Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport — Liberia, Costa Rica

Guanacaste province's beach towns and surf breaks, including Tamarindo, Playa Flamingo, and the resorts around the Papagayo Peninsula, draw most of the travelers who land at LIR, an airport named for Daniel Oduber Quirós, a former Costa Rican president remembered for environmental and social reforms during his 1970s term. Located near the provincial city of Liberia, the airport expanded significantly beginning in the 2000s as direct international flights from the United States and Canada increasingly bypassed the capital's Juan Santamaría Airport, cutting hours off the overland journey for tourists bound for the country's drier, sunnier northwest coast. Guanacaste's tropical dry-forest climate, distinct from the rainier central valley around San José, contributes to LIR's popularity as a winter-sun destination for North American travelers escaping colder months. The airport has become an important economic engine for a region once centered on cattle ranching and agriculture.