Several years ago this Hilton Garden Inn opened up across the street from the Liberia Airport. I am sure that it is used by all of the airplane crews. Before this opened, the nearest upscale accommodations would be at beach resorts about 45 minutes away.Some of the departing flights to the USA leave as early as 7:00 am, so some tourists prefer to go to this hotel the evening before departure so that they do not have to make an early morning drive to the airport.
There was an article in the Costa Rican newspaper about a week ago that reported that tourism in Costa Rica in 2011 was up about 4%, which is good considering the condition of the economy in the USA, Costa Rica's largest market for visitors. There were about 2 million visitors, to a country with a little over 4 million population.
In anticipation of the new terminal at the Liberia airport, recently new nonstop service was added to Liberia from Denver, Minneapolis, New York and even a flight from Germany. The addition of nonstop service from Europe is new and significant. I have noticed an increase in European visitors, as this past year three of the people who rented my condos were European, whereas in the previous three years I had only one European guest.
This week we are showing photos of some close up photos of plants and animals of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.
A bit on the ugly side I think. But if you need somewhere to sleep for the night it will do!
ReplyDeleteyou have such an interesting point of view of Costa Rica's story.
ReplyDeleteDave, I appreciate the effort you make to give us information about the photos you post and the obvious happiness you experience in your Costa Rica!
ReplyDeleteLike Steffe, I'm not enamored of the architecture, but it provides a great service for travelers!
I think as you say Dave, these big hotels near the airports (nearly all big cities have them, we do here in Perth) is hat they're so handy and as long as they are clean and comfortable that's the main thing yeh!
ReplyDeleteThey built a large one here, didn't they? Interesting that more and more European guests are coming to Costa Rica.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we can start becoming optimistic about the global economy as more and more data like this suggest that the doldrums are slowly becoming "the past." It is too bad that economic progress is so fragile . . .
ReplyDeleteWe stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn in Colorado Springs. It was excellent in every way! I think your airport is fortunate to have one close by.
ReplyDeletevery convenient but I prefer to stay in Tamarindo and drive to the airport
ReplyDeleteAptly named, I suppose
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