After posting my Costa Rica photos a number of people have asked me if I used any Costa Rica guide books and which are good if you are planning to go there for a vacation. I have a few different books that I take down with me there. I prefer some of the newer colorful yet comprehensive guides compared to the older more traditional format. Most of the Costa Rica guides are broken into different regions such as North West, Pacific North, Central Valley, San Jose, Caribbean, Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific Coast.

One the best books was a new one called Time Out Costa Rica, it provided lots of great detail and had a lot of visuals but the real bonus of the book is that it written by a team of locals and provides a lot of information on more things to see and do other than the standard touristy stuff, the maps in it are also pretty decent. The layout and size of the book is good, convenient to carry around with you, overall it was a just a really good guide book on Costa Rica and I definitely recommend it.

Time Out Costa Rica (Time Out Guides)
$17.90 at Amazon.com

The following book, Costa Rica Eyewitness Travel Guide we used the first time we went to Costa Rica in Dec. 2006 and again when we went in Nov. 2009. It’s a very detailed and comprehensive guide, it gives you many useful colorful maps and information about each region. Its a fairly slim book so its easy to carry around and access information easily as the book is organized well. Even from the first trip to the second trip the majority of the info remained the same and is current, in fact while looking at newer books before I went down on my second trip I found that it actually has better more detailed info than some newer books.

Costa Rica (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)
$16.50 at Amazon.com

If you are into birding and photography, this is probably the best reference guide for birds in Costa Rica. Even, if you are not that much into birds its still good to have as you will see lots of different birds while you travel and chances you’ll be curious what they are, I definitely recommend it.

The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide
$19.77 at Amazon.com

Other books noteworthy of mention include Fodor’s Costa Rica 2010 (Full-Color Guide) and Lonely Planet’s Costa Rice guide are also both excellent books, I did not buy them as I could only buy and carry so many but these books are booth very good and have mostly the same information as the ones I have mentioned above, they are definitely worth consideration.

Fodor’s Costa Rica 2010 (Full-Color Guide)
$13.59 at Amazon.com

Lonely Planet – Costa Rica
$14.95 at Amazon.com