Guanacaste & the Nicoya Peninsula -- The northwestern corner of the country near the Nicaraguan border is the site of many of Costa Rica's sunniest and most popular beaches. Because many Americans have chosen to build beach houses and retirement homes here, Guanacaste in particular is experiencing quite a bit of new development. Don't expect a glut of Cancun-style high-rise hotels, but condos, luxury resorts, and golf courses are springing up like mushrooms. That's not to say you'll be towel-to-towel with thousands of strangers. On the contrary, you can still find long stretches of deserted sands. Maybe not for long, however. When the new international airport in Liberia is up and running for real, and it will be possible to get here from North America without so much as a stopover in San Jose.

With about 65 inches of rain a year, this region is by far the driest in the country and has been likened to west Texas. Guanacaste province sits at the border of Nicaragua and is named after the shady trees that still shelter the herds of cattle that roam the dusty savanna here. In addition to cattle ranches, Guanacaste boasts semiactive volcanoes, several lakes, and one of the last remnants of tropical dry forest left in Central America. (Dry forest once stretched all the way from Costa Rica up to the Mexican state of Chiapas).

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