously reported by The Costa Rica S...

Source: Flickr Life's a beach in Costa Rica; unfortunately, so is death sometimes. The number of tourists who come to enjoy Costa Rica continues to grow each year; alas, the number of those whose beach vacations turn fatal is also on the rise. Since 2009, researchers from the National University of Costa Rica (Spanish initials: UNA) have been working on a comprehensive risk assessment study to...

Santa Teresa’s awesome waves will be in the limelight once again as top Costa Rica surfers roll into town at the end of April for the fifth 2014 Olympus National Surfing Circuit competition. The COPA Unit tournament will be held April 26 and 27 at the spectacular beach of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, on the southwestern Nicoya Peninsula. Famous for year-round Pacific Coast surf and a friendly, ...

Costa Rica’s fourth 2014 Olympus National Surfing Circuit competition is coming March 15 and 16 to the beautiful south Pacific beach of Dominical. The Marley Cup will be held in front of the well-known Tortilla Flats beachfront restaurant and bar at Dominical. The competition is named for principal sponsor House of Marley, which sells earth-friendly products inspired by legendary reggae singer Bob...

The waves were big, and so were the national surfers who came to Playa Guiones at Nosara, Costa Rica last weekend for the third competition in the 2014 Olympus National Surfing Circuit. Costa Rican pros like Gilberth Brown, Jair Perez, Jason Torres, Carlos Munoz, Lisbeth Vindas and Nataly Bernold descended on the top Costa Rica surfing beach for the tournament, held Feb. 8-9. Munoz was just ret...

One of the biggest dreams for retirees is moving to a warm, sunny place where you can relax and enjoy the “golden years” of life with no stress. Lower costs to stretch your savings and having good quality health care available are also top considerations. In the Americas, Costa Rica continues to be one of the most popular retirement destinations. HelpAge International, an index that measure...

Participants in the Coastal Challenge (Rainforest Run) in Costa Rica, posing underneath the event bannerThe southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica will once again host one of the most rigorous foot races in the adventure racing circuit. The Coastal Challenge, also known as the Rainforest Run, puts runners in a very difficult 236 kilometer course that moves from the coast to the jungle and from the ...

Volunteers from The Monkey Farm: Daniel Blanco Jaime, Bonnie Gwathmey, Vicki Conley, Uyku Tulumu and Tomi-Pekka Astikainen The Monkey Farm in Playa Ocotal, just five minutes from Playas del Coco, is having an Open House Sunday, January 5th from noon until 5:00. The Monkey Farm is a non-profit organic, sustainable farm and future wildlife rescue center, run entirely by volunteers from all over...

Escape this winter to the land of perpetual summer on the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Blue skies, golden sun, tropical breezes, warm surf and soft sand await you. Sounds pretty good if you’re looking out the window at freezing rain, ice, snow and a heavy gray sky, doesn’t it? Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast stretches from the port town of Puntarenas to just before the surf town o...

Happy clients at Sunset Surf Camp in DominicalWhat happens when a sustainability-oriented surf camp and an NGO whose goal is to “build, support, and activate an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet” join forces? Boom! Sunset Surf Camp and One Percent For The Planet have come together and agreed on promoting some of today’s most vital values: living a healt...

I love traveling in off-season. High season travelers and summer vacationers are gone. Back to school and back to work, which means better travel opportunities for me and you. Off-season is when crowds disappear and prices drop, as hotels, tour operators and airlines look to attract travelers with deep discounts. Granted, it’s not the low season for nothing. In Costa Rica, it is rainy season...

Normally, you don’t see tough, radical conservationists attending lectures by land developers. But there they were, 100 strong, from the Nature Conservancy, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and from all over Latin America – all raptly listening to how land development can actually preserve forests. Nervous before his formidable audience, Guillermo Piedra Gonzalez e...

Patiently, expectantly, I gazed across deep indigo waters, ponderous swells rolling gently beneath the boat, our outboard motor silent. Suddenly eighty yards away an enormous dark sea creature broke through the surface, its long pectoral fins or flippers waving in the air, only to crash thunderously down and disappear into the ocean off Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast. It was the thrill of a lifetime t...

As you head south along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica from Jaco down past Quepos/Manuel Antonio toward Dominical, vast forests of palm trees stretch for miles along the highway. Lush and thickly planted, with emerald ferns growing on the trunks and a dense carpet of green underneath, the palms always remind me of a tropical enchanted forest. These immense plantations are African Palms, and...

If you would like The Costa Rica Star to publish your Costa Rican business press release, please contact us. Villa de Agua is the newest and most exquisite luxury vacation rental home on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast. With four master bedrooms, sunset ocean views, water features everywhere and toucans singing in the trees, this amazing home is both exclusive and magical. Set in the verd...

When Costa Rica Surf Travel Company was created in 1999 their slogan was “The best place to check the surf in Costa Rica.” After 14 years they have not only earned the top position on Google when searching ‘Costa Rica surf’, but have helped thousands of surfers and their families find safe and comfortable places to stay, along with waves matching their skill level. Their website, www.CRsurf.com...

Here on the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, surfing is a part of culture. It’s a way of life, almost like a religion. And this Saturday church was in session. The overcast skies and cross-shore breeze was a welcomed occurrence for the hundreds of parishioners of the Church of Surf who were sitting on the beach in front of Morgan’s Cove in Jacó on the 16th day of June. The crowds gather...

Richard "El Pirata" Abrams is a true waterman who was trained by the legendary big wave surfer Dempsey Holder and master surf photographer Tom Keck. As a lifeguard, he watched over swimmers and surfers at Imperial Beach in Southern California for 18 years. He came to Playa Dominical to retire and enjoy his golden years in peace. According to a press release published by Surfline, Richard Abrams...

Nature made Costa Rica’s beaches beautiful, and the local government is making sure that they also remain clean thanks to the Bandera Azul Ecologica (Blue Ecologic Flag) program. The PBAE was created in 1996 with the objective of preventing or stopping pollution and to safeguard the public health. The program (which is an adaptation of a similar one launched in Europe back in 1985) has been promot...