Because of its huge richness and miscegenation that turns it into the second most important city of the province of Guanacaste, Santa Cruz is known as the folkloric city of Costa Rica.

Its national civic festivities (celebrated every year in the first week of January) have been declared to be of national interest because they show a lot of characteristic dances, traditional food, music, songs, bull rodeos, horse parades and a lot more activities that make these festivities unique in the whole country.

The city of Chorotega, as Santa Cruz is called as well, offers to the visitor restaurants, hotels, harborages, bars, pharmacies, supermarkets, artisan craftwork shops and banks. Furthermore the main part of the state offices have bureaus in this city.
In addition to that you will find a great variety of beaches and places for sightseeing that are located about 20 or 30 minutes from the city, a fact that makes it a convenient site to enjoy Guanacaste.

In the summer months (December until May) the climate is very hot, like in nearly all parts of Guanacaste, therefore it is recommendable to wear light clothing, ideal to enjoy the summer and the beaches.

The city has more tan 12 thousand inhabitants, which are also called “santacruceños” and represent very well the idiosyncracy of the people living in Guanacaste, who are a product of a cultural mixture between Spaniards, natives and Africans.