Rural Tourism in Costa Rica.
By Melvin Pereira
Community based Rural Tourism has strongly began to mark its presence within Costa Rica’s tourist industry.
With the advantage of having numerous factors to its favor, Community Based Rural Tourism is able to compete with other popular and high end attractions in the country. Not only does this type of tourism offer the visitor a taste of the region’s every day life, but it also gives these small rural communities tools for its development, important means of income and the continuity of enhancing Costa Rica’s identity.
Impossible to imitate, Rural Tourism offers the real every day life as it is lived in Costa Rica versus the beaten path vacation route. Aside from the majestic volcanoes and dream beaches, Costa Rica is also well known and quite proud of its people. Tourists usually do not get the opportunity to interact with the locals and learn about traditions and life style. Rural Tourism seeks to also give the tourist the chance to not only fall in love with the country, but with the warmth of its people as well.
Beautiful landscape and cheap Costa Rica hotel accommodations are perfectly combined with tours, handicrafts and every day rural life. Learn how coffee is planted and picked, how milk is turned into Costa Rica’s delicious cheese and how sugar and sweets are made from sugar cane.
Community associations run these rural tourism programs within private ecological reserves or near areas of cultural and environmental interests. Visitors who choose to experience this interactive form of tourism will discover and participate of Costa Rica’s tradition and culture as well as taking home the eternal friendship of its people.
