San Jose Nightlife

Events Costa Rica Nightlife

Catering to a mix of tourists, college students, and just generally party-loving Ticos, San Jose has a host of options to meet the night crowd including visitors and Costa Rica residents alike. You'll find plenty of interesting clubs and bars, a wide range of theaters, and some very lively discos and dance halls.

To find out what's going on in San Jose while you're in town, check out Explore Costa Rica.com's Events calendar for daily and upcoming events.

The Performing Arts Theater is very popular in Costa Rica, and downtown San Jose is studded with small theaters. However, tastes tend toward the burlesque, and the crowd pleasers are almost always simplistic sexual comedies. The National Theater Company is an exception, tackling works from Lope de Vega to Lorca to Mamet. Similarly, the small independent group Abya Yala also puts on several cutting-edge avant-garde shows each year. Almost all of the theater offerings are in Spanish, although the Little Theater Group is a long-standing amateur group that periodically stages works in English.

Costa Rica has a strong modern-dance scene. Both the University of Costa Rica and the National University have modern-dance companies that perform regularly in various venues in San Jose. In addition to the university-sponsored companies, there's a host of smaller independent companies worth catching. Los Denmedium and Diquis Tiquis are particularly good.

The National Symphony Orchestra is a respectable orchestra by regional standards, although its repertoire tends to be rather conservative. The symphony season runs March through November, with concerts roughly every other weekend at the Teatro Nacional, Avenida 2 between calles 3 and 5 (tel. 221-3756), and the Auditorio Nacional (tel. 222-7647), located at the Museo de Los Niños. Tickets cost between $3 and $15 and can be purchased at the box office.

Visiting artists also stop in Costa Rica from time to time. Recent Costa Rica concerts have featured old rocker Deborah Harry, opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, reggae star Sean Paul, Puerto Rican heartthrob Luis Miguel, pop-opera phenom Andrea Bocelli, Chilean rockers La Ley, and salsa star Marc Anthony, who's wife Jennifer Lopez even joined him onstage for a moment. Many of these concerts and guest performances take place in San Jose's two historic theaters, the Teatro Nacional and the Teatro Melico Salazar, Avenida 2 between calles Central and 2 (tel. 221-4952), as well as at the Auditorio Nacional. Really large shows are sometimes held at soccer stadiums or at the amphitheater at Costa Rica's Hotel Herradura.

Costa Rica's cultural panorama changes drastically every November when the country hosts large arts festivals. In odd-numbered years, El Festival Nacional de las Artes reigns supreme, featuring purely local talent. In even-numbered years, the month-long fete is El Festival Internacional de las Artes, which offers a nightly smorgasbord of dance, theater, music, and monologue from around the world. Most nights of the festival, you will have between 4 and 10 shows to choose from. Many are free, and the most expensive ticket is $5. For exact dates and details of the program, you can contact the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and Sports (tel. 255-3188), although you might have trouble getting any information if you don't speak Spanish.

The Club, Music & Dance Scene
You'll find plenty of places to hit the dance floor in San Jose. Salsa and meringue are the main beats that move people here, and many of the dance clubs, discos, and salons feature live music on the weekends. You'll find a pretty limited selection, though, if you're looking to catch some small-club jazz, rock, or blues.

The daily "Viva" and Thursday's "Tiempo Libre" sections of La Nación newspaper have weekly performance schedules. Some dance bands to watch for are Pimienta Negra, Kalua, and Los Brillanticos. El Guato, Ghandi, Evolución, Kadeho, and Malpaís are popular local rock groups, Marfil is a good cover band, and both Mr. Jones Blues Band and the Blind Pig Blues Band are electric blues outfits. If you're looking for jazz, check out Jazz Expresso, Editus, El Sexteto de Jazz Latino, or pianist Manuel Obregón. Two very good local bands that don't seem to play that frequently are Cantoamérica and Amounsulu.

A good place to sample a range of San Jose's nightlife is in El Pueblo, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex done up like an old Spanish village. It's just across the river to the north of town. The best way to get there is by taxi; all the drivers know El Pueblo well. Within the alleyways that wind through El Pueblo are a dozen or more bars, clubs, and discos -- there's even an indoor soccer playing field. Cocoloco (tel. 222-8782) features nightly "fiestas," Discoteque Infinito (tel. 223-2195) has three different environments under one roof, and Twister (tel. 222-5746) and Friends (tel. 223-5283) are happening party spots. Across the street you'll find La Plaza (tel. 257-1077), one of my favorite dance spots.

Most of the places listed charge a nominal cover charge; sometimes it includes a drink or two.

The Bar Scene
There seems to be something for every taste here. Lounge lizards will be happy in most hotel bars in the downtown area, while students and the young at heart will have no problem mixing in at the livelier spots around town. Sports fans can find plenty of places to catch the most important games of the day, and there are even a couple of brewpubs that are drastically improving the quality and selection of the local suds.

The best part of the varied bar scene in San Jose is something called a boca, the equivalent of a tapa in Spain: a little dish of snacks that arrives at your table when you order a drink. Although this is a somewhat dying tradition, especially in the younger, hipper bars, you will still find bocas alive and well in the older, more traditional Costa Rican drinking establishments. In most, the bocas are free, but in some, where the dishes are more sophisticated, you'll have to pay for the treats. You'll find drinks reasonably priced, with beer costing around $2 a bottle, and mixed drinks costing $2 to $4.

Hanging Out in San Pedro
The funky 2-block stretch of San Pedro just south of the University of Costa Rica has been dubbed La Calle de Amargura, or the "Street of Bitterness," and it's the heart and soul of this eastern suburb and college town. Bars and cafes are mixed in with bookstores and copy shops. After dark the streets here are packed with teens, punks, students, and professors barhopping and just hanging around. You can walk the strip until someplace strikes your fancy -- you don't need a travel guide to find La Villa (tel. 281-1571), Omar Khayyam (tel. 253-8455), or Pizza Caccio (tel. 224-3261), which lie at the heart of this district -- or you can try one of the places listed.

Hard rockers, metal freaks, ravers, and rowdy young crowds tend to congregate at the Sand Bar (tel. 225-9229), in the Centro Comercial Cocorí, and El Yos (tel. 283-0095), located 75m (3/4 blocks) west of the Automercado in Los Yoses. The latter club often has live music or DJs.

You can get here by heading out (east) on Avenida 2, and following the flow of traffic. You will first pass through the neighborhood of Los Yoses before you reach a large traffic circle with a big fountain in the center (La Fuente de la Hispanidad). The Mall San Pedro is located on this traffic circle. Heading straight through the circle (well, going around it and continuing on what would have been a straight path), you'll come to the Church of San Pedro, about 4 blocks east of the circle. The church is the major landmark in San Pedro. You can also take a bus here from downtown.

Casinos
Gambling is legal in Costa Rica, and there are casinos at virtually every major hotel. However, as with Tico bullfighting, there are some idiosyncrasies involved in gambling a la Tica.

If blackjack is your game, you'll want to play "rummy." The rules are almost identical, except that the house doesn't pay 1 1/2 times on blackjack -- instead, it pays double on any three of a kind or three-card straight flush.

If you're looking for roulette, what you'll find here is a bingo-like spinning cage of numbered balls. The betting is the same, but some of the glamour is lost.

You'll also find a version of five-card-draw poker, but the rule differences are so complex that I advise you to sit down and watch for a while and then ask some questions before joining in. That's about all you'll find. There are no craps tables or baccarat.

There's some controversy over slot machines -- one-armed bandits are currently outlawed -- but you will be able to play electronic slots and poker games. Most of the casinos here are quite casual and small by international standards. You might have to dress up slightly at some of the fancier hotels, but most are accustomed to tropical vacation attire.

Costa Rica Photo Gallery