San José—Costa Rica in a Nutshell Travel Guide Series

Welcome to Coffee Bean Publications’ Nutshell Travel Guide Series. Here at CBP, we take a bit of a different approach than most of the industry’s standard travel guides. We believe that the meaning of travel is as unique and manifold as each traveler and each destination. We value the excitement and wonder of the unknown that inexorably leads to adventure, discovery, and a genuine and meaningful—sometimes transformative—experience.


With the increasing proliferation of peer-to-peer services and nearly omnipresent internet, service information is readily available to accommodate any type of traveler. If you’re ambitious enough to plan your own travel, we’d rather not insult your ability to research simple where-to-stay and where-to-eat information.


Nor do we want to influence your decisions by confining your options to a honed list, steering you towards a place that is more of a business arrangement than an honest suggestion. Where you eat, where you sleep, this is not our business. Our business is to inspire, to inform, and to enrich your travel experiences.


What you’ll find in Nutshell Guides isn’t so much how you should spend your trip, but rather functional and timeless information to help you open up possibilities during your travels—a primer on the tastes, smells, textures and personalities of the destination that compelled you to get that plane/train/bus ticket in the first place.


We feel it’s important to be informed on cultural customs, traditions and history. Folklore and buried histories give color to places you’re curious to explore. Knowing what kind of food you will encounter can make it easier for you to produce your own authentic meals with local ingredients as an alternative to the ever-increasing expenses of dining out.


At CBP, it’s all about connecting. Connecting to people, to a place, to a culture, to a meal, to a rhythm. As a traveler, the better we can understand others, the better we’re able to understand ourselves in the context of the world, and the better the world will understand us.


This is the type of reflection that will enrich your travels. It’s what makes us human. And in the spirit of travel, we intend to preserve this human element. Nutshell Guides will prepare you to interact in the communities you visit. From there, your true guides are the people and your own compass set to wander and whim.


Read. Explore. Connect.


Safe travels!