It’s like a grab bag at a candy store—coastal drama, rainforests, spring-weather valleys…this place costs less than Cleveland…and things just work here.” That was my assessment of Costa Rica in 1998.

That trip felt like a reward. I’d been nosing out “new” destinations in places like Nicaragua and Panama—“early-in finds” that would be attractive to pioneering retirees. But such places can lack certain “comforts.” (Like the hotel where you had to hold two wires together in the shower to turn the lights on. Don’t worry: I didn’t recommend it to readers.)

Costa Rica was a different story—even back then. It was much further along on that “continuum of development” as I think of it. The infrastructure was solid. Airplanes took off and landed on schedule.

And because an expat population was already well-established two decades ago, life in Costa Rica was convenient…and it still is. As Jason Holland reports from the Central Valley, you can find everything from waffles at a breakfast joint to a memory card for a camera.

See below for all the articles in your September 2012 issue. If you’d prefer to read your issue in PDF format, click here.