Pura vida a direct flight away

Nonstop flights from Denver make Costa Rica an accessible destination for Colorado residents.

Both Southwest Airlines and United Airlines provide nonstop flights from Denver (DEN) to San José (SJO). In terms of demand, San José ranks as Denver’s top destination in Central America according to Michael Konopasek, external communications manager at Denver International Airport.

Overall, Costa Rica is the No. 5 most popular international destination (by country) for travel to and from Denver after Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, he said.

For years, Costa Rican vacations have filled my own social media feed and the recommendations continued to grow over the years. I’ve visited Costa Rica a couple of times for destination weddings, traveling most recently to Ojochal on the southwest coast of the country, with highlights on my vacation that included a Sierpe Wildlife Mangrove Tour to spot Capuchin monkeys and an excursion to the Nauyaca Waterfalls. Striped with streams of water, ropes attached to the rocks tempt should you want to climb the falls and then jump from a ledge.

On my last morning in Ojochal, I was having breakfast at Hotel Three Sixty, a boutique 12-villa retreat that feels like you’re staying amid the clouds and that has an infinity pool that you can spot the Pacific coastline from.

I grabbed the binoculars set on my table next to my iced coffee to see the birds flitting about in the canopy of trees and hoping for one more Capuchin sighting. At the table next to me, I had another sighting, this one quite common: A couple in University of Colorado Buffs gear. We didn’t need Google to tell us the obvious: At any given time should you strike up a conversation with fellow travelers, you’ll quickly learn there’s a Colorado contingent in Costa Rica, eager to compare travel notes.