Santa Ana, Costa Rica

Santa Ana is a city in San José Province, Costa Rica. It is located at around coord|9|55|60|N|84|10|60|W|region:CR-SJ_type:city(34507)|display=inline,title. The city is the seat of the Santa Ana Canton.

General information

While still in many ways maintaining its traditional feel of a typical Costa Rican town, along with its predominantly Costa Rican population, small stores, bars, restaurants offering local and international cuisine and Sunday fresh fruit and vegetable markets, Santa Ana has been recently experiencing real estate and commercial development unprecedented in the entire Central Valley. It has become the place of choice with upscale grocery stores, gourmet restaurants, banks, gas stations, medical and dental clinics, beauty salons, coffee houses, hotels, business centers, private schools, malls and small commercial centers springing up everywhere. Located on the outskirts of the capital city of San Jose, Santa Ana nowadays combines all the advantages of a metropolitan lifestyle with the comforts of country living.

The Quality Real Hotel Santa Ana is conveniently located in the heart of the new business district of Santa Ana near the Business Centers Forum I & II, and is about twenty to thirty minutes from the international airport (depending on traffic). The Business Centers Forum I & II offer state of the art business facilities meeting international standards in technology, design and parking where comfort in the work environment is set as the number one priority. Office spaces start at 200 m², the complex is backed up by its own emergency power plant, its telephone central counts with over 4,000 lines and connectivity has been secured through fiber optic cables to deliver the services of ICE, RACSA, AMNET and CABLE TICA.

A new Holiday Inn Express is also being built in Santa Ana.

The Mall Multiplaza, the biggest mall in Costa Rica, as well as PriceSmart (Costco) and Office Depot, are about fifteen minutes away in the direction of Escazu. The mall is home to over 100 businesses, a large food court, modern movie theaters showing North American movies in English, banks and financial institutions, department stores, restaurants and over 1,000 parking spaces.

CIMA hospital, a frequent choice of expatriates, and the Clinica Biblica, a Tulane University affiliate both offer excellent, affordable diversified medical care with mostly English speaking staff and accept most North American medical insurance plans. CIMA is about fifteen minutes from Santa Ana.

Education

There is a variety of private bilingual schools within short driving distance serving the international population of the Central Valley. Many are accredited by U.S.—based associations of colleges and schools and focus on the American High School Diploma program and a wide range of Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate courses along with the Costa Rican national curriculum. Most of these schools offer the full range of programs starting at the pre-school level all the way through to university preparatory programs.

* Country Day School – www.cds.ed.cr
* Blue Valley School – www.bluevalley.ed.cr
* Saint Mary’s School – www.saintmary.ed.cr› Pan-American School – www.panam.ed.cr› United World College Costa Rica – www.uwccr.com› Lincoln School – www.lincoln.ed.cr› Humboldt School – www.humboldt.ed.cr

Golf in Costa Rica is relatively new and some years ago, a golfing vacation would have been quite limited. Going hand in hand with the real estate boom and economic development in general, Costa Rica now prides itself with a growing number of world class golf courses created by some of the best designers from around the world. Whether you prefer having the Pacific ocean, the northwestern pampas or the mountain ridges of the Central Valley as the backdrop for your game, Costa Rica offers a wide range of options from which to choose.

Golfers at Hacienda El Dorado have access to the Parque Valle del Sol golf course located in Santa Ana. It is the first and the only professional golf course in Costa Rica open to the public in the Central Valley. The 18-hole championship golf course was designed by Tracy May in 1994 to be challenging and fair under most conditions and downright tough when the strong winds come down from the surrounding mountains. Due to its diverse layout, golfers are required to use all of the clubs in their bag throughout the game. The monthly fee for unlimited play is $225.

Santa Ana is easily accessible by a four-lane divided highway from San Jose (6 min.). This same roadway will also connect to the long awaited new highway to the Pacific beaches, the entrance to which will be about five minutes from this development. A number of public transportation companies also run frequent bus lines connecting Santa Ana with San Jose, Escazu and many other parts of the Central Valley. A cab ride from Santa Ana to Escazu is approximately $6.00 and to San Jose $10.00.

Santa Ana has an approximate total 34507 inhabitants and a covers an area of 61.42km², which are distributed between the districts as follows:

External links

* [http://www.santaana.go.cr/] - Municipality of Santa Ana

* [http://www.ticoindex.com/caminataalsalitre Gallery Images Photography ...El Salitre Salitral Santa Ana Costa Rica]

[http://www.alto-palomas.com Typical Santa Ana Home & Neighborhood]