Jaco, Costa Rica is a town in Costa Rica. And unlike some of the weird jurisdictional units I write about in Costa Rica, Jaco is actually recognizable as a town, although to be technical, Jaco is also a district in Garabito canton in Puntarenas Province.
Jaco is located on the Pacific Ocean, 60 miles southwest of San Jose, Costa Rica. It is considered to be one of Costa Rica's premier beaches, and is a popular tourist destination, for both domestic tourists and international tourists. The main beach is about 3 miles long, and is particularly famous as a place to surf, and there are many surfing schools in the town. As a tropical city on the ocean, the weather is uniformly hot and humid, although there is some relief from the sea breeze. The recent influx of tourists has led to a lot of development, and there are several large tower condominiums. There are many businesses that cater to foreign tourists, and English is even more common in Jaco than in other parts of Costa Rica.
I have been to many beach towns in several countries, and Jaco looks a lot like the rest of them. And like many beach towns, the difference between the experience of a tourist staying there for the weekend, (especially if you are escaping a winter in Chicago or Toronto, for example) and what it is like to live there are two different things. Like many places in Costa Rica, tourism has grown quicker than infrastructure, and the roads are clogged with traffic. Walking up and down the beach once is nice, but as usual, I found some of the tourist related businesses to be a bit tacky. I also wonder about the lives of service workers with an economy tied to tourism. These are the type of grumpy things I think about instead of enjoying the beach.
Also, many of the best parts of Jaco, including more pristine beaches and national parks, are available with more time and guided tours. For me, I visited the town, saw the beach, and then spent 4 hours making it 60 miles back to San Jose. So I didn't have the experience of a tropical paradise, but your mileage may vary.