Why rent a Costa Rica Villa?

Here are 10 good reasons:

1. Travel on your own schedule

All Recreo Costa Rica villa vacations are available throughout the year so you can choose the dates that work best for you. Most guests prefer to arrive into the Liberia International airport and have the Recreo chauffeur-driven Range Rover meet them to return them to the Resort. We frequently run special offers.

2. It’s your Costa Rica vacation

Bring your spouse, your whole family, a few friends, or just yourself. We can accommodate you whether you’re traveling alone, with one, two, three, seven or even thirty people. Recreo Costa Rica, is an exceptional location for whatever your vacation dreams truly are…

3. Expert-crafted itineraries

We’re experts with assisting visitors to Costa Rica and our concierge designs unique itineraries in consultation with each of our guests, before their arrival to assure an excellent experience is witnessed by all who visit Recreo and Costa Rica. There are many opportunities to get an insider’s perspective on Costa Rica while you’re visiting, but if you want more – you can simply contact our concierge to make all of the arrangements.

4. Your own private guide

Throughout your visit to Recreo you can request a private guide and you’ll be accompanied on walking tours and excursions by top local guides who will share their insights and expertise on everything from the sights you’re exploring to everyday life.

5. Leave the planning to us

We take care of the details, from reserving your villa and stocking your kitchen before your arrival and arranging scheduled activities or lining-up guides and facilitating your airport transfers in comfortable private vehicles. These services are inclusive so that you are free to fully immerse yourself in the Recreo Costa Rica experience.

6. On-site Electronics, Equipment & Internet

Wherever possible, we’ve arranged to provide guests with the best in electronic components, such as, I-pod chargers & large screen TV’s with DVD. Our Resort golf carts, kayaks, boats, & vehicles are in excellent condition and serviced regularly, and the entire resort proudly offers high-speed Internet.

7. Extraordinary Costa Rica

Our Private resort provides you with fascinating places, sights and sounds that aren’t always what you’ll be used too. At most points you’ll have English-speaking Staff that will guide & educate you on your Costa Rica surroundings. The logistics are entirely attended to from food & drinks, or the most far-flung tours.

8. Top-tier luxury accommodations

We’ve selected only the finest appointments, furnishings and accessories for each of our villas and suites. We focus on accommodations that go beyond mere comfort to combine luxury and location with the unique character of space & place.

9. Tailored to your interests

Our Costa Rica itineraries include a variety of options, so that you can tailor-your-trip to your exact interests with your concierge. Day to day, you’ll be sure to have consistent balance of guided excursions and your important free-time. This allows you to enjoy the spontaneity of Recreo and Costa Rica with all of the phenomenal beauty to behold.

10. 24-hour support

Our Concierge and staff are all highly knowledgeable in visiting Costa Rica. As such, you’ll constantly have on-the-ground staff at your disposal to support you around the clock, and whenever you may require it.

Check out the best Costa Rica Resort right here: http://www.recreocostarica.com/costa-rica-resort-villa.php

By Mike McDonald
Tico Times Staff

Costa Rica will host the first international environmental film festival in its history, from Sept. 25 through Oct. 1 in La Fortuna de San Carlos, at the foot of the Arenal volcano in north-central Costa Rica.

The Criterio Ambiental Film Fest will bring together 50 filmmakers from Europe, the United States and Latin America, whose works advocate the protection of the natural world.

The festival is sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and organized by Costa Rican filmmaker Gustavo Solís-Moya.

The event will include screenings, debates and round-table discussions with participating filmmakers and environmental experts from around the globe.

For Solís-Moya, Criterio Ambiental is an opportunity to educate the world’s populace.

“We hope that this effort allows us to generate a greater consciousness in our country as well as the population of Latin America and the entire world to unite ourselves and work together in the construction of a cleaner, more sustainable planet,” he said.

The event’s supporters include the San Carlos Municipality and several other Costa Rican governmental agencies and ministries, including the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry and the Costa Rica Tourism Board.

Recreo Costa Rica, for this weekend only is offering a 7th Night Free promotion, reservations must be made between now and November17th, 2010 or from January 2011 to November 17th, 2011.

Reserve 6 nights and get your 7th All inclusive night for absolutely free… Restrictions apply; contact Recreo at: 1-877-268-2911 or visit us on the Internet: http://www.recreocostarica.com…. And now for the Sweet part of the story…..

No More US Tariffs On Sugar Imports From Costa Rica

On Monday June 14th, 2010, the United States announced the lifting of tariffs on sugar imports from Costa Rica, lifting the last barrier in the regional free trade deal, the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) or  Tratado de Libre Comercio (TLC) locally.

Costa Rica was the last country in Central America to join the free trade deal in January 2009 and then seeing its legislature drag its feet in implementing reforms required under the agreement.

And it was that delay that prompted the US to suspend tariff-free sugar imports this past January.

Costa Rica’s sugar industry that exports on average between 130.000 and 140.000 tonnes of sugar a year, estimates losses from the US decision at up us$1 million dollars.

Last April, Costa Rica’s legislature finally approved the last reform needed, the toughening of copyright laws to protect intellectual property rights.

Now that the US restrictions are lifted, Costa Rica can sell up to 13.800 tonnes of sugar to the United States without duties, said the Costa Rican Foreign Trade Ministry.

CAFTA groups five Central American Countries – Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

Today Recreo Costa Rica announced the launch of thier New landing home page. Check it out here: http://www.recreocostarica.com

Visits to National Parks, rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges, canopy tours, wildlife refuges and Pacific coast beaches are all part of USAO’s trip to Costa Rica May 18-26. Deadline for enrollment is Jan. 28. For more information, or to reserve a spot on the trip, contact Weber at 405-574-1295 or e-mail at sweber@usao.edu.

Individuals wanting to experience rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges and all the other sites of Costa Rica during USAO’s trip to the country in May need to finalize their plans soon. The deadline for enrollment is Jan. 28.

The trip is scheduled May 18-26 and will be of particular interest to individuals interested in culture, diverse ecosystems and exotic plant and animal life, said Dr. Stephen Weber, professor of music at USAO and trip leader. The trip is open to members of the community as well as USAO students.

Students and individuals under 23 should plan to pay around $1,800 for the trip. For people over 23, the cost is around $2,100. Trip costs include airfare, all meals, hotels, ground transportation and entrance to all sites on the tour.

“The trip includes visits to National Parks, rainforests, volcanoes, mountain ranges, canopy tours, wildlife refuges and Pacific coast beaches,” Weber said. “In addition to all the fascinating sights on the tour, participants will get to plant a tree in the Costa Rican rainforest, experience Costa Rican folk music and art and even interact with children at a Costa Rican school.”

The tour is organized and operated by Education First Company, which provides an educational approach to travel abroad experiences. “These trips, sponsored by USAO, provide our students with excellent opportunities to experience other cultures, to further their knowledge of other parts of the world, and to interact with our alums and members of the community that travel with us,” Weber said.

It’s now official that vacationing at one of Recreo, Costa Rica’s luxury villas may very well make you happier! Costa Ricans are consistently ranked as the happiest people on earth. Read more in the latest NY TImes article “The Happiest People” by Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D Kristof below…..

“Hmmm. You think it’s a coincidence? Costa Rica is one of the very few countries to have abolished its army, and it’s also arguably the happiest nation on earth.

There are several ways of measuring happiness in countries, all inexact, but this pearl of Central America does stunningly well by whatever system is used. For example, the World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others, lists Costa Rica in the top spot out of 148 nations.

That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6.

Scholars also calculate happiness by determining “happy life years.” This figure results from merging average self-reported happiness, as above, with life expectancy. Using this system, Costa Rica again easily tops the list. The United States is 19th, and Zimbabwe comes in last.

A third approach is the “happy planet index,” devised by the New Economics Foundation, a liberal think tank. This combines happiness and longevity but adjusts for environmental impact — such as the carbon that countries spew.

Here again, Costa Rica wins the day, for achieving contentment and longevity in an environmentally sustainable way. The Dominican Republic ranks second, the United States 114th (because of its huge ecological footprint) and Zimbabwe is last.

Maybe Costa Rican contentment has something to do with the chance to explore dazzling beaches on both sides of the country, when one isn’t admiring the sloths in the jungle (sloths truly are slothful, I discovered; they are the tortoises of the trees). Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering “nature deficit disorder.”

After dragging my 12-year-old daughter through Honduran slums and Nicaraguan villages on this trip, she was delighted to see a Costa Rican beach and stroll through a national park. Among her favorite animals now: iguanas and sloths.

(Note to boss: Maybe we should have a columnist based in Costa Rica?)

What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.

I’m not antimilitary. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.

In Costa Rica, rising education levels also fostered impressive gender equality so that it ranks higher than the United States in the World Economic Forum gender gap index. This allows Costa Rica to use its female population more productively than is true in most of the region. Likewise, education nurtured improvements in health care, with life expectancy now about the same as in the United States — a bit longer in some data sets, a bit shorter in others.

Rising education levels also led the country to preserve its lush environment as an economic asset. Costa Rica is an ecological pioneer, introducing a carbon tax in 1997. The Environmental Performance Index, a collaboration of Yale and Columbia Universities, ranks Costa Rica at No. 5 in the world, the best outside Europe.

This emphasis on the environment hasn’t sabotaged Costa Rica’s economy but has bolstered it. Indeed, Costa Rica is one of the few countries that is seeing migration from the United States: Yankees are moving here to enjoy a low-cost retirement. My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast.

Latin countries generally do well in happiness surveys. Mexico and Colombia rank higher than the United States in self-reported contentment. Perhaps one reason is a cultural emphasis on family and friends, on social capital over financial capital — but then again, Mexicans sometimes slip into the United States, presumably in pursuit of both happiness and assets.

Cross-country comparisons of happiness are controversial and uncertain. But what does seem quite clear is that Costa Rica’s national decision to invest in education rather than arms has paid rich dividends. Maybe the lesson for the United States is that we should devote fewer resources to shoring up foreign armies and more to bolstering schools both at home and abroad.

In the meantime, I encourage you to conduct your own research in Costa Rica, exploring those magnificent beaches or admiring those slothful sloths. It’ll surely make you happy.”

To see the article go to: www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html

Recreo Plant a Tree Volunteer Opportunity

Once almost completely forested, the country of Costa Rica saw vast clearings of land during the 1970s and 1980s to create cattle pastures for beef exports. With one of the worst rates of deforestation in Latin America, by 1990 only 21% of the country remained forested. However, with ambitious environmental policies and commitment, Costa Rica has become the only tropical country to radically reverse the effects of deforestation, doubling the amount of forest in just two decades! Reforestation in the tropics is a powerful means of carbon offset because the trees grow quickly, and carbon offset measures can have a relatively rapid effect. According to the Tropical Science Center and Programa Amigable con el Cambio Climatico, a single tree in tropical zones fixes an average of 1 to 2.2 tons of carbon during its 20 to 30 years growth. If two trees are planted, the fixation time for the same amount of carbon is cut in half. Unfortunately, travel-related activities often produce substantial greenhouse gases. According to a United Nations report on Climate Change and Tourism, “Carbon dioxide emissions from the [tourism] sector’s transport, accommodation and other tourism activities are estimated to account for between 4 and 6% of total emissions [worldwide].” For most travelers, air travel produces the vast amount of carbon emissions. Therefore, the largest component of a traveler’s carbon offset calculation is based on from where they are traveling. Suggested Number of Trees to Plant for Carbon Offset of Round Trip Flights:
Canada 2
United States 2
Mexico 2
Central America 1
South America 2
Europe 4
Japan 6
The Recreo Plant a Tree program is $25 per person for a native species of tree, laminated tree tag to commemorate the event and a certificate with a picture as a keepsake of your contribution. Trees will be planted within the Recreo estate at your choice of the many available locations. Thank you for helping Costa Rica re-forest!

For more information please go to www.recreocostarica.com

For more information please go to www.recreocostarica.com

If you want to hear what real guests are saying about Recreo, read reviews for yourself at the following link:

www.tripadvisor.com

Or you can access our tripadvisor page directly from the Recreo website at

www.recreocostarica.com