Picture yourself on a white sand beach in the glaring tropical sun with the waves crashing on a crystal clear sea while you recline on your beach chair sipping a tropical rum punch.  Sound nice?  Well it is a perfect setting to enjoy in a place like Cancun or Cozumel, where the resorts are large, luxurious, and, of course, “all-inclusive.”  But that’s Cancun, that’s Cozumal and that’s NOT Costa Rica.  Costa Rica is one of the most bio-diverse locations on earth.  Costa Rica is full of virgin rain and cloud forests that are home to a mind-boggling array of animal life.  Generally the all-inclusive resort is large and contains more hotel rooms by far than the average Costa Rican hotel.  I am sure there is something innate to the economic model of the all-inclusive that requires high density.  But in order to do that Costa Rica’s virgin forests have to be cut down.  As a result its bio-diversity is lost.  Costa Rica loses what makes it unique.  There are some who have had the idea of bringing the all-inclusive to Costa Rica.  Most of such resorts are in Guanacaste, where the land is flatter and where there is much beachfront property that is “titled,” or not subject to concession, which otherwise is the only way to build a hotel witin 200 meters of the high tide line.  But even in Guanacaste, the all-inclusive concept has caused controversy.  Take the example of the 700 room Hotel Riu in Playa Matapalo.  There are law suits and protests going on right now because in order to build the Riu a mangrove forest had to be clear cut.  All-inclusives are great for vacations where the prime objective is to eat, drink and lay back to soak up rays.  But an experience of Costa Rica, while it can involve some of that, is much more.  It is to get up close and personal with one of our planet’s last true biogems.  In order to do that, you have to go to places where all-inclusives are forbidden.  Forbidden because building them there would destroy the reason to visit.  I am of the firm belief that every time an all-inclusive is erected in Costa Rica, Costa Rica loses a bit more of its unique appeal. At Package Costa Rica we will put our customers in all-inclusives if they demand it, but we try to persuade them otherwise.  It is just not the best way to experience what this country is all about.  In short, all-inclusives are by nature “un-sustainable” and therefore not consistent with the overall message of Costa Rica.

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100 Cool Things to Do in Costa Rica

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