An Amusement Park Costa Rica Style

I wanted to take my son for one last blast before his school break was over while we lived in Costa Rica and I took him to Parque de Diversiones, the Tico version of an amusement park. I thought it was as ordinary as the other so called amusement parks of Costa Rica which can be compared with normal fairs with a few rides in a little park. But when I went there, I was truly amazed and very impressed. I went with a friend of mine whose son was 1 year old and mine was 5. We got there at 9am thinking that we will be able to come back before lunch but to say the least, we couldn’t!

As a benefit, the park has a very interesting payment system that can never be found in western countries but works great for countries like Costa Rica where there are so many kids but not as much money.

The entrance fee has three options:

1. $ 10 for all the rides for the whole day. I bought this one, not sure about it though, turned out excellent later on.

2. Next one is pay-per-ride ranging from $ 2 to $ 5 depending on the ride. Most of them are $ 2.

3. The last one is free! It’s for the people who don’t want to go up in any rides and want to spend the time walking or sitting around.

My decision to take the first option got fully paid off. Most of the park was for kids of my son’s age; even the one year old had a great time.

There also are two train rides in the park. The first one takes you around the entire park. The second one, however, didn’t make much sense to me as it took you around showing scenery of something that resembled a land fill. I have a strong belief that this train was done a long time ago before the park took off and grew and for some reason, they didn’t shut it down. However, there is a little animal farm and petting zoo near the old train road so you don’t completely waste your time.

A very interesting, yet strange aspect of this park is that you can get married here if you want! The park has a beautiful place called Pueblo Antiguo which has a little central park, a church and other colonial styled houses. Although I can’t imagine a wedding taking place in front of so many people, but it is still an attractive place to get married in.

Although I haven’t been in an amusement park in America for quite a while, I don’t recall them having branded rides. There are advertisement billboards with all the rides and maybe this is how they gather money for the park.

Marina K. Villatoro is an expat living with her family and traveling in Central America. Find out great options for a family Costa Rica budget vacation.

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