Overview to San Jose: Travel Guide and Tourist Information
- San Jose Information
- Getting around in San Jose
- Things to do in San Jose
- Where to stay in San Jose
- San Jose street map
With its sprawling grid of congested smoggy streets, San Jose is never going to win a prize for being the most beautiful city in Central America. After a day or two here, though, it has an unerring knack of slowly but surely winning people over.
San Jose isn’t exactly overflowing with attractive architecture. A noisy, bustling sort of place, its charms are more down-to-earth and less superficial, with friendly people, and lively street scenes more the order of the day.
What it does have a plentiful supply of, though, is museums… lots of museums. The Museo Oro Precolombino (home to a superb collection of pre-Columbian gold) can be found at the very heart of the city, tucked away from the Plaza de la Cultura.
Next there’s the Museo del Jade (with a spectacular selection of jade artifacts), the Museo Nacional (near the Plaza de la Democracia, full of archaeological remains) and the city’s wonderfully grand Teatro Nacional, the pride and joy of the locals.
Arguably more interesting still is the city’s large market, the Mercado Central. Down to the far eastern end of the Avenida Central, it’s a full-on assault to the senses and you can buy just about anything under the sun, including an excellent cheap lunch.
And it’s with eating, drinking and nightlife that the city really comes into its own. As well as the intriguing scenes played out in the cafés and bars during the day, San Jose is one of the best places to party in Central America and its salsa bars are the stuff of legend.
Clustered around the city’s university (to the north of the Parque Central), the district of San Pedro and the Los Yoses section of Av. Central have countless excellent ‘sodas’ (cheap eateries) and bars to choose from, plus the odd jumping salsa club.
The city is also perfectly placed to explore the various National Parks which offer great ecotourism opportunities and some fantastic volcanoes (including the active Irazu). It’s really the engaging city itself, though, that finds people doing an unexpected double-take.
