Do You Know the Way to San Jose
Written: Apr 09 '01
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Pros: Big city with good transportation, excellent restaurants, luxury hotels
Cons: Big city with crowds, traffic, noise, dirt
The Bottom Line: San Jose is a business city, not a tourist city, though it does have excellent nightlife and restaurants, and some interesting museums.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: San José |
I've read some of the other reviews of San Jose, and I understand why the place gets a rather mixed bag of recommendations. After all, the city is not a very scenic place. There's virtually no good historical or archaelogical sites, there's no real "fun" places to visit, and all of the jungles, beaches, volcanos, and other natural attractions that make Costa Rica such a popular eco-tourist destination are hours away from the capital.
San Jose is very much a business-oriented city, and one that in most places, reminds me of driving through industrial parks around Baltimore (except that the city buses are more colorful and dirtier). In some ways San Jose reminds me of Monterrey Mexico, which is also a business oriented city, but one that can be an interesting and pleasant place for a casual tourist to spend a few days.
Early last summer, I was accompanying my wife on a business trip that included a 2-day stop in San Jose. While she was attending a training conference at a hotel in the outlying suburbs, I spent the time prowling the streets and being a typical tourist. I'm the kind of guy who will find something interesting to do just about anywhere I go, and San Jose was no different to me than walking around downtown Cleveland. Well, maybe a little different. There's no Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and no Flats, but they do have some small to medium size museums that are pretty cool, and some interesting shops to waste money in. Some of the more interesting places that I visited were a snake museum, a museum of gold, and the National Museum. (These museums are not huge, so its easy to do 2 or 3 in one day.)
I also recommend just hiring a taxi for an hour or so to drive you around the city and point out some of the sights. This can help you get your bearings, and you can also zero in on the things that you feel are more interesting to you. (I wasn't all that impressed by the cathedral, and I didn't think Sabana Park or the zoo were up my alley, so I bagged those places.) You can also hear some interesting tidbits this way, like the fact that the Childrens Museum was -- until only a few years ago -- a prison! ("Carlos! Don't you dare flip that power switch while your sister is playing in the electric chair!")
Slithering Death
There's a fairly small serpentarium (snake museum) on Avenida 1 near Calle 11. It's in a weird place, and you've really got to look for it. It's above a cafe across the street from the Hotel del Rey. The guidebook I've got says it costs $1.50 to get in, but I figure I paid closer to $5 -- guess that's inflation for you (either that or the book hasn't been updated in a while).
A visit to this museum might make a good precursor to a jungle trek. Touring the jungle is great, but knowing what types of deadly reptiles lurk behind every rock and tree could help save your life (or make you paranoid). There are lots of deadly critters out in the jungles of this tropical climate, and not just snakes -- poisonous frogs, lizards, and other critters too numerous to list. Yikes!
Watch poisonous snakes be milked for their venom and see snakes killing prey. There was also a pretty cool demonstration of poisonous snakes being fed to animals that seem to be immune to their venoms. Not for the squemish.
All That Glitters IS Gold
Museo del Oro Precolumbiano is a post-modernistic monument to ancient Costa Rican culture. The museum itself is starkly modern and is located in a huge underground vault, underneath the Plaza de la Cultura. Outrageously cool collection of ancient gold objects, mostly crafted by members of the Diquis civilization, which was dominant in Costa Rica when the Spanish invasion began during the 1500s. These guys seemed to have been big on gold lizards and bugs since that's what a lot of the pieces were.
It will cost a couple bucks to get in, plus you have to show a photo ID! (Good thing I had my passport with me, and didn't leave it in the hotel safe as I often do -- I think the guidebooks should tell you stuff like this...) Getting carded to enter a museum is a new one on me, but I'm sure the security is warranted, after all these treasures are clearly worth millions...
The museum is located on Avenida Central, near Calle 3.
Jade
This was my disappointment of the day. My guidebook raved about the collection of jade carvings and other pre-Columbian art objects in the Jade Museum. It sounded too cool to be true, and for me that pretty much sums it up. The doors were shuttered with a sign saying that the place was closed for renovations. Waaahhh! I'll have to make it a point to check this place out next time I get a chance to pass through San Jose. (This was last summer, so the place is probably reopened by now.)
Museo Nacional
For being a "national" museum, the place isn't especially large. But then again, neither is the country. This museum is basically a local history museum. It was the site of a battle during Costa Rica's civil war in the 1940s, and there is an exhibit inside that describes the conflict. Many of the exhibits describe indigenous civilizations from the pre-columbian era, including jewelry, ornate stone sculptures, and household objects.
The museum is located on Avenida Central near Calle 15. Admission is about $2.
Strolling the Streets
The museums that I visited were located close enough together that I was able to walk to most of them without needing to use a taxi. I mostly stayed in the downtown area along Avenidas Central, 1, and 2. Most of the streets are not particularly pleasant to walk along. The traffic is a mess and sidewalks are narrow, dirty, crowded, and not always well maintained. But you can find cool places for a stroll. The Avenida Central is a very pleasant pedestrian mall for several blocks (closed to traffic), but with a few too many gringo burger grease pits for my tastes. There are some nice little boutiques and shops along this stretch, but the best place for idle browsing is the Mercado Central, which has some more typical Tico type things, and which feels more authentically local. I spent a couple hours just bumming around the Mercado Central, where I managed to pick up a few souvenirs.
Getting Around
Taxis are plentiful and pretty cheap. It cost me about $5 to go from our hotel (the Herradura) to downtown. There are tons of buses, but I didn't know the routes and didn't feel the urge to experiment, so I don't have any recommendations on that front. There sure were a lot of buses though...most are the big Dinas that look like overgrown school buses and that spew so much black exhaust that you'd swear they were coal-driven. Once downtown, its easiest to just walk around since most places you probably want to visit are fairly close together.
Where to Eat
Food is pretty cheap in San Jose. We usually paid around $20 for dinner for two, although we did have a couple of splurges that were interesting. One of the best meals we had was dinner at a place called La Monasterie, which is located on top one of the mountains surrounding the city. The food was european rather than central american and the view was out of this world.
To Stay, or To Blow It Off, That is the Question...
If I were on a typical nature-oriented trip to Costa Rica, I would probably just pass on through San Jose without stopping. On the other hand, a visitor to the city itself will find enough to keep busy for a few days. There are some interesting restaurants and night spots for dining, drinking, and dancing so your evenings won't be dull. Daytime diversions include some small museums downtown, plus some interesting shops. Overall, it's really not the kind of place that I would go out of my way to visit, but its more interesting than a typical day in suburbia.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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