Perched among a crescent of mountains, San Jose enjoys an enviable setting in the heart of the Meseta Central at 1,150 m. in many ways it is an ideal locale. The compact city of around 300,000 enjoys one of the three best climates in the world, with temperatures that hover around 70F daily year-round and rainfall limited mostly to short-lived showers and occasional downpours.

The city was founded as late as 1737 and as capital cities go, has relatively few colonial architectural glories. Throughout its first century of existence, San Jose endured as a humble village of simple adobe structures. But its position in the heart of the fertile valley was advantageous, and by the 1820s it had grown to equal the then capital Cartago in size.

Most tourists find that San Jose can be fully explored in two days, after which you will be ready to escape to the country. Coffee fields edge up against the city, so that one has the feeling that the countryside is close at hand.