How "Jurassic Park" Got San Jose Wrong

No, San Jose is not located next to the beach.

The first in the series of "Jurassic Park" movies gave many movie viewers the wrong impression of San Jose, Costa Rica. It shows a series of ramshackle buildings in a beachfront setting.

Here's the scene in its entirety:

You must be saying to yourself, "Hey! There it is my next destination, a nice seaside resort in San José!"… well not really. You see, this is what San José actually looks like :

San Jose is located in the middle of Costa Rica, at least an hour's drive from the nearest Pacific Beach and even longer to the Caribbean side.

Something we point out in our book, the "San Jose airport" is actually not in San Jose. It's about 17 km west, in Alajuela. (so don't book your first night in San Jose and expect it to be close to the airport).

P.S. The "San Jose" beach scenes in "Jurassic Park" were filmed in Hawaii.