Golf News
By Parker Smith
March 1998 

It’s the place everyone’s heard about. Someone retired there. Someone just went…just came back. But not you. Where is Costa Rica? Somewhere in the jungles...? Actually, it’s the most accessible, most affordable, friendliest destination outside the United States. With championship golf from the likes of George Fazio, Ron Garl and Robert Trent Jones II.... and weather that is always perfect on the coast....

Stop right now. Pick up the phone. Call the travel agent. Costa Rica is where you want to go for your next vacation--golf, fishing, surfing, hiking...relaxing... Did I say the Pacific Coast? Yes, it is bordered by the Pacific Ocean...and the Atlantic--well, the Caribbean Sea, but you‘ll never again want to see the Caribbean Islands after you’ve seen Costa Rica.

This little country has twenty-five percent of its land mass devoted to preservation and public parks, possesses every climate known to the planet (something like 21 of 25) except the really cold ones, like frozen tundra’s and polar ice caps, and has enormous percentage of the life forms on earth. It is a visual wonderland, a tropic OZ waiting to amaze you.

This magical part of the Central America peninsula, hanging loose between Panama and Nicaragua, has rain forests, volcanoes, hot springs, whitewater peaceful rivers, mountains, caves, savannas, deserts, oceans... It has no army, is an elected democracy, its smiling people have a 97% literacy rate... Nobody has their hand out.

Does it get any better than this? No.

Is your wife or girlfriend happy? Yes.

This is (still) a paradise. So go, but go now. Now is the time to enjoy...And invest. By the way, you won’t believe all the retired Americans already living there, enjoying the value of the dollar.

A typical journey might take you first and last to San José, taking advantage of better flight schedules into there while the Liberia airport on the West Coast still works on expansion. By going into San José, you get the old world while perching peacefully on the hillside above the city at Meliá Cariari, a comfortable resort with a George Fazio gem of a golf course that is filled with flowers, vistas, strong par-4s, and excellent caddies (ask for Martin or Umberto). Two or three days there, then on the bus to Guanacaste and the Meliá Playa Conchal. The Meliá Playa Conchal is superlative. A modern convention center with state of the art communications, a casino on a rich promontory overlooking the most incredible view of the sea you’ve ever been presented, and a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. golf course that is really fun to play. Tennis, health club, parties on the beach...

A resident theatre group that provides live entertainment almost every night... Surfing, sailing, snorkeling, snoozing, schmoozing, a skinny dipping in the sea... The best sea fishing in the Americas... Terrific restaurants--you can be in Italy, America, Costa Rica....

None of us wanted to leave.