The Voice of Guanacaste wanted to find out which national parks and wildlife refuges are most visited by tourists, so we analyzed the number of visits to each of the parks and refuges in the province during a period of four years, from 2011 to 2014.
The king of kings is Rincon de la Vieja National Park, which managed to attract 239,664 visitors during those four years, followed by Santa Rosa National Park with 165,287 visitors, and Tenorio Volcano comes in third place with 137,134.
In fourth place is Cipancí Refuge, fifth is Camaronal Beach Refuge, sixth is Junquillal Bay Refuge, seventh goes to Palo Verde National Park and eighth to Barra Honda.
The last places go to Baulas National Marine Park in Tamarindo, which accumulated 11,600 visitors during this period, while 10th place is occupied by Horizontes Forest Experimental Station with 7,551 guests.
However, when breaking down the data, we can see that the sites most visited by Costa Ricans differ from those visited by foreigners. For example, of the total number of people that go to Junquillal Bay Refuge, only 5% are foreigners.
The admission prices of the 10 most visited parks all range between ¢1,500 and ¢2,500 ($2.80 and $4.75) for nationals, and on average $15 for foreigners. However, Barra Honda is one of the most expensive due to the payment for excursions to the caves. The price for nationals is $19 and $29 for foreigners.
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