Cariari Country Club

Designed by George Fazio and constructed by his nephew Tom Fazio in the early 1970s, Cariari Country Club was the first 18-hole course to be built in Costa Rica – indeed, it was the only championship layout in Central America for nearly twenty years.

Once a large coffee plantation in the middle of the Central Valley, close to the city centre of San Jose, Cariari has now matured into an impressive parkland layout with tree-lined, rolling fairways that, unfortunately, are off-limits to most visiting golfers as the course can only be played by members and their guests.

Incidentally, Cariari is named after the place where Christopher Columbus dropped anchor during his fourth voyage of discovery. Now known as Puerto Limón (located 169 km to the east) it was previously called "Cariay" and it was here that Columbus arrived on 17th September 1502. He’s said to have stayed for twenty-two days, “attracted by the beauty of the site and the warmth of the indigenous people, who treated him with singular courtesy.”