San José Museums

Most visitors treat San José as an airport with a city attached, which is a mistake for one specific reason: its museums hold the pre-Columbian material that makes sense of everything else in the country. The Museo del Oro Precolombino, underground beneath the Plaza de la Cultura, holds thousands of gold pieces, most of them small, intricate and animal, made by lost-wax casting. The Museo del Jade holds the largest collection of American jade anywhere, along with ceramics and the stone metates carved as ceremonial seats. The National Museum occupies a former army barracks whose walls still carry bullet holes from 1948, the year Costa Rica abolished its military, and its courtyard holds several of the stone spheres from the Diquís delta, perfectly round granite balls up to more than two metres across whose purpose remains unresolved.

What you actually see

• Museo del Oro Precolombino - thousands of cast gold animal and figure pieces, underground.
• Museo del Jade - the largest American jade collection, with ceramics and carved metates.
• National Museum - the old barracks, a butterfly garden and the Diquís stone spheres.
• Teatro Nacional - the ornate 1897 theatre next to the gold museum, worth a look inside.

When to go

Any time; all are indoor. Weekday mornings are quietest. Most museums close on Mondays, which regularly catches out travellers on a tight schedule between flights.

Honest expectations

San José is not a beautiful city and the walk between museums crosses some scruffy blocks; go in daylight and keep valuables out of sight. Each museum charges separately, which adds up. Labelling is generally bilingual but uneven in depth, and the gold museum in particular benefits from an audio guide.

Nearby

The central market and Barrio Amón's coffee-boom mansions are within walking distance.