Best Things to Do in San Jose, California

Costa Rica's National Theater (Teatro Nacional) is the country's most celebrated public building and a symbol of the cultural aspirations of a small nation that chose to invest in arts infrastructure at the end of the nineteenth century. The theater was built between 1891 and 1897, funded by a special tax levied on coffee and banana exports, after a visiting European opera company was unable to perform in San Jose due to the absence of a suitable venue. The neoclassical facade features allegorical statues of Comedy and Tragedy flanking a central pediment decorated with a relief of Beethoven and Calderon de la Barca. Inside, the gilded auditorium, hand-painted ceiling depicting an idealised Costa Rican coffee harvest, marble staircases and mirrored lobbies rival those of theaters in Vienna or Paris. Regular performances include opera, ballet, chamber music and theatre productions by the National Symphony Orchestra and visiting international companies. The foyer cafe, housed in the original ground-floor salon with its original mosaic floors and ornate plasterwork, serves coffee and pastries and is open to non-ticket holders. Guided tours of the building run on most days when no rehearsals are scheduled. Entry to the theater and its exhibitions is highly affordable by international standards.

The Orosi River Valley (El Valle del Rio Orosi) southeast of Cartago is one of Costa Rica's most scenic highland landscapes, a lush agricultural basin where coffee and macadamia plantations descend to the banks of the Orosi River amid a backdrop of forested mountains. The valley was one of the earliest permanently settled regions of colonial Costa Rica, and its centrepiece, the Church of San Jose de Orosi, built around 1743, is the oldest Catholic church in continuous use in Costa Rica and houses a small museum of colonial religious art. The town of Orosi at the valley floor offers natural hot spring pools heated by geothermal activity below the surrounding volcanic terrain, with several public and private bathing facilities open to visitors. Lake Cachi, an artificial reservoir created by the Cachi Dam in the 1960s, fills the upper valley and is framed by mountains often wreathed in cloud, creating a dramatic setting for kayaking, cycling and photography. The Tapanti National Park at the valley's head protects primary rainforest receiving some of the highest rainfall in Costa Rica and harbours resplendent quetzals, trogons and tapirs. A scenic loop road circuits the valley and can be driven or cycled in a half day from San Jose or Cartago, making the Orosi Valley one of the most rewarding day trips from the capital.

Plaza de la Cultura is San Jose's principal public square and the symbolic heart of the Costa Rican capital, an open pedestrian plaza spanning two city blocks between the National Theater and the Gran Hotel Costa Rica. Built in the late 1970s during a major urban renewal programme, the plaza replaced an earlier market and became the defining public space of modern San Jose — a gathering point for demonstrations, concerts, street performers and everyday social life. The Plaza slopes gently downward from Avenida Central toward Calle 5, and the underground levels beneath the paving house the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum and the Banco Central de Costa Rica's numismatic collection, accessible via staircases at the plaza perimeter. The Teatro Nacional facade forms the plaza's most dramatic edge, its neoclassical statues and pediment providing one of the most photographed architectural backdrops in Central America. Pigeons, shoeshiners, ice-cream vendors and newspaper sellers animate the plaza at all hours, while the surrounding streets concentrate San Jose's most important cultural institutions within easy walking distance. The plaza serves as the natural start or end point for walking tours of the historic centre. On weekend evenings, live music and informal performances regularly occupy the central paved area, making it a lively venue for experiencing authentic city life.

Poas Volcano National Park, a 90-minute drive northwest of San Jose in Costa Rica's Alajuela province, protects one of the world's largest active volcanic craters, measuring approximately 1.5 kilometres in diameter and 300 metres deep. The crater contains a hyperacidic turquoise lake — one of the most acidic natural bodies of water on Earth, with a pH sometimes reaching zero — that periodically erupts in phreatic explosions, shooting scalding water and sulphurous gas into the air. Poas has been closed to visitors multiple times including a lengthy closure after major eruptions in 2017 and 2019; visitors should verify current access conditions before travelling. When open, a short 700-metre paved trail leads from the visitor centre to the crater rim, where on clear mornings the turquoise lake and fumarole plumes create a spectacular panorama. A secondary crater, Laguna Botos, holds a cool freshwater lake surrounded by cloud forest festooned with bromeliads and mosses. Resplendent quetzals have been spotted in the elfin forest near the car park. The park sits at 2,708 metres, so warm layers are essential even during the dry season. The combined combination of volcanic geology, extreme chemistry and cloud-forest biodiversity makes Poas one of the most scientifically fascinating national parks in Central America.

The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum (Museo del Oro Precolombino) beneath Plaza de la Cultura in San Jose houses one of the largest collections of pre-Columbian goldwork in the Americas, with more than 1,600 gold pieces produced by indigenous Costa Rican cultures between 500 and 1500 CE. The museum is operated by the Banco Central de Costa Rica and occupies three underground floors designed to evoke the underground world associated with gold in pre-Columbian cosmology. The collection's masterpieces include elaborate frog and crocodile pendants, anthropomorphic jaguar figures and ceremonial ornaments produced using the lost-wax (cire-perdue) casting technique, which indigenous goldsmiths mastered independently centuries before European contact. Most pieces come from the Diquis delta and Chiriqui regions in southern Costa Rica and western Panama, a cultural area renowned for gold craftsmanship. Accompanying exhibitions explain the spiritual and social significance of gold in Chibcha-speaking societies, where the metal represented solar energy and life force rather than monetary value. The museum also holds a numismatic collection documenting Costa Rican currency history. Admission is affordable and the museum is an essential stop for anyone interested in pre-Columbian civilisation and indigenous artistry in Central America. Allow 90 minutes for a thorough visit.

Rescate Animal Zooave in La Garita, Alajuela, is Costa Rica's largest wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre, caring for more than 100 native species across a 14-hectare property dedicated to treating injured and confiscated animals and returning them to the wild wherever possible. Founded in 1974, Zooave has treated tens of thousands of animals over five decades, including scarlet macaws, harpy eagles, tapirs, crocodiles and jaguars, many confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade or brought in after vehicle collisions. Animals that cannot be returned to the wild due to permanent injury or imprinting remain as permanent residents in spacious naturalistic enclosures, giving visitors a remarkable opportunity to observe species including the great green macaw, white-tailed deer and giant anteater at close range. The macaw breeding programme has been particularly successful: Zooave has released hundreds of scarlet macaws into protected areas across Costa Rica, contributing significantly to the recovery of populations that were severely depleted by the cage-bird trade in the 1970s and 1980s. Educational guided tours explain each animal's story and the conservation challenges facing Costa Rican wildlife. Zooave sits along the Pan-American Highway 25 kilometres from San Jose and is easily combined with visits to Poas Volcano or Sarchi on a northern highlands circuit.

The Mercado Central in San Jose, Costa Rica, has anchored the capital's commercial and culinary life since it was built in 1880, and its labyrinthine interior — packed with more than 200 stalls — provides one of the most vivid introductions to everyday Costa Rican culture available to visitors. The market occupies an entire city block between Avenida Central and Avenida 1 and is roofed against tropical downpours, creating a shaded arcade filled with the aromas of fresh coffee, roasting meat and tropical fruit. Sodas — small family-run lunch counters — line the central aisles and serve gallo pinto (rice and beans), casados, ceviche and the national breakfast staple arroz con leche for prices that have barely changed in decades. Vendors specialise in fresh produce, medicinal herbs, leather goods, hammocks, Costa Rican-grown coffee and artisan souvenirs. The market is primarily a working neighbourhood institution rather than a tourist attraction, which gives it an authenticity that more polished craft markets lack. Mornings from 7 a.m. to noon are the busiest and most atmospheric, when stallholders arrange displays and office workers stop for breakfast. Pickpocketing can occur in crowded aisles, so travellers should keep bags secure and avoid carrying unnecessary valuables.

The Sarapiqui Canopy operates in the lowland rainforest of Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, a riverside town in Costa Rica's northern Caribbean zone where the Sarapiqui River meets the Puerto Viejo tributary. Zip-lining through the rainforest canopy at Sarapiqui delivers views into a biologically exceptional landscape: the Sarapiqui corridor connects Braulio Carrillo National Park to the Nicaraguan border and serves as a critical wildlife passage for migrating species. The canopy tour platforms are positioned to cross river gorges and forest patches harbouring sloths, howler monkeys, toucans and poison dart frogs visible from the zip line cables. Sarapiqui is also one of Costa Rica's premier white-water rafting destinations, with Grade 3 and 4 rapids on the Sarapiqui River drawing paddlers through jungle corridors teeming with wildlife. Selva Verde Lodge and La Selva Biological Station, run by the Organisation for Tropical Studies, offer some of Central America's finest guided birdwatching in the same area, making the region a natural base for combining adventure and nature tourism. Most operators offer half-day canopy packages from nearby La Fortuna or Arenal, adding Sarapiqui to circuits of the northern lowlands. The town itself sits on the edge of the Sarapiqui River, where boat tours observe river otters and crocodiles from flat-bottomed skiffs.

Sarchi, a small town in Costa Rica's central highlands, is the country's acknowledged capital of traditional craftsmanship and the birthplace of the painted ox-cart, which UNESCO recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2005. The brightly decorated ox-cart (carreta) evolved during the nineteenth-century coffee boom as a practical transport vehicle and gradually became a canvas for intricate geometric designs rendered in vivid primary colours, with each family and village developing its own distinctive pattern. Workshops in Sarchi Norte — particularly the Chaverri factory, operating continuously since 1903 — allow visitors to watch craftspeople hand-paint miniature carts, rocking chairs, furniture and decorative items using techniques passed through multiple generations. Full-sized carriages can be custom-ordered and shipped internationally. The town is divided into two sections: Sarchi Norte concentrates the craft workshops and the main church, while Sarchi Sur hosts additional factories and the large artisan market near the main square. The plaza fountain, decorated with a giant mosaic-painted ox-cart, has become the town's most photographed landmark. Sarchi sits 45 kilometres northwest of San Jose and is easily reached on a half-day trip, often combined with visits to nearby Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall Gardens.

The Tech Interactive in downtown San Jose is a hands-on science and technology centre occupying 132,000 square feet across multiple levels and consistently ranked among the best children's science museums in the United States. Opened in its current building in 1998 and redesigned in subsequent years, the museum blends engineering challenges, life sciences, climate innovation and digital creativity into exhibits that reward active participation rather than passive viewing. The Innovation Galleries allow visitors to design roller coasters, programme robots, create digital music and explore the biology of the human genome using interactive kiosks. A large IMAX dome theatre screens science documentaries and space films. The Hackspace, a dedicated maker workshop, runs drop-in programmes where participants build circuits, design 3D-printed objects and experiment with Arduino-based electronics. The museum partners with Silicon Valley companies including Intel, Cisco and Adobe, whose technologies appear throughout the exhibits in applied contexts. Temporary exhibitions rotate regularly and have included topics from genetic engineering to space exploration. The Tech's position in San Jose's South Hall district places it within walking distance of the SAP Center, the San Pedro Square Market and the San Jose Museum of Art, making it an easy anchor for a full day in downtown.

Tormentos Reef is one of Cozumel’s most charming and consistently enjoyable dive sites, offering a different character from the island’s famous walls. Located along the protected southwestern shore within the Cozumel Reefs National Marine Park, the reef consists of a series of coral heads scattered across a sandy bottom at depths between five and fifteen metres, making it accessible to divers of most experience levels and to confident snorkellers.

The sandy channels between the coral formations are the site’s signature feature. Small creatures appear with surprising density: spotted morays tucked under ledges, cleaning stations where shrimp attend to parrotfish and wrasse, arrow crabs picking through rubble, and occasional seahorses anchored to coral branches. The ambient light in the shallows brings out vivid colour, making Tormentos particularly rewarding for underwater photography at an unhurried pace. Loggerhead turtles pass through with regularity, and nurse sharks are sometimes found resting beneath overhangs.

The site is diveable and enjoyable throughout the year. Cozumel’s water temperatures remain warm between 27 and 29 degrees Celsius in peak months, and the island’s location in a lee position generally keeps the western dive sites protected even when weather affects the eastern coast. Visibility is typically excellent, often exceeding twenty-five metres, with the clearest conditions between April and August.

Tormentos Reef is a short boat journey from the main pier in San Miguel de Cozumel, and virtually every dive operator on the island includes it in their rotation. It is frequently paired with a deeper wall site—Santa Rosa or Palancar—in a two-tank excursion that balances dramatic open-water dives with detail-rich observation. The site suits macro enthusiasts and beginners as much as it does experienced divers looking for a relaxed and rewarding dive.