Costa Rica Provinces

Seven. San José, Alajuela, Cartago, and Heredia share the Central Valley. Guanacaste, Puntarenas, and Limón hold most of the coast. A province is an administrative line, not a state, and not the same thing as a region on this site. Guanacaste is a province. The North Pacific is how the beach trip is usually planned.

That is why a map and a plan can disagree. The lines below are the ones that confuse people: which airport, which ferry, and which towns are not in the province their nickname suggests.

Guanacaste is the dry northwest, and it is the name people use for that beach trip. It includes Liberia and Daniel Oduber airport, and most of the Nicoya Peninsula: Tamarindo, Samara, Nosara, Flamingo, and Papagayo. December to April is the long dry season here. That is why the second-home market sits on this coast.

The south tip of Nicoya is the exception. Santa Teresa, Malpais, and Montezuma are Puntarenas, even though people call the whole peninsula Guanacaste. The ferry that reaches them leaves from the city of Puntarenas.

Puntarenas is the long Pacific province, not one town. It runs from the Gulf of Nicoya through Jacó and Quepos to the Osa Peninsula and the Panama border. The Osa is not its own province. Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita, and Pavones are all Puntarenas.

Use this province when the plan is the easy beach from San José, the ferry to the south end of Nicoya, or a boat into the Osa. The city of Puntarenas is the ferry dock. Most visitors pass through it. They do not stay.

Limón is the whole Caribbean, not only the port. Cahuita, Puerto Viejo, and Manzanillo sit on the coast road south of the city. Tortuguero is also Limón, and there is no road to it. You arrive by boat or by small plane.

Rain can fall here in any month. The city is where you change buses or boats. The beach trip is the coast south of it, or the canals to the north. Do not judge the province by the blocks around the dock.

San José, Alajuela, Heredia, and Cartago. San José is the capital. The city is compact, and Escazú and Santa Ana sit on the west side, which is where many people look for a house. Alajuela holds the main airport, La Fortuna, and Poás. Heredia is the coffee slope just north of the city, and an easy base for the valley. Cartago, the capital until 1823, lies east of San José, under Irazú and Turrialba.

A night before an early flight belongs in Alajuela, not in a beach province. The drive back across the mountains is a morning, not the same afternoon as the plane.

Tamarindo, Samara, and Nosara are Guanacaste. Jacó, Quepos, Manuel Antonio, Dominical, Uvita, Pavones, and the Osa are Puntarenas. So are Santa Teresa and Montezuma. Puerto Viejo is Limón. La Fortuna and the main airport are Alajuela.

Monteverde sits on the line between Puntarenas and Guanacaste, which is why two people can describe the same drive as two provinces. The town you sleep in is the useful fact. The line on the map is not.

Stay in the Central Valley if you want hospitals, schools, and a short drive to a volcano. Choose Guanacaste for the dry Pacific and the Liberia airport. Choose Puntarenas for Jacó, Quepos, the Osa, and the ferry. Choose Limón for the Caribbean.

Most trips touch two of these and do not need the other five. The region pages are the more useful map once you know the name. The geography guide explains the mountains that sit between them.