Tips on Travel in Costa Rica Costa Rica is one of the Western Hemisphere's top travel bargains. Rooms at even the fanciest properties rarely cost more than $200 nightly, and quite pleasing accommodations can be secured at a number of hotels, inns, and guest houses for between $40 and $80 per night. Dinner at a nice restaurant costs from $15 to $30 per person, and most other goods and services cost less than they do in North America and Europe. Many but not all businesses in tourism-driven areas accept credit cards, and virtually all businesses in Costa Rica accept both U.S. and Costa Rican cash. Direct flights to Costa Rica's main airport, just outside San Jose, are available on most major U.S. carriers - flying time from Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, or Miami is about three to four hours. Of the several guidebooks about the country, Moon Handbooks Costa Rica, by Christopher P. Baker, is easily the most informative and well-written, and it includes sections on the gay scenes in San Jose and Quepos.

10 Days in Costa Rica
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At Manuel Antonio National Park and the adjacent beach, there's great nature-watching - you'll sometimes spy playful white-faced monkeys cavorting in the trees just behind the sand. There's also a section of beach that's particularly popular with gay sun-bunnies - it's a little hard to find this section, which becomes inaccessible for a couple of hours at high tide each day, but any local can give you directions. You'll usually find plenty of gay folks along the main beach, too.

There are a handful of excellent restaurants along the main road, most within walking distance of the gay hotels. These include Barba Roja and Bambujam, which both serve creative and contemporary seafood, and Aqua Azul, a casual, open-air bar and cafe with great burgers and mahimahi sandwiches. After dining, plan to have drinks and watch the sunset at the rooftop Tutu bar, which draws a largely gay crowd. Or for serious dancing, head down the road into the town of Quepos, where the Arco Iris disco pulses into the wee hours and attracts a mixed, although mostly hetero, bunch.

Days 9 and 10: Central Highlands
On your ninth day, drive back up the coast from Quepos and ascend the winding but scenic highway into the Central Highlands region, just west of San Jose. Here the air is crisper and cooler than down along the coast, as the attractive hill towns west of San Jose rise to elevations of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Attractions include Zoo Ave (a wonderful animal preserve where injured or abandoned animals are rehabilitated), La Guacima Butterfly Farm, Irazu Volcano crater lake, and Poas Volcano.

An excellent place to spend your final night (or even two nights) is Vista del Valle, a luxurious small inn perched awesomely on the edge of spectacular Rio Grande Canyon. Mainstream but gay-friendly, Vista del Valle has economy-minded rooms in the main house as well as a series of fancier, self-contained cottages set along a network of meandering pathways - most have private decks overlooking the canyon. In the evening, the inn serves a commendable fixed-price dinner in its open-air dining room, which is cantilevered over the edge of the canyon.

A more economical but still thoroughly appealing alternative is Pura Vida Bed and Breakfast, just north of the San Jose suburb of Alajuela, a 10-minute drive from the airport. This relaxing former coffee-farmhouse has seven elegantly furnished rooms and sits amid fragrant gardens; several larger units have kitchens, fireplaces, and patios. The owners are tremendously helpful and offer excellent advice on touring nearby attractions.

Both of these are such lovely properties that you may feel inspired to postpone your return flight home and hang around for a few more days, soaking up the fresh air and endearing personality of this charmed country.

Andrew Collins is the author of Fodor's Gay Guide to the USA and as well as numerous other guidebooks