San Jose City Tour: Experience Authentic Culture and Historic Landmarks

Experience the vibrant culture and rich history of San Jose on this authentic city tour. Visit iconic landmarks, enjoy folkloric music, and explore the Central Market and Gold Museum.

Duration: 5 hours
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Teatro Nacional Costa Rica - Lobby of Theater
  • Central Market (Mercado Central) - Shopping, local people.
  • Plaza de la Libertad Electoral - National Monument
  • VIP City Bus - Beautiful tour, monuments, churches, market, walking tours.
  • Pre-Columbian Gold Museum - Walking tour by Gold Museum
  • Museo de Arte Costarricense - Gold Room
What's Included
  • Local guide
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off
  • Lunch
  • Professional art historian guide
  • Live commentary on board
  • Transport by air-conditioned minivan
What's Not Included
  • Alcoholic drinks (available to purchase)
  • Souvenir photos (available to purchase)
Additional Information

This urban exploration gives you a panoramic perspective of San Jose, enriched with an authentic cultural immersion courtesy of our onboard traditional music. The journey incorporates informative guided strolls around significant historical points of interest such as the National Theater, the National Monument, and various others including San Jose’s…

Location
Teatro Nacional Costa Rica
Second Ave. and Fifth St.,
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
4.3
(278 Ratings)
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Patg429
Jan 6, 2025
This tour is worth the price. - We enjoyed Hector, our well versed guide. He was polite and respectful of the various languages and cultures onboard the bus. A lovely gentleman provided guitar music and singing along the way. Our driver was skilled with the traffic and narrow streets. We had a wonderful lunch, met some interesting people, and enjoyed the museums listed in the brochure, especially the pre-columbian gold museum.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Joan_m
Jan 2, 2025
A good way to start new year - It is low key but interesting with history and culture. Asking questions is helpful and elicits more. Diego was very good. Everyone was friendly and in good spirits. I enjoyed the music and I know Spanish so I especially enjoyed the lyrics.
Review provided by Viator
Shuba_b
Dec 27, 2024
Hector was a very... - Hector was a very friendly and knowledgeable guide. He had to make some changes to the itinerary because it was Christmas Day but we still had an amazing experience.
Review provided by Viator
Alexisleigh
Dec 26, 2024
Good Tour - Our tour guide, Hector, was great and very knowledgeable. While a lot was closed on Christmas, it was fun taking a tour of the National Theater. The restaurant we stopped at was very good. Overall, I would recommend to get a taste of history.
Review provided by Viator
Cvanvelk
Dec 12, 2024
Good city tour. - Great tour. Nice variety of stops. Good narrative, good amount of time spent for each stop. Friendly guide. I met some interesting fellow travelers.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Shannon_e
Jan 5, 2025
Nice way to spend a first day in San Jose - It was a nice way to get a quick overview of the city Would have loved more time in the central market
Review provided by Viator
Richard_m
Dec 21, 2024
Knowledgeable Guides - Touring both museums was interesting and informative. Lunch was a good local experience. Time of year an important factor as it relates to traffic and congestion making it tough to cover a city as big as San Jose
Review provided by Viator
Melanie0175
Dec 22, 2024
Nice city tour that only partially delivers on its promises - Nice city tour with friendly guides, which unfortunately does not keep its promise at every point Punctual pick-up at the meeting point, safe drivers, nice guide, good lunch Unfortunately, the bus is anything but VIP (tight seats, very “worn out” and worn out), there was no free water. Much historical information, but little else outside of CR and San José ... seemed like a tightly wound program The stop at the market has nothing to do with the announced “shopping”, as you are passed through as a group and only stop together in a souvenir shop Lunch was good, the place clean but without flair or ambience! Overall nice tour, but proud price and low VIP factor
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rusty_n
Dec 6, 2024
Skip This Tour - We spent 1 hour and 20 minutes in a small van doing hotel pick ups before arriving at the tour origination. Then, the first tour stop was “unavailable” for us to tour. From there, we spent more time riding around in heavy traffic that we did on visiting tour sights, which were mediocre. If you’ve toured any large city in Central or South America, you’ve already done this tour. One highlight was lunch, which was very good.
Review provided by Viator
Ge0rgeniar
Nov 18, 2024
DO NOT DO IT!!!!!! - Do not waste your time. First I'm pissed that this site says the trip cost $76 dollars meanwhile we got charged 95. Let's start with the bus. As soon as it pulled off we were like uhhhhh. They said the suspensions were messed up so the front of the bus was dragging along the road and every bump we thought a piece of the bus broke off. The bus was dirty and not pretty at all. It was pretty from the outside but that's it. Then the windows are open because there's no AC. Which was fine, because it was a nice day out with a cool breeze. Till we started getting slapped in the face by the tree branches. They advertise that we will be welcomed with local cocktails. It was 2 sips of soursop juice. Not even a full cup. Our trip said there will be an Art museum which one of my friends specifically came for. Never got there. We get to the market and it's filty and disgusting. They claim you can shop there. Negative... he walks u to one store where they give u a 10% discount and that's it. Btw that place had huge cockroaches running around! Finally got to the restaurant to eat. The food was OK. Nothing to rave about but it was decent. One of my friends asked for water though and we never got that. Driving back to the hotels this bus man drove 2 miles an hour and literally stopped at green lights. This whole experience was a hot mess. The tour guide was nice and very informative. He was good at being bilingual. There's was also an older guy playing a guitar that gave it an authentic experience but that was it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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up to 12 guests
1 Adult
January 2025
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