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See
If you come to Costa Rica, then you absolutely must visit:
TORTUGUERO, one of the few spots on earth where you can witness sea turtles nest or lay their eggs;
ARENAL, the most active volcano in Costa Rica (1630 meters altitude), that belches lava, dust and smoke every single day. Especially at night this is a spectacular show. Beautiful spa-resorts with natural thermal springs (healing!) and lava-mud treatments.
MONTEVERDE, the tropical rainforest at 1.500 meters altitude that is home to 2.500 kinds of plants, 400 different birds, 100 kinds of mammals and 490 different kinds of butterflies. Given the very poor conditions of the roads, Monteverde is difficult to reach, but it is more than worth a visit. The hotel Belmar, built in typical Austrian chalet style, (1.600 meters above sea level) offers you a view that leaves even the most seasoned traveller speechless;
THE PENINSULA OF NICOYA (Playa Tambor / Mal País), offers picturesque hills, large cattle farms, beautiful bays and beaches. The American jet set has discovered the coast for buying or building mansions or villas;
PUNTA ISLITA GUANACASTE AND THE FOUR SEASONS PAPAGAYO RESORT, 5-star luxury that you probably would not expect to find in this part of the world.
Deeply impressed by the valuable gifts offered to him by the Indians, Columbus called the country Costa Rica, which in Spanish means "rich coast".
To wake up to the screeching of howling monkeys. To hear a volcano thunder as if there were a storm going on, and which then goes on to spew a shower of ash, fire and smoke. A volcano such as those described in books.
But also: endless jungles, pearly white sandy beaches, lonely bays and rich flora and fauna that are unique in this world.
Welcome to Costa Rica. During his fourth trip to the New World, Columbus anchored in the Bay of Cariari in 1502. Deeply impressed by the valuable gifts offered to him by the Indians, he called the country Costa Rica, which in Spanish means "rich coast".
The name that Christopher Columbus gave this country was well chosen, and still holds true today in 2006. Costa Rica, situated between Nicaragua and Panama, is only one and a half times the size of Holland, but it is home to not less than seven per cent of all biodiversities in the world! Among them are more than 850 kinds of birds and 250 kinds of mammals. A fourth part of the country consists of national parks and natural reservations.
One third of the only 4 million Ticos, as the Costa Ricans are called, lives in the Central Valley, where the capital, San José, is also located. But Costa Rica does not only have extremely rich flora and fauna. Also in other aspects the country, when compared with other Latin American countries, can be called “rich”.
Because president Don Pepe Figueres, the country’s godfather, abolished the army in 1949, the country has been able to invest the budget that in other countries is spent on defence, in a good education and health care system. A lot of money is also spent on the conservation of nature. The latter is not a coincidental choice, because tourism, together with the exportation of computer chips, coffee, bananas and pineapples, is one of the most important sources of revenue for the country.
RESORTS
Although a couple of years ago Costa Rica was particularly a destination for thoroughbred eco-tourists, this image is changing very fast. The backpack is making place for Louis Vuitton, Levi’s is clearing the field for Dolce & Gabbana and in more and more places the bed-and breakfasts are making place for luxury specialists, such as Four Seasons and Marriott. Along the Pacific coast resorts have been built over the last years for the most spoiled tourists.
The exquisite Punta Islita Hotel (5 stars) on the Nicoya Peninsula, for instance, is a member of the famous group Small Luxury Hotels. The inhospitable trip to Punta Islita (because of the hotel’s very remote location, the road to get there is no fun ride) is “rewarded” immediately upon arrival, because the butler receives you at your car with cool, wet towelettes. The Ticos know what it is to have to reach this hotel by car.
LITTLE PEARL
It is not surprising that 95 per cent of the guests arrive in private jets or airliners at the landing strip that is about 5 kilometers away. Punta Islita is known as a little pearl on the Pacific coast. The setup of the hotel is small-scale (30 rooms, 10 suites and 7 villas), and it is built in the style of the old cattle ranches in the Guanacaste region, with roofs covered with palm leaves and the trunks of Madero and Sainillo trees used for the construction. Every single room has a splendid view of the ocean and its own hammock. Most rooms also have a Jacuzzi in the garden or a private swimming pool. Punta Islita is built in such a way that, although everybody has an unobstructed view, no guest has a view of other guests. Privacy guaranteed. Besides, the hotel also has an impressive spa-program with treatments with lava mud and vanilla to massages with warm volcano stones and honey. The largest villa (220 square meters) with its own swimming pool, kitchen and butler service will set you back between 500 and 700 dollars per night.
Wine & Dine
LE MONASTERE (www.monastere-restaurant.com).
Top quality cuisine with a magnificent view over the capital San José. In Le Monastère you can go to dinner two ways: chic n the restaurant or hip in the underground caves (with live music).
JURGEN’S RESTAURANT (www.hotelboutiquejade.com).
The “Le Garage” of San José. High quality cuisine. The restaurant is both elegant and trendy at the same time. A very popular spot among the upper class.
CHATEAU 1525 (www.chateau1525.com)
Very special for Dutch people, because the restaurant is in the former Dutch Embassy in Costa Rica, an old castle. The castle actually houses five different restaurants, each one with its own ambience and style. You can lounge in the wine cellar or have French cuisine on the terrace. Chateau 1525 is popular with well-to-do Costa Ricans and with foreigners. The business is known for its perfect service and dishes with surprising combinations.
CELEBRITIES
“The bad roads here have their pros and cons”, says Vice President Eduardo Villafranca of Punta Islita. For suppliers it is a disaster of course, but the hotel management does know how to appreciate the cheese-with-the-holes in this remote part of the country. “Our guests like to be isolated”, says Villafranca with a smile. “Our have no problems with space and we have no problems with security”. No wonder Punta Islita is a huge attraction for international celebrities. Some celebrities on our guest list are Catherine Deneuve, Enrique Iglesias, David Hasselhof and Madonna.
Guests who choose Punta Islita are contributing to the welfare of the local people. The hotel has won a series of awards with its responsible entrepreneurship. Their philosophy is that a hotel cannot function properly if its environment is not doing well also. So, every year six percent of the profit goes to development projects in the five surrounding villages through a foundation. This way hundreds of thousands of dollars, together with the money raised by the “partners” of the hotel, are additionally invested in education, infrastructure and cultural projects.
LUXURY RESERVATION
At the northernmost tip of the Nicoya Peninsula we have the Four Seasons luxurious Reservation. It is located on the gulf of Papagayo (parrot). With 153 rooms and villas, it is the smallest Four Seasons resort in the world, but in comparison with Punta Islita it is a gigantic resort. Here the only luxury-discipline is the one shaped according to an American model. Nothing is too crazy, everything is possible and all of that at the five-star-plus-level. And prices that normal Ticos can only dream about: 695 dollars per night for staying in a standard room during high season to 6.800 dollars per night in the presidential suite (392 square meters), with three bedrooms, a private swimming pool in your own garden, dining room, and ocean view from both sides and with plasma TV screens everywhere.
But also the guests of the Four Seasons com to Costa Rica not only for the luxury, but also for the country’s rich nature. You can take an excursion to the Santa Rosa National Park, home to monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, dozens of varieties of parrots and twenty kinds of bats. There you also have the property that was confiscated in 1979 from the former Nicaraguan dictator Somoza. The Reagan administration built a secret landing strip on the northern edge of the park for the CIA (the so-called Santa Elena-strip), which was used by general Oliver North and his buddies for clandestine activities (the Iran-Contra scandal). No American top attraction, although very risqué.
Among the guests of the Four Seasons there’s Meg Ryan and basketball topper Michael Jordan. Pop star Pink married motor cross world champion Carey Hart there. Lisa Marie Presley also came to the party. The safe surroundings, the splendid climate and the rich flora and fauna have a magnetic attraction for the American jet set. In just a few years the Nicoya Peninsula has become to the Americans what Marbella is to the Dutch.
BRUCE WILLIS, LISA MARIE PRESLEY, HARRISON FORD, ROD STEWARD, LEONARDO DI CAPRIO, ROBERT REDFORD AND KEVIN COSTNER HAVE ALL RECENTLY BOUGHTA PIECE OF LAND OR A VILLA IN NICOYA.
Hollywood stars and musicians have discovered the magnificent area with green hills, large cattle ranches, huge trees and beautiful bays and beaches.
Bruce Willis, Lisa Marie Presley, David Hasselhoff, Harrison Ford, the Olsen Twins, Kevin Costner and Enrique Iglesias have all recently acquired a piece of land or a villa in the most beautiful areas of Nicoya. And if rumours are true, then also megastars Michael Douglas and Michal Jordan have chose the well loved region of Tambor in search of a mansion. This seems to turn the Peninsula into a jet set enclave par excellence.
Buy a (second) house in Costa Rica?
The largest real estate broker in the US, Century 21, is also a market leader in Costa Rica. For Americans, customer protection comes first, so this also offers European buyers the required security, such as guarantees and safe deposits when making down payments. Real estate buyers in Costa Rica receive their land in their own names. Costa Rica's cadastre is a very well functioning entity. The tax system’s top rate of 30% is very favorable. Transfer tax is between 3.25% and 4.85% of the registered value of the real estate. This value that is "registered" in the cadastre is about 20% of the real commercial value. A pleasant plus point for people wishing to live their permanently: Costa Rica, as Switzerland, applied bank secrecy. Revenue and capital of subjects are not divulged to other countries.
For further information:
Costa Rica Real Estate
Century 21 on the Nicoya Peninsula.
Or
Real Estate in Costa Rica
for Real Estate in Costa Rica in general by Century 21.
HOTTEST REAL ESTATE MARKET
Costa Rica, and specifically the Nicoya Peninsula, is booming. President Jeff Homberger of the NAR (National Association of Realtors), you could call it the American NVM, recently declared on CNN that Costa Rica is at the moment the "hottest real estate market in the world". Americans think that Florida, Mexico and Hawaii have to become too expensive to buy their second home and are deviating to friendly, stable and still dirt cheap Costa Rica.
Also, the largest real estate organization in the world, the American Century21 (7.200 real estate offices in more than 38 countries) is pleasantly amazed by what they see happening in Costa Rica. Very seldom have prices in a region risen so strongly.
SUCCESSFUL
Five years ago Century21 asked the Dutch businessman Carlo Köhlinger to set up the sale of real estate in the most beautiful spots in Nicoya. The Americans set their sights on Köhlinger because he had already managed to carry out a number of extremely successful real estate projects in Nicoya. Köhlinger can hardly keep up with the requests for land and villas. Coastal areas and bays such as playa Tambor, Montezuma, Mal País and Costa de Oro are developing at an incredible pace. Wealthy and famous Americans stand in line to invest. Even the sober Dutchman himself is a bit baffled by the booming real estate business in this part of Costa Rica.
We met up with Köhlinger in the 5-star resort of the Spanish billionaire family Barceló, owners of the equally named hotel chain (175 hotels in Europe and North and South America). Köhlinger is a house guest of Guillermo Barceló, who also has a home in Tambor. “You will probably not believe this”, says the dry Dutchman. “But the prices of land rise at an average of fifty per cent per year. Real estate, such as apartments, villas and mansions increase their value by approximately twenty percent every year. And the end of it is not yet in sight. It is really unbelievable”.
Travel Tip
Martinair has almost daily connections with Costa Rica. There are alternate stops in Miami or Orlando. Flying time from Holland is twelve hours. For a little more, the Star class offers the comfort of business class. For further information: www.martinair.nl
The locations described in this report can be booked via Emotions, specialized in exclusive travelling.
More information:
www.emotions.nl
Telephone: 020-398.93.93
PRESTIGIOUS
“Prices here are relatively low, especially in relation to the previous top destinations like Mexico and Hawaii”, says Köhlinger. In Mexico the price per square meter rose from 150 dollars to 1.700 dollars in ten years’ time. As a consequence of the highly increased demand, prices in Costa have also risen, but with the following difference: Costa is only just beginning. Köhlinger has no words for it. “In 2002 a client bought a property in the vicinity of Tambor for 1.9 million dollars and sold the same land last year for 15 million dollars! I can show you the documents if you don’t believe it. In 2002 another client bought eight hectares in Tango Mar for 150.000 dollars. He now sold those same eight hectares, to which nothing at all had been done, for 1.5 million dollars!” The example of the prestigious Tambor Hills development project gets the imagination: 7.000 square meters each plot brought in 40.000 dollars in 2004, but now they are sold for over 175.000 dollars!
Christopher Columbus named Costa Rica the “rich coast”. For many Americans and some Europeans, this name has proven to be literally true. No matter how high the dollar gain is in real estate, the first place still goes to Costa Rica’s rich nature. The eco tourists have gotten company from dollar-investors. But the Ticos are pragmatic: both things are bringing a lot of foreign capital into the country. And in the end every Tico is better off for it.
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