Costa Rica Fast Becoming the #1 Honeymoon Destination
By Richard Bexon, Costaricaholiday.co.uk

Costa Rica Holiday UK sees a dramatic increase in the number of honeymooners visiting in 2006/2007 to Costa Rica. Over the past year Costa Rica Holiday UK has seen its honeymoon traffic double and also in general they are seeing a large increase in people visiting Costa Rica.

2006/2007 was the biggest year for the number of honeymooners visiting Costa Rica increasing on 2005/2006 by over 50%.

Costa Rica in the past 5 years has seen the number of people coming through its airports quadruple with the expansion of both airports and the increase in daily flights and hotels. The country is starting to become dependent on its tourism revenues very much like countries such as Hawaii and Jamaica. However Costa Rica is seen to have much more on offer than any of these older tourist hotspots.

With a huge mountainous range running through the middle of the country and 7 volcanoes, of which the Volcano Arenal is active, Costa Rica's scenery is diverse and also offers some great adventure tours such as white water rafting (The Rio Pacuare is one of the top 5 rafting rivers in the world), waterfall abseiling and canopy zip line tours.

One of the most popular destinations for honeymooners is the Osa Peninsula where 6% of the worlds biodiversity lies and is where you would find the David Attenborough's of the world. Here one can see Scarlet Macaws on a daily basis and also watch spider monkeys fly through the rainforest above. However still the most popular destinations that Costa Rica Honeymoons is seeing is the Arenal Volcano, Manuel Antonio and the Osa Peninsula.

Costa Rica took over Hawaii in 2006 as the #1 tourist destination for North Americans becoming one of the most popular destinations in the world. Costa Rica has always been known for its eco-tourism projects and its vast array of wildlife and this allows people to feel healthy and green when taking honeymoons in Costa Rica. People are constantly looking to do something different for their honeymoon and Costa Rica definitely offers this.

Recently new small boutique hotels have been popping up left right and center to cope with the influx of new honeymooners. Such hotels as Latitude 10 in Mal Pais/Santa Teresa have seen great success in the small boutique romantic market. Other winners are Hotel Gaia in Manuel Antonio and Los Altos de Eros in Tamarindo. These hotels have been successful due to their high level of service and quality accommodations in a normally 3-4 star resort style environment.

Costa Rica Honeymoons has seen that most honeymooners in 2007 have been leaning towards the smaller boutique end of the market and steering away from larger hotels. One of the reasons for this is due the specialization that these smaller hotels have in personal service and fine dining as well as being adult orientated and not accepting children. A common indicator for how well ranked a hotel is, is to look at the dining options at the hotel. Costa Rica Honeymoons has seen that in such instances as Latitude 10, where they have a fabulous gourmet French Chef, clients have been much happier to stay at this hotel than hotels with badly reviewed restaurants.

The average price people are paying for a honeymoon to Costa Rica is around the $8,000 for 2 people. This price will get you 2 weeks in nice 4 star boutique hotels with some tours for the first week included.

The countries that are currently competing with Costa Rica for honeymoons are countries such as Madagascar, Borneo, Brazil (Amazon), Chile and other tropical rainforest countries. Paul Smith of Costa Rica Holiday states that the majority of the time he finds that people are looking at at least 1 other destination which he normally finds to be Borneo or Chile. However normally Costa Rica wins hands down due to the variety of wildlife and the ever changing scenery. There are not many countries he says where you can be rafting one day and lying on the beach that afternoon.