Delight and reward even the most demanding food connoisseur with unimaginable food combinations. New dishes sure to tease everyone’s palate; crunchy heart-of-palm salad, creamy pejibaye (Peach Palm) mousse, or cassava meat pie all fuse perfectly together with Costa Rica’s typical food, such as rice and beans and fried plantain.
If you’re planning a formal sit-down dinner or a buffet, give your clients something to talk about with colors, textures and scents of the tropics – surprise them with fruit and vegetable decorations. The country’s cheerful personality and culture can be felt during a poolside barbecue, making your event memorable.
Spice up any occasion with entertainment by Costa Rican folkloric dance troupes, a group of stilt-walking fantasy figures, or a typical marching band called a cimarrona. Costa Rica has graduated hundreds of artists in the performing arts, therefore, musical and theatrical presentations can easily arranged. Also, you can choose from popular bands performing merengue, salsa, and pop music or jazz groups, big bands and even the National Symphonic Orchestra.
The country’s riches provide plenty of inspiration for theme parties: volcanoes, coral reefs, and cloud forests can be applied in unimaginable ways to set the ideal mood for a wonderful event. History and culture present the pretext for a celebration, from the witchcraft of Escazú to the mysterious golden treasures buried by pirates in Coco’s Island, and the culture and heritage of the Chorotega Indians.
Off-Site Venues
Specialty restaurants, theaters and sites of cultural and historical importance will turn your event into an occasion to remember. Envision a gala affair at the Children’s Museum, location of a former penitentiary. Enjoy a private Costa Rican-style rodeo, dinner and folk dance performance in a traditional setting. Savor a tropical dinner cruise to a secluded island or a sunset dinner in an amphitheater.
Alternative settings can be found at a variety of locals: a butterfly farm, a colonial village, a coffee plantation, or a typical, old-fashioned Costa Rican restaurant. Both private and prestigious clubs, such as the Club Union and the Costa Rica Country Club are available, along with the National Museum, Gold Museum and the National Art Museum. Lecture halls and auditoriums of Costa Rican universities and meeting rooms of professional Costa Rican associations are also available for breakout sessions away from your hotel.
Top Restaurants
Dine al fresco or enjoy fine dining at a selection of restaurants set in the center of town, by a nearby mountain river, or in sophisticated suburbs, which offer local and international cuisine. Choose from a generous list of gourmet cuisines available: Italian, Spanish, German, Swiss, French, Thai, Mexican, Peruvian, Indian, Brazilian, Argentinean, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, and Caribbean. Ready for that perfect tropical drink? At the assortment of bars and lounges you will find wait staff, known for their service with friendly smiles, ready to serve it to you.
Pick gifts that range from the conventional to crafts and the consumable for your meeting or convention. The conventional include umbrellas or ponchos with the company logo for the rainforest trips, carry-alls made from the same natural fibers, and adventure kits that include a T-shirt, repellent, poncho, bandana and sunscreen.
Crafts are available in precious hardwoods, coffee roots, banana paper, gold, clay, enamelware and other materials. They include replicas of pre-Columbian art, indigenous pottery, boldly colored images of daily life painted on banana paper, jewelry, masks, woven wall hangings, or the most popular Costa Rican souvenir, the colorfully hand-painted oxcart.
For the consumable, local products make the perfect keepsake: fresh and world-renowned coffee, spirits and liquors made from sugar cane or coffee, and hand-made chocolates.
Communications and Technology
“Costa Rica is ranked 3rd in Latin America in the Technology Index for the quality of its environment for innovation, the capacity to receive international technology and export goods with technological content, and the degree of assimilation of new information and telecommunications technologies.”
(Global Competitiveness Report 2001).
“It is also among the 30 leading exporters of high-tech products,” (Human Development Report, 2001).
Costa Rica has positioned itself as one of the most technologically advanced telecommunications systems in the Latin American region. This position is no coincidence, since Costa Rica’s forward-looking policies in telecommunications have attracted major production investment from corporations such as Intel.
You can dial direct to anywhere in the world from Costa Rica. What’s even better, for credit card and collect calls, an international code connects you with an operator in your country. For your convenience, you can call toll free from the United States and Canada to make the arrangements for your event, since many local companies now have 1-800 numbers. If you prefer the Internet, more and more companies have web pages. To keep in touch with your job when you’re here, you can conduct research or access your own computer files from Costa Rica.
Costa Rica offers all the ingredients for a successful meeting. The majority of hotels offer the latest in audiovisual technology: sound systems, lighting and top-of-the-line projection, or even videoconference via satellite.
Transportation
Costa Rica offers a large fleet of late-model motor coaches, deluxe buses, microbuses and vans for any kind of traveling needs. To ensure a comfortable ride, all vehicles have air-conditioning, and the larger coaches are equipped with video monitors and washroom facilities. Most are owned and operated by transportation companies that rent them to local ground operators, although some DMCs have their own fleets (please see services descriptions for each company). You can be sure that in all cases, experienced drivers take passengers to nearly every corner of the country on Costa Rica’s more than 35,000 kilometers of road. VIPs can count on limousine service upon request.
Two domestic airlines and a number of charter services, including helicopters, service the country so visitors can make up for lost time and swiftly travel inside the country. This makes any itinerary possible, even if visitors are not staying for long, since these services offer sensible fares and there are airstrips in even the outmost part of the country.
