Cartago was the capital of Costa Rica for two hundred and sixty years, and then it was not. The government moved to San Jose after the Battle of Ochomogo in 1823, and the city has spent the two centuries since being the place most visitors drive through on the way to a volcano. It is worth stopping. At 1,435 metres it is cooler and considerably wetter than anywhere else in this guide, it sits in a valley between two active volcanoes, and the ruined church at its centre is the clearest piece of evidence in the country about what that actually means.
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The practical point for a packing list is simple and it surprises people who have only read about Costa Rica as a beach destination. The average temperature here is around nineteen degrees, the afternoons cloud over and rain, and the evenings are genuinely cool. Visitors arrive from the coast in a vest and shorts and spend the afternoon cold and damp. This is the one destination in this batch where a long sleeve merino layer is not a recommendation to be argued for, it is the obvious thing to wear.
Las Ruinas, the Basilica and Why the Church Has No Roof
The building in the photograph at the top of this page is the Santiago Apostol parish church, and it is roofless because the ground here does not stay still. Construction began in the sixteenth century and the structure was damaged and rebuilt repeatedly. The 1910 Santa Monica earthquake, which killed several hundred people in this city, brought down what was standing, and the decision was taken not to rebuild. What exists now is a walled garden inside the shell, open to the sky, in the middle of the city. Locals call it Las Ruinas and treat it as a park, which is the right way to see it.
Four blocks east is the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, which is the most important religious building in Costa Rica and is not the ruin. It houses La Negrita, a small dark statue of the Virgin found, according to the tradition, by a girl named Juana Pereira in 1635. The basilica is the destination of the national pilgrimage described below. It is working, busy, and free to enter, and modest dress is expected inside in the ordinary sense: shoulders covered, nothing that reads as beachwear. There is no headscarf requirement and nobody will stop you at the door for wearing trousers.
One honest note about the pictures on this page. We have three photographs of Cartago and none of them is the basilica, because no attributable photograph of it exists in the library we illustrate from. The ruins, the farmland above the city and a street with an old church and a vintage truck are what we have. The basilica is a short walk from the ruins and you will not miss it.
The Two Volcanoes Above the City
Cartago sits below Irazu, which at 3,432 metres is the highest volcano in Costa Rica, and near Turrialba, which has been the more active of the two in recent years. Irazu is the one most visitors do: a road runs almost to the summit, the craters are a short walk from the car park, and the main crater holds a lake whose colour changes with the chemistry. It is a national park with an entrance fee and set opening hours, and the practical advice is to go early, because the cloud comes in by mid morning and a late arrival sees nothing at all. The claim that you can see both oceans from the top is true on a handful of days a year and should not be the reason you go.
The summit is cold. That sentence does more work than any other in this guide. Thirty-four hundred metres in cloud with wind is jacket and hat weather regardless of what the coast is doing, and the gap between the city at nineteen degrees and the crater rim at six or seven catches people out constantly. If you are doing Irazu, pack for it specifically rather than assuming a Costa Rica packing list covers it.
Costa Rica has 16 volcanoes, several considered active, and the FCDO names a current series. It records that the risk of eruptions is always present and that there has recently been an increasing and significant series of eruptions at POAS VOLCANO. On earthquakes it says small tremors are frequent, movements above magnitude 6 occur periodically, and local infrastructure is well prepared so earthquakes seldom have widespread effects. Two practical notes rather than alarming ones: ash plumes affect air quality and anyone with a respiratory condition should expect symptoms to worsen, with a properly fitted mask offering some protection, and volcanic areas are most dangerous DURING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER HEAVY RAINFALL because of the raised risk of flows. Check the status of any volcano the day you plan to visit rather than relying on a guidebook.
Turrialba is a different proposition. It has gone through repeated ash-emitting phases, the national park around it opens and closes according to activity, and the ash has reached the Central Valley and San Jose airport in the past. Check its status on the day rather than planning around it, and treat the volcano section of the advisory above as a live document and not a background note.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Getting There and Getting Around
Cartago is about twenty-five kilometres from San Jose and the bus takes roughly forty-five minutes to an hour depending on traffic, which is frequently bad on the Florencio del Castillo highway. Buses run constantly from the Lumaca terminal in San Jose and the fare is small. This is one of the easiest day trips in the country and a great many people do it as exactly that, returning to San Jose in the evening.
Staying is the better option if you want the Orosi valley, which is twenty-five kilometres south and is the most attractive thing in the province: a green river valley with coffee, hot springs, the colonial church at Orosi and the Ujarras ruins. The Lankester Botanical Garden, between Cartago and Paraiso, holds one of the best orchid collections in Central America and is worth an unhurried morning.
Around the city itself, walk. The centre is compact and flat enough, the grid is simple, and the ruins, the basilica, the market and the main square are within a few blocks of each other. Taxis are red with a yellow triangle and should use the meter, called the maria.
When to Go, and the One Date to Know
The dry season runs roughly from December to April and the rest of the year is wet, but Cartago is wetter than the national pattern suggests and you should expect afternoon rain in any month. The rain is usually an afternoon event rather than all day, which makes mornings the time to do things. February and March are the most reliable.
And then there is the Romeria. On the night of 1 August and into the morning of 2 August, something close to two million people walk the twenty-two kilometres from San Jose to the basilica in this city. It is the largest annual event in Costa Rica by a wide margin, it is a genuine religious pilgrimage rather than a festival, and the walkers arrive through the night in continuous streams. If that is what you have come for, it is remarkable. If it is not, then accommodation in Cartago is unobtainable, the roads from San Jose are closed or impassable, and the city is not functioning normally. Either plan for it deliberately or avoid the first week of August.
Is Cartago Safe for Women Travelers
UK FCDO: Costa Rica has NO advised-against areas anywhere, and on terrorism the advice is the mildest wording the FCDO uses, that although there is no recent history of terrorism attacks cannot be ruled out. Do not read that as a quiet country. The advice is heavy on ordinary crime and heavier still on water, and the two sections below carry the specifics.
Muggings and theft are called significant problems, and the FCDO singles out one coast. Its words are that they are significant problems PARTICULARLY ON THE ATLANTIC COAST, which is the Caribbean side. The concrete instructions are to watch who is nearby at ATMs, to stay alert on buses and keep luggage in view because thieves work by distraction, to watch valuables on the beach, and never to leave luggage in a parked car whether visible or in the boot. One named method is worth knowing because it does not look like a crime: THIEVES SLASH A TYRE AND THEN OFFER TO HELP CHANGE IT while an accomplice empties the car. The same section says not to stop a hire car for strangers signalling for help, and that criminals sometimes cause deliberate collisions to make drivers stop, in which case the advice is to keep driving to a police station or garage.
Read that theft advice with the geography in mind. The FCDO singles out the Atlantic coast, which is the Caribbean side and is not here; Cartago is a Central Valley city and the risk profile is ordinary urban opportunism rather than anything specific to the province. Buses are where it happens, which matters because the bus from San Jose is how almost everybody arrives. Keep a bag on your lap rather than overhead or at your feet, and note the FCDO's own observation that thieves work by distraction, so somebody helpful is the thing to watch rather than somebody threatening.
The FCDO's wording on sexual violence here is unusually direct and it names tourists. It records that rapes and sexual assaults HAVE INCREASED, SOME OF WHICH APPEAR TARGETED TOWARD TOURISTS, warns against leaving drinks unattended because of reports of spiked drinks resulting in assault and theft, and adds the sentence worth quoting in full, that WOMEN TRAVELLING ALONE HAVE REPORTED HAVING TO PAY EXTRA ATTENTION TO THEIR PERSONAL SAFETY. Take that at face value rather than as boilerplate: it is the FCDO reporting what solo women have told it.
Methanol in cheap spirits is a named and current risk. The FCDO records deaths and cases of serious illness from alcoholic drinks containing methanol in Costa Rica, and says criminal gangs have apparently used methanol in the manufacture of cheap brands of local spirits INCLUDING VODKA AND GUARO, the cane liquor sold everywhere here. The clause that matters is that even small amounts of methanol can kill and that IT CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED BY TASTE OR SMELL, so there is no sensory test a drinker can apply. Buy spirits in sealed bottles from established shops, prefer beer or wine where you cannot judge the bar, and seek urgent medical attention for anyone showing signs of methanol poisoning after drinking rather than waiting to see.
The Cartago Packing List
A merino base layer, which is the point of this list
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the single most useful garment you can bring to this city. At 1,435 metres in persistent damp, the problem is not cold and it is not heat, it is being slightly wet and slightly cool for hours at a stretch. Merino holds its warmth when damp where cotton gives it up entirely, and it does not develop a smell after three days of humidity, which matters if you are moving between the highlands and the coast on the same trip. If you are going up Irazu, this is the layer that makes the summit bearable.
A rain shell, not a rain poncho
It rains most afternoons and the rain here arrives properly. A packable waterproof such as the Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket is the right tool: a hood, taped seams, and small enough to live in a day bag on the mornings it is dry. The plastic ponchos sold at the market work for ten minutes and then make you wetter from the inside, which in nineteen-degree air is a genuinely uncomfortable afternoon rather than a joke.
Shoes that cope with wet pavement and a volcano
Cartago's pavements are hard, uneven in places and wet most afternoons, and the Irazu crater walk is loose volcanic grit. A waterproof hiking shoe such as the Salomon X Ultra 4 GTX covers both without being a boot you resent in a city. If you only brought one pair of shoes to Costa Rica and they are beach sandals, this is the destination where that decision becomes obvious.
Warm extremities for the crater rim
This is the part people leave out. The Irazu summit is routinely in cloud at around six or seven degrees with wind, and merino wool glove liners plus a thin beanie weigh almost nothing and transform a half hour at the craters. Nobody packs gloves for Costa Rica. Anybody who has stood on that rim in a t-shirt wishes they had.
Sun protection that works through cloud
Altitude thins the atmosphere and cloud does not stop ultraviolet, which is the combination that burns people in highland Costa Rica while they are complaining about the weather. A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat doubles as rain cover, and a long sleeve layer does more than repeated sunscreen application on a damp day.
A water bottle, and the tap water is fine
Costa Rican tap water is drinkable in the Central Valley and Cartago is no exception, so an insulated water bottle is the sensible choice rather than buying plastic. Insulation earns its place on a volcano morning, where it keeps coffee hot in a cold wind.
The small things
Packing cubes are worth more on a trip that mixes highlands and coast than on a single-climate one, because the warm layers get separated from the beach things rather than mixed through a wet bag. Bring cash in small notes for buses and the market. A dry bag is overkill here and will be essential if you continue to the Caribbean side.
Essential Resources for Women in Cartago
Emergency number: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, and the operators include English speakers. Costa Rica has no separate tourist police force in Cartago; the Fuerza Publica is the national police and there is a municipal police presence in the city centre. The OIJ, the judicial investigation body, is who a serious crime report goes to, and there is an OIJ office in Cartago. For any insurance claim you will need the written report.
US State Department travel advisory: the Costa Rica advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/costa-rica, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital Maximiliano Peralta Jimenez, the Hospital Max Peralta, is the regional referral hospital for Cartago province and is in the city itself, which is unusual for this batch and worth knowing: most of the destinations in this guide are an hour or more from a serious facility and this one is not. It has an emergency department. For anything beyond regional capability the referral is to San Jose, forty-five minutes away, where the private hospitals most travellers with insurance use are CIMA in Escazu and Clinica Biblica. Pharmacies here are farmacias, they are plentiful around the central market, and a pharmacist can prescribe a good deal that would need a doctor elsewhere.
Official health authority: the Ministerio de Salud, the Costa Rican health ministry. There is no reciprocal health agreement with Costa Rica and private treatment is expensive, so insurance covering treatment and repatriation is essential, and it should name the activities you actually intend to do because the FCDO specifically notes that quad biking, surfing, rock climbing and zip lining are frequently excluded from general policies
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in San Jose.
Official tourism authority: the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, the national tourism board. The Costa Rican tourism institute publishes current national park opening hours and fees, which matters here because Irazu and Turrialba volcano access changes with volcanic activity rather than with the calendar
Altitude is not a problem here and the temperature is. At 1,435 metres nobody gets altitude sickness. At 3,432 metres on Irazu a few people feel it mildly, and everybody feels the cold.
Check the volcano before you go, not before you book. Both national parks above the city open and close according to activity.
Solo women safety assessment: Cartago is a comfortable and unremarkable place to be a woman travelling alone, and the honest summary is that it is a provincial Costa Rican city where tourism is incidental rather than the economy. That cuts both ways. There is very little of the hustle, the touting and the drinking-strip atmosphere that make some of this country's beach towns tiring, nobody is working the street for business, and a woman walking alone through the centre in the daytime attracts no attention whatever. English is less widely spoken than on the coast and some Spanish genuinely helps. What transfers from the national advisory is ordinary urban theft, which the FCDO calls a significant problem nationally and concentrates on buses and ATMs rather than on any district here, so carry little, use machines inside banks and the shopping centre, and keep your bag in front of you on the San Jose bus. After dark the centre quiets early and the area around the bus terminals is the part to take a taxi from rather than walk. The FCDO's sexual violence section is national and reports that assaults have increased with some appearing targeted at tourists, and that women travelling alone have reported needing extra care; the drink-spiking warning applies to any bar anywhere, and the methanol warning above is a reason to stick to beer or to sealed bottles from a shop. The real risks in Cartago are not criminal. They are the weather, which will make you cold and wet if you packed for a beach, the Irazu summit, which is genuinely cold and frequently invisible, and the geology, which is why the church in the photograph has no roof. The one date that can ruin a trip is the Romeria on 1 and 2 August. 911 is the emergency number and the regional hospital is in the city.
Reading On
Start with the Costa Rica travel guide for women, which covers the country's regions, costs and the national park system, and the Costa Rica packing list for the country-level version of this advice. The closest comparisons in the highlands are the Monteverde packing list, which is cloud forest at a similar altitude and wetter still, and the Arenal packing list, which is the other volcano destination and a warmer, lower one. For the contrast this post exists to draw, read the Manuel Antonio packing list on the central Pacific and the Tortuguero packing list on the Caribbean, both of which need a completely different bag from this one. For why merino rather than cotton in a place that is damp and cool for hours at a time rather than cold, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
