Newspapers

Local newspapers are extremely popular in Costa Rican society as the literacy rates are high and many people like to keep up with the news. Newspapers are sold in the streets in the mornings by local vendors and are also delivered to houses for a very low rate. The cost of each newspaper is about 200 colones or less. People can get the hard copy version of almost all publications are also offered online. There are at least eight major newspapers that belong to the State. Reading Costa Rican newspapers is a great way to learn new words, improve Spanish skills, and to fit in by talking shop with the locals.

Spanish-Language Newspapers

The largest and most widely read newspaper is La Nacion, offered daily in Spanish.  For a business weekly option El Financiero is great and highly respected. Another good business option and general news is the daily publication, La Republica. For economic news  read Actualidad Economica. If looking for a newspaper mainly focused on sports pick up Al Dia,  a daily publication whose Friday edition is extremely popular as it features many Costa Rican female models in skimpy bathing suits. La Prensa Libre is Costa Rica´s oldest daily publication that covers mainly political, legal, and financial news.  One of the most popular newspapers of the people is a daily publication called Diario La Extra since it is very unsensored providing grusome photos of accidents, more half naked women, and offers a lot of gossip. Honestly, it is not a very reliable or respectable source for news but it certainly sells.

English-Language Newspapers

There are actually a few options of publications that cover Costa Rica  that are published in English and are very widely read by the foreign populations living in Costa Rica and online abroad by all the people interested in Costa Rica.

By far the most well known, well established and most popular is a weekly publication that comes out on Fridays called Tico Times. They were founded in 1956 and have won several awards for their reporting. The topics covered in the paper are everything from politics to immigration to real estate to tourism. They offer a wide variety of resources to the foreigners living in the Costa Rican community. They offer a really great classifieds section.They also offer news on plastic surgery, Spanish language schools, and tax lawyers.  In fact, since they are directed towards the foreign community and the largest group of foreigners living in Costa Rica are the Nicaraguans they have come out with a special edition called Nica Times that covers Nicaraguan news as well.

The second most popular publication is AM Costa Rica. This is a publication of almost pure ads filled in with little news tidbits.

The other English publication is Inside Costa Rica. This publication covers lots of important Costa Rican news as well as news around the region and in Latin America.

Other Publications

Many of the smaller towns have local publications such as:

Business Costa Rica - by Costa Rican & American Chamber of Commerce (monthly)

Mesoamerica - by Institute for Central American Studies provides political analysis

Costa Rica Outdoors - concentrates on outdoor sports and activities (bi-monthly)

The Beach Times - Guanacaste(weekly)

The Howler - Tamarindo surfing news (free monthly)

Tamarindo News - Tamarindo (bilingual)

The Flyswatter - Tamarindo only in hard copy

Peninsula de Nicoya - Tambor, Santa Teresa, Montezuma

Tico Trader Magazine - Jaco only in hard copy

Quepolandia - Quepos/Manuel Antonio

Pacific Way & Caribbean Way - full of photographs

Nature Landings - Sponsered by Nature Air

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