Costa Rica
Costa Rica is one of the 193 UN member states, in Central America. UN Tourism counted 3.4 million international arrivals there in 2019, more visited than 58% of the 199 places with figures, so its stamp in Globestamp is printed in Colour-shift.
- International arrivals
- 3.4 millionin 2019, UN Tourism
- Rank by visitors
- 85th of 199most visited first
- Stamp finish
- Colour-shiftrarer than 42%
- Area
- 51,360 km² (19,830 sq mi)
- Population
- 5 millionNatural Earth estimate
- Provinces
- 7in Globestamp’s regions layer
- Airports
- 9with scheduled flights
- World Heritage Sites
- 4on Globestamp’s list
Does Costa Rica count as a country?
Yes. Costa Rica is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
| List | Counts Costa Rica? |
|---|---|
| UN member states (193) | Yes, a member |
| Globestamp’s countries and territories (250) | Yes |
| Travelers’ Century Club (330) | Yes, as Costa Rica |
| European Union | No |
| Schengen area | No |
The Costa Rica stamp
Every country in Globestamp has its own stamp, drawn after a real entry stamp. Its finish shows how few travelers get there. Costa Rica’s is Colour-shift: one colour straight on, another at an angle, the finish for places with 2 to 6 million visitors a year. With 3.4 million international arrivals in 2019, Costa Rica is more visited than 58% of the 199 places with figures. See every stamp on the stamp wall, or the rarest on the least-visited countries.
What counts as a visit to Costa Rica
The common rule among travelers is that you set foot there: an airport layover usually doesn’t count, and a port where you went ashore does. Globestamp counts Costa Rica when one of your photos was taken on its ground, or just off its coast; a photo taken from a plane never counts. Photos only at an airport make a transit stamp in lighter ink, counted only if you count layovers. Read more in how to count the countries you’ve visited.
Places in Costa Rica you can collect
Under the country itself, Globestamp keeps layers of places on your globe, and a photo taken at one ticks it. These are the ones it knows in Costa Rica, from 4 World Heritage Sites to 12 volcanoes.
World Heritage Sites 4
Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site (1999) · Cocos Island National Park (1997) · Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves (1983) · Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquís. On the bucket list →
National parks 3
Corcovado National Park · Manuel Antonio National Park · Tortuguero National Park. On the bucket list →
Volcanoes 12
Arenal Volcano · Irazú Volcano · Poás Volcano · Turrialba · Rincón de la Vieja Volcano · Volcán Tenorio and 6 more. On the bucket list →
Theme parks 1
Parque de Diversiones. On the bucket list →
Zoos and aquariums 6
Parque Zoológico Nacional Simón Bolívar · Osa Wildlife Sanctuary · Arenal Eco Zoo · La Paz Waterfall Gardens and 2 more. On the bucket list →
Botanical gardens 2
Lankester Botanical Garden · Parque Zoológico Nacional Simón Bolívar. On the bucket list →
Largest cities
| City | People (urban area) |
|---|---|
| San José | 1,284,000 |
| Alajuela | 387,743 |
| Cartago | 196,946 |
| Limón | 85,001 |
| Puntarenas | 57,102 |
Airports
Costa Rica has 9 airports with scheduled flights, 2 of them large. Each is a dot on Globestamp’s airports layer, and every flight you log adds to how far you’ve flown (try the flight distance calculator).
7 provinces to fill in
Globestamp goes deeper than countries: its regions layer splits Costa Rica into 7 provinces (Natural Earth’s first-level divisions), and each one fills in when a photo was taken there.
All 7
Alajuela · Cartago · Guanacaste · Heredia · Limón · Puntarenas · San José
Questions people ask
Is Costa Rica a country?
Yes. Costa Rica is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
How many tourists visit Costa Rica a year?
UN Tourism (via the World Bank) counted 3,366,000 international arrivals in Costa Rica in 2019, the 85th most of the 199 places with figures. Countries count arrivals in different ways (some include day-trippers and cruise passengers), so treat it as a rough rank rather than an exact number of tourists.
How rare is a Costa Rica stamp in Globestamp?
It is printed in Colour-shift, the finish for places with 2 to 6 million visitors a year, rarer than 42% of the places with figures. The fewer travelers a place receives, the rarer its finish, from plain Ink to Mythic.
Does Costa Rica count for the Travelers’ Century Club?
Yes. The Travelers’ Century Club counts it as “Costa Rica”, one of its 330 destinations.
Places as rare as Costa Rica
Near Costa Rica
Sources
- Countries, cities and regions: Natural Earth 10m admin-0 (public domain); lists as of October 2026.
- Visitors: UN Tourism via the World Bank, ST.INT.ARVL (International tourism, number of arrivals), CC BY 4.0, data updated 2026-10-08. Each country's latest year before 2020. Countries count visitors differently; use as a rough rank.
- World Heritage Sites, parks, landmarks and the bucket-list places: Wikidata (CC0), as compiled in the app, October 2026.
- Airports: OurAirports (public domain), airports with scheduled service.
- Travelers’ Century Club: the club’s list of 330 destinations, as of January 2022.