Santa Ana in the Central Valley
quiet small town in close proximity to San José
If you would like to escape the hustle and bustle of San José, you can escape west to Santa Ana.
The best restaurants in the country are in Santa Ana, the climate is drier than the rest of the country (Sta. Ana was voted the city with the 5th best climate in the world) and it is easy and quick to get to. It only takes about 20 minutes from both San José and Juan Santamaria International Airport .
Sta. Ana, founded in 1907, is a mature town with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where tradition and modernity are fittingly combined. Today around 29,000 people live here. The hinterland is green and hardly developed, and there is the opportunity for extensive hikes and horseback rides. An example of this is the famous Catarata de Brasil and the nature reserves " Cerros de Escazu " and " el rodeo ".
Although Sta. Ana is growing rapidly, many old traditions have been preserved there. The old town center combines artists and crafts, and there is a ceramics workshop right next to the church. When it's time to visit the pub in the evening, you can often see visitors arriving on horseback. This is then tied nearby - late in the evening the rider then relies on his horse's sense of direction.
Of course, Stanta Ana also has an 18-hole golf course, as well as swimming pools and tennis courts - there is also a country club. A few meters up the mountain towards Puriscal, you can see as far as the Pacific when the weather is clear.
Good gastronomy, one of the best in all of Costa Rica, offers the visitor a lot of choice. Here you will find a small selection of our recommended restaurants in Santa Ana and the Central Valley .
Santa Ana is ideally located to use as a base station for a vacation in Costa Rica. As a hotel in Santa Ana we of course recommend our Posada Nena !
