(2021) Now Available: Moon Costa Rica, our Costa Rica guidebook with Moon Travel Guides!

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(2021) Now Available: Moon Costa Rica, our Costa Rica guidebook with Moon Travel Guides!

Home » What To Do In Costa Rica » Now Available: Moon Costa Rica, our Costa Rica guidebook with Moon Travel Guides!

Last updated on January 30th, 2021 at 09:15 pm EST

Cover; Moon Costa Rica (2019)

Get the Costa Rica info you need by browsing our article’s TABLE OF CONTENTS:

It’s official! Moon Costa Rica (2019), our Costa Rica guidebook with Moon Travel Guides, is here.

If you’ve ever stood in the travel section of your local bookstore and scanned the shelves for the perfect guidebook, there’s a good chance you’re already familiar with the name Moon. If you’re a travel newbie, you’ll quickly learn that Moon (formally, Moon Travel Guides) is one of the most recognizable and respectable guidebook brands on the market. Moon produces detailed travel guides to countless countries and notable regions around the world, each written by authors with tight ties to the spotlight destination and heaps of firsthand experience.

Moon Costa Rica’s new author: Nikki Solano

I couldn’t feel prouder to be the new author of Moon Costa Rica, Costa Rica’s contribution to Moon‘s global guidebook empire. When I stepped into the role, I had some big shoes to fill. Moon Costa Rica‘s previous author, Christopher P. Baker, built the book in the 1990s and carried it through to 2015 with updated publications every few years. Moon‘s reputation for producing high quality, trustworthy, and beloved resources added pressure to deliver a fantastic travel guide. So did my own desire to always provide Costa Rica travelers like you with unique content and sound advice. Throw in the fact that work on the book fused two of my greatest loves–Costa Rica and writing–and you can understand why dedicating nearly all of my time and energy for more than a year to the development of the next and best Moon Costa Rica was the right and necessary choice.

“Why Moon Costa Rica? First of all, it’s well-written and the book’s layout is very accessible. The depth and clarity of the descriptions of regions, activities, transportation options, accommodations, and many other “must knows” are an important strong point. In reading Moon Costa Rica, I have a sense of the honesty and integrity of the author, Nikki Solano, and her partner, Ricky. Their thirteen years of lived-experience, extensive travels throughout Costa Rica, and local tourism connections are reflected in the guide which, perhaps most importantly, inspires trust in their recommendations.”

T.A., Purchased Moon Costa Rica (2019) in January 2020 at Chapters / Indigo
(read the full unbiased review here)

About Moon Costa Rica (2019)

Built from scratch, the 2019 edition of Moon Costa Rica is a full-color, 568-page book that’s full of all-new tips, recommendations, photos, and maps. If you’ve read Moon Costa Rica before, something different you’ll notice about the 2019 edition is that it delves into experiences. The editor and I worked very hard to make this book a practical guide to sensing Costa Rica–listening to the wild soundtracks of varied ecosystems, seeing wildlife, tasting flavorful cuisine, smelling bold aromas like freshly ground Costa Rican coffee, and feeling the pura vida vibe. We aimed not just to tell you what you can do in Costa Rica, but to walk you through the process of doing it. You’ll learn where the best activities take place, what they feel like and require of you, what you need to know before signing up for particular tours, which companies are the best to book through, and, perhaps most important, why particular experiences are worthy of your time and money.

The book contains plenty of additional information, too, like which accommodations are the best to stay at and why they’re deserving of recognition; which transportation services are the most time- and cost-efficient; where you should go to indulge in Costa Rica’s best food and drinks; which beaches offer something special; how you can take part in local celebrations; and which sights are the country’s best. Itinerary and strategic trip-planning suggestions tailored for different types of travelers (e.g., backpackers, couples/honeymooners, families with children, nature lovers, adventurists, and beach bums) are also provided. Having spent more than a decade corresponding with Costa Rica travelers, the itineraries and travel strategies I developed for Moon Costa Rica are a combination of my professional expertise and lessons learned/shared by past travelers.

Sitting here, looking at the stack of Moon Costa Rica author copies on my desk, I’m all smiles. I’m also confident Moon Costa Rica will become the preferred guidebook of Costa Rica travelers given the intricate detail, practical information, and helpful advice it contains. Ricky, a born-and-raised Costa Rican, jammed tons of Tico (Costa Rican) heart and soul into this book, which is equally important and celebratory. He helped the new Moon Costa Rica achieve a level of authenticity that other Costa Rica guidebooks struggle to reach, likely because the majority of competition guides are written solely by expats.

When and where to buy Moon Costa Rica (2019)

Moon Costa Rica (2019) hit stores on November 12th, 2019. You can find it in the travel section in bookstores across the US and Canada (Barnes & Noble and Chapters/Indigo, for example), as well as on the websites of online book vendors, such as Amazon. Here’s a list of popular places you can buy the book, complete with links to Moon Costa Rica‘s listing page on each:

Amazon.com (paperback) / Amazon.com (Kindle E-book)

Amazon.ca (paperback) / Amazon.ca (Kindle E-book)

Barnes & Noble (paperback) / Barnes & Noble (NOOK E-book)

Chapters/Indigo (paperback) / Chapters/Indigo (Kobo E-book)

If you’d like to learn more about Moon Travel Guides, please visit Moon‘s website.

What’s next for us?

In looking ahead to the future, new editions of Moon Costa Rica will be published every two or three years. In the meantime, you’ll find Ricky and me hard at work contributing new posts to this blog and operating our other Costa Rica-related projects, Pura Vida! eh? Inc. and DIY Costa Rica.

What it’s like to write a travel guidebook

Are you curious about the process of writing a travel guidebook? If so, don’t miss our related blog post Writing A Travel Guidebook: What To Expect which details my awesome experience writing Moon Costa Rica and working with Moon (i.e., Avalon Travel and Hachette Book Group) in particular.

Moon Costa Rica (2019) in the press

Want more Moon Costa Rica (2019)? Awesome! Check out the links below:

Book Authority chooses Moon Costa Rica (2019) as #3 on their list of 40 Best New Hiking eBooks To Read In 2020. Read more here.

Publishers Weekly talks local impact and Moon Costa Rica (2019). Read more here.

Pura vida!

QUESTION TO COMMENT ON: Is there something specific you’d like to see in the next edition of Moon Costa Rica? If so, comment below or send us an email and we’ll be sure to consider it while we research book updates.