Critics and advocates alike have to ask, is Panama stealing the limelight? Costa Rica’s most active province seems to have a follower in its wake, albeit one country away.

Many speculators and travelers are recently making associations between the famous province in which sits Tamarindo of Costa Rica, and the similarly landscaped Panamanian home to Pedasi. But in looking a little more closely, can the two really be compared on the same scale?

In terms of pure infrastructure, most agree that Panama’s region of Los Santos is much further along than that of Guanacaste in its early days. Today, the comparison is pretty clear: with Panama just budding in tourism and Costa Rica having, by far, the more developed province, Guanacaste is well further along than Los Santos who’s remote coasts require a several-hour-drive to civilization.

Real estate prices in both provinces are worth noting as well, seeing as the comparisons in natural beauty are often made While the most recent years have brought a huge appreciation in the value of land in Los Santos, Pedasi, prices still remain significantly less than their counterparts in Guanacaste.

However, the variety of real estate in Guanacaste, as a direct result of the province’s state of development, is much greater: with offers of home sites, beachfront lots, and actual houses omnipresent. What Los Santos lacks in diversity, some say it makes up for in value: with large farms (due to its ground level status) only a portion (if you can find them) of their comparables in Guanacaste.

Much more renowned in the world of surfers is Guanacaste and more specifically its gem of Tamarindo—arguably the most popular surfers and non-surfers beach in Costa Rica. However, surfers also are drawn to more secluded and less-crowded beaches which is why Los Santos’ famous Playa Venado is a diamond in the rough. Not yet with the restaurants or surf shops or even many hotels around its rim, surfers often recede to the shores of Los Santos before the secret is out.

Panamanians love to gripe about traveling long distances to get to a beach: something Costa Rican’s have made a name for themselves doing. The plane ride from the country’s capital of San Jose, to Liberia, is not a terrible one but an international airport makes getting there simple. Los Santos, on the other hand has no international airport and requires either a short domestic flight or a four-hour drive to see its shores. Flights are limited to a few every week: a number that will surely increase in the near future.

The main hotspots in Los Santos, as a byproduct of their relative seclusion, have very few tourist hotels, restaurants, and bars (excluding towns like Las Tablas which fill up for various festivals). And it is this deficiency that draw many people there in the first place; the feeling of getting in on a destination before it explodes on the world stage.

Many will argue which is more attractive: the developed shores and lush mountains of Guanacaste, Costa Rica or the secluded and budding region of Los Santos, Panama. Tourist numbers don’t lie for the time being, but most agree that the future looks bright on both sides of the fence.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on June 3rd, 2008