Guanacaste

Guanacaste is a province in . This region is covered by dry tropical forest, which makes it popular among tourists looking to escape the humidity found in most of .
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Wikipedia
Photo: Andrés Berrocal Soto, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Liberia and Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.
is the capital city of the Guanacaste province of . It is located about 220 km Northwest San Jose. After Mexico's War of Independence from Spain, the settlement of Guanacaste, as was known then, transitioned from being a town in the Partido de Nicoya of the Federal Republic of Central America to being part of Nicaragua and then Costa Rica.

Photo: Kobold66, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a park of 14,161 hectares covering a dry tropical forest region in the provinces of Guanacaste and , centered around the volcano, Rincón de la Vieja, and the surrounding volcanic and natural features.

Photo: Uviein, CC BY-SA 4.0.
is the main town of the , in Guanacaste . It has limited appeal for tourists but is a commercial center with more transportation connections than the small rural and beach towns of the region.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Santa Rosa National Park and Tilarán.

Photo: Geoff Gallice, CC BY 2.0.
is a large national park in the Guanacaste province of western . It preserves a large area of dry tropical forest and together with Guanacaste National Park and other neighboring national parks, provides a large contiguous protected natural area as suitable habitat with sufficient space for large cats, such as the jaguar and puma.

Photo: elisabeth tonglet, CC BY-SA 2.0.
is a small town in Guanacaste, on the shores of Lake Arenal. The town is a peaceful, friendly place to visit and is increasingly popular for aquatic activities, especially windsurfing on the lake.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.
The straddles the border between Guanacaste province and province of , it is home to the beautiful Rio Celeste.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.
is a small beach town in Guanacaste province, on the North Pacific Coast of . It is close to several beaches including Ocotal, Playa Hermosa and Playa Panama.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a beach town in 's Guanacaste province.

Photo: Paul Kehrer, CC BY 2.0.
is a large protected natural area in Guanacaste in northwest . The park preserves critical habitat for a large number of species, particularly aquatic bird species who nest in the park's swamps, mangroves, a large lake, and an island in the Río Tempisque.

Photo: Chmehl, CC BY 2.5.
is in the northern in Guanacaste province, . The park protects a densely forested mountain but is most famous for its extensive underground world of limestone caverns, formed by water erosion over millions of years.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.
is a park that's 95% underwater and is a critical nesting habitat for leatherback sea turtles. The park is on the Pacific coast in Guanacaste.

Photo: latforum, CC BY 3.0.
Playa is a town in Guanacaste, . Located on the north Pacific Coast 3 km south of Flamingo Beach and 20 minutes north of Tamarindo Beach was a small fishing village which has become a budget location to stay on the Gold Coast.

Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.0.
is a city in Guanacaste, . This town has access to several great beaches and retains "Blue Flag" status as an environmentally clean area.

Photo: kajikawa, CC BY 3.0.
is a town on the in Guanacaste. A few kilometres south of the town of , its high elevation makes coffee cultivation possible and places it near mountainous nature reserves.

Photo: Gabriel P Chacon, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a postcard-perfect beach in 's Guanacaste province, next to the small fishing village of Puerto Carrillo.

Photo: ClaudeH, CC BY 3.0.
is in the region of Guanacaste province in . It's an inland park with lowland forests teeming with wildlife and providing some great hiking trails within an hour drive of several of Costa Rica's most popular beach resorts.

Photo: Cal Wolfe, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a town in the Guanacaste Province of , just north of . It comprises most of Parque Nacional Marino Laus Baulas, the most important nesting site in Central America for the giant leatherback sea turtle.
Photo: Michael Boyd, CC BY 3.0.

Guanacaste

Latitude of center
10.5° or 10° 30′ north
Longitude of center
-85.25° or 85° 15′ west
Population
354,000
Elevation
63 metres (207 feet)
Geo­Names ID
3623582
Wiki­data ID
Q690026
This page is based on GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Guanacaste from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Amharic to Wu Chinese—“Guanacaste” goes by many names.
  • Amharic: “ጉዋናካስቴ ክልል”
  • Arabic: “غواناكاسته”
  • Armenian: “Գուանակաստե”
  • Asturian: “Guanacaste”
  • Asturian: “provincia de Guanacaste”
  • Azerbaijani: “Guanacaste Əyalət”
  • Basque: “Guanacaste probintzia”
  • Basque: “Guanacaste”
  • Bengali: “গুনাস্যাচ প্রদেশ”
  • Bulgarian: “Гуанакасте”
  • Catalan: “Guanacaste”
  • Catalan: “província de Guanacaste”
  • Catalan: “Província de Guanacaste”
  • Cebuano: “Provincia de Guanacaste”
  • Chinese: “Guanacaste Séng”
  • Chinese: “瓜納卡斯特省”
  • Chinese: “瓜纳卡斯特省”
  • Croatian: “Guanacaste, provincija”
  • Croatian: “Guanacaste”
  • Czech: “Guanacaste”
  • Danish: “Guanacaste”
  • Dutch: “Guanacaste”
  • Dutch: “Provincie Guanacaste”
  • Esperanto: “Guanacaste”
  • Esperanto: “Gvanakasto”
  • Esperanto: “Provinco Guanacaste”
  • Finnish: “Guanacasten maakunta”
  • French: “Guanacaste”
  • Galician: “Provincia de Guanacaste”
  • Georgian: “გუანაკასტეს პროვინცია”
  • German: “CR-G”
  • German: “Guanacaste”
  • German: “Provinz Guanacaste”
  • Greek: “Γκουανακάστε”
  • Greek: “Επαρχία Γκουανακάστε”
  • Gujarati: “ગુઆનાકાસ્ટ પ્રાંત”
  • Hausa: “Guanacaste Lardi”
  • Hebrew: “גואנאקאסטה”
  • Hindi: “गुनाकास्ट प्रांत”
  • Hungarian: “Guanacaste tartomány”
  • Indonesian: “Provinsi Guanacaste”
  • Italian: “Guanacaste”
  • Italian: “provincia di Guanacaste”
  • Italian: “Provincia di Guanacaste”
  • Japanese: “グアナカステ州”
  • Javanese: “Provinsi Guanacaste”
  • Kannada: “ಗುವಾನಾಕಸ್ಟ್ ಪ್ರಾಂತ್ಯ”
  • Karachay-Balkar: “Гуанакасте (провинция)”
  • Karachay-Balkar: “Гуанакасте”
  • Kazakh: “Гуанакасте облысы”
  • Kirghiz: “Гуанакасте облусу”
  • Korean: “과나카스테주”
  • Kotava: “CostarikaGuanacasteWinka”
  • Ladino: “Guanacaste”
  • Latvian: “Gvanakastes province”
  • Lithuanian: “Guanakastės provincija”
  • Lithuanian: “Gvanakastė”
  • Lithuanian: “Gvanakastės provincija”
  • Malay: “Guanacaste Province”
  • Marathi: “गुनाकास्ट प्रांत”
  • Marathi: “ग्वानाकास्ते प्रांत”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Guanacaste Séng”
  • Northern Frisian: “Guanacaste”
  • Northern Sami: “Guanacaste”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Guanacaste”
  • Norwegian: “Guanacaste”
  • Oromo: “Godinoota Guanacaste”
  • Panjabi: “ਗੁਆਨਾਕਾਸਟੇ ਪ੍ਰਾਂਤ”
  • Persian: “استان گواناکاسته”
  • Polish: “Guanacaste”
  • Portuguese: “Guanacaste”
  • Portuguese: “Província de Guanacaste”
  • Pushto: “گوانا کاسته ولایت”
  • Quechua: “Guanacaste pruwinsya”
  • Quechua: “Guanascate pruwinsya”
  • Romanian: “Provincia Guanacaste”
  • Russian: “Гуанакасте”
  • Serbian: “Gvanakaste”
  • Serbian: “Гванакасте”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Guanacaste”
  • Sinhala: “ගයනකස්ටේ පළාත”
  • Slovenian: “CR-G”
  • Slovenian: “Provinca Guanacaste”
  • Slovenian: “Provincia de Guanacaste”
  • Somali: “Gobolka Guanacaste”
  • Spanish: “Guanacaste”
  • Spanish: “Provincia de Guanacaste”
  • Swahili: “Kaunti ya Guanacaste”
  • Swedish: “Guanacaste”
  • Tajik: “Вилояти Гуанакасте”
  • Tamil: “குணஸாஸ்ட் மாகாணம்”
  • Tatar: “Guanacaste Öлке”
  • Telugu: “గువానాకాస్ట్ ప్రావిన్స్”
  • Telugu: “గువానాకాస్ట్ రాష్ట్రభాగం”
  • Thai: “จังหวัดกัวนากัสเต”
  • Turkish: “Guanacaste Province”
  • Turkish: “Guanacaste”
  • Ukrainian: “Гуанакасте”
  • Urdu: “گواناکاستے صوبہ”
  • Uzbek: “Guanacaste viloyati”
  • Vietnamese: “Guanacaste”
  • Vietnamese: “Tỉnh Guanacaste”
  • Welsh: “Talaith Guanacaste”
  • Western Armenian: “Կուանաքասթէ”
  • Western Panjabi: “صوبہ گوناکاسٹ”
  • Wu Chinese: “瓜纳卡斯特省”
  • “Kwanakastli”
  • “Kwanakastli Tlatilantli”
  • “Kwawnakastli”

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