Costa Rica - Lessons Learned
After six weeks of driving around Costa Rica in a rental car, we are in no way experts on the country, but here are some tips and general information that we gleaned on our travels. It is a glorious place to visit with incredible beaches, volcanos and jungle to explore.
Budget
Transportation
We invested in a rental car – and it was an investment at $2,300 for a gutless mini sedan for six weeks. This was our biggest expense. On the flip side, we drove 2,000 miles and averaged $6 a day in gas – much less than budgeted.
Made it everywhere we wanted to go in a sedan, but sure missed our truck.
Tours and Entrance Fees
Our next biggest expense was a surprise for us – close to $2,000 for park fees, reserve fees, tours, and other entrance fees. Half of this was the significant investment ($500 each for three days including accommodations, park fees and food) for the two of us in Corcovado National Park. If you take that out, we averaged $25 a day.
The beaches are free, so if surfing is your thing, you are golden! But we really wanted to get into the jungle, mountains, and rain forest. Costa Rica does not have any developed public trails that we could find. National Parks and Reserves averaged about $10-$15 per person and we probably went to one about every other day.
Costa Rican beach life. Pura Vida.
Accommodations
We started with a budget of $40 a day, which was a lot for us to swallow, being used to living in our camper truck. We came out pretty close to this. For a traveling couple sharing a budget, budget hotels can be a better deal than hostels, especially when you get breakfast included. Being introverts, we don’t really look for the communal hostel experience when traveling (OK we actively avoid it) so when we stayed in hostels we booked a private room which worked well for us. We looked for places with communal kitchens and cooked our own dinners about a third of the time.
We almost exclusively used Booking.com which seemed to have the best deals, prices, and variety in Costa Rica. We often double checked with Expedia, Priceline, Hotels.com and Priceline, but they usually did not have as many choices. People were often surprised at the rates we were getting through Booking.com – even the hotel staff.
Basic private room in a hostel - typically $30-40 a night
Food
We budgeted $30 a day for the two of us and came a little under. Most of the time our accommodations had a hearty breakfast (rice, beans, and eggs with fruit) which was a great kickstart to the day. We tended to eat one meal out and put together the other meal with groceries. There are large markets everywhere, although groceries were not as cheap as we expected. A couple of chicken breasts ran $7, a pound of coffee $12, a block of cheese $5-6. We could have saved if we ate more like locals, and when we bought rice and beans and tortillas it was a lot less.
Family run restaurants called “Sodas” are literally on every street and every stretch of road. You can get a plate of rice and beans or a “casada” – a plate with rice, vegetables and chicken or fish for $5-7 a person. We also frequented Panaderias (bakeries) where the two of us could fill up on an assortment of empanadas, rolls and sweets for about $6. We never ate in an upscale restaurant.
Classic casada, cooked by abuelas in every road side cafe. Costa Rican food posed some challenges for Andy as an onion hater. Most meals were abundant with onions. Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon.
Money
The Costa Rican currency is colones and when we were there the conversion rate ran about 640 colones to the dollar. The math made our brain hurt (drop two decimals, divide by 6ish). We were surprised that most hotels, tour operators and even restaurants were fully prepared to accept US dollars over colones. Since it has always felt somewhat wrong to us to use our home currency in other countries, we typically used colones. ATMs took a little bit of planning. Many were in guarded banks which were closed on weekends. There could also be huge lines. So we tried to take out large amounts when we went. About half of our hotels and restaurants only accepted cash. Gas stations and larger grocery stores accepted credit cards.
Classic ATM bank line in San Jose
National Parks and Reserves
Surprisingly (for us) many parks closed at 2pm – which meant exiting the park by then. The rest seemed to close at 4pm. Many national parks require a timed entrance reservation. We were travelling during the high season (February, March, dry months) and never had a problem with accessing the park with a day’s notice. This may change as tourism comes back to normal levels – we were told it was at about 50% of normal when we were there. The online booking system for national parks is at and is easy to http://www.sinac.go.cr. When you search a national park, be careful you end up on the SINAC system and don’t get swept into a tour operator.
Guides
Most of the larger national parks and reserves have willing guides near the entrance gates, or tours that you can sign up for in advance. In all of our travels, we almost never hire hiking or wildlife guides (we self drove Botswana and found everything we dreamed of). However, we had also made a previous trip to Costa Rica six years ago and never saw a sloth.
We paid for guides in two places and are incredibly glad we did. At Manuel Antonio National Park, we spent two hours in a small group with Roger (referred to us by Esteban at our hostel in Quepos, Villas Jacquelinas). For $50 each which includes the park entrance of $15, we saw more in the first 10 minutes with Roger than we ever would have seen on our own. He carried a spotting scope, which is invaluable for watching the life high in the canopies, and knew exactly which leaves to turn over to show us the teeming fauna of the park.
The second place we hired a guide was Corcovado National Park – and here it is required for entrance. Once again, we know that without Oscar of Surcos Tours we never would have had the deep, enriching experience we had.
It is quite possible that we could have seen more other places if we went with a guide, but the benefit of doing it early is that you learn what to look and listen for. By the time we went to our last wildlife park, Cahuita, we were spotting sloths, hearing the monkeys come crashing in and smelling tapirs.
Never would have seen this beauty without our guide Roger in Manuel Antonio
Or this tapir family without Oscar in Corcovado
Parking
Since we were driving ourselves, we always needed to park. Many of the popular attractions have friendly fellows in neon vests willing to wave you into a spot for a tip or a fee. Since we were being cheap, we usually drove the 200 feet beyond their sphere of influence and parked on our own.
Gaia and AllTrails
Our go-to apps for navigating and finding hiking trails were not well populated in Costa Rica. Gaia was usually a solid resource once you were in the park and on the trail, although it often showed extra trails that did not exist or were grown over to the extent you would need a machete (not on our packing list). It would also get us excited about a trail system that we would drive to and then realize there was no public access or it was on private land.
Driving
First rule, Costa Ricans brake for lizards. Maybe not for dogs or pedestrians, but definitely for lizards. The main roads in Costa Rica are good, if narrow. Passing lanes are infrequent or nonexistent but that doesn’t stop people from passing. On curves. On blind corners. Drivers are courteous though and the chaos of scooters, trucks, bicycles and stray dogs seems to work as long as you stay on your toes. We did not drive at night. A few times Google took us on a “short cut” that involved roads turning to gravel, crater sized potholes and unexpected wet crossings, but we were able to manage it in our basic sedan. We did not invest in a 4x4 and did not feel that this prevented us from getting anywhere we wanted to go – but we were definitely not off roading.
Google maps is about 80% accurate in Costa Rica, with some notable exceptions. Locals prefer Waze which was built on the ground in Costa Rica, as opposed to Google maps which was built by flyovers. Several hotel owners were frustrated with Google sending patrons (like us) out random and dangerous roads unnecessarily. Google also tended to be optimistic on driving times – not accounting for slow trucks on steep mountain roads, construction, or navigating potholes.
As far as gas prices, they are regulated by the government so are the same at the most remote tiny station as in the outskirts of big cities.
Security
In San Jose we took the same precautions we would take in any other big city in the world. We stayed in populated areas when walking at night and tried to look like we knew what we were doing. Once we left San Jose and were driving our own car, we almost never drove at night. We never left anything visible in the car. We listened to the warnings about trailhead break ins and either left our luggage in a hotel, or when in transit parked in a populated area or near a ranger station. A few times we hiked with all our valuables. We were never accosted in any way and were only met with friendliness and hospitality wherever we went.
The police in Costa Rica do not seem to be overly concerned about enforcing traffic laws. No speed traps that we saw. With tourism a national priority, tourist police were in evidence at many of the national parks, there to help.
Locals in San Jose told us that the Caribbean side is more dangerous than the Pacific side. This is attributed to drug traffic. We did not sense that, but we could be oblivious. Beaches and towns on both sides of the country felt welcoming. However, we listened to local advice and did not walk on the beach at night on the Caribbean side.
Weather
Our advice: go in February and March!! The Pacific side seemed warmer at 80º during the day and some cooling at night, and the ocean felt warmer too. The Caribbean side was a little cooler when we were there – mid to high 70’s. Inland in the mountain areas it cools off dramatically at night. We wore pants in the Monteverde area but that was it, everywhere else it was shorts and t-shirts. Be prepared for humidity and just get used to sweating. The only place it really rained on us was Tortuguero.
Laundry
As far as we could tell, there were no self-service laundromats in Costa Rica. Hotels that listed “laundry facilities” on their website really meant they would send their laundry out to have it done for you. So we did this a few times – but it was surprisingly expensive - $10-12 a load.
COVID
Entering Costa Rica, we were required to fill out a national health pass form providing proof of vaccination. This form provided a scan code required by the airline for boarding. We were never again asked for proof of vaccination. Mask wearing was required in public areas at National Parks, on some tours and entering restaurants and stores. All of our activities and all of our eating in restaurants was outdoors so we did not feel much risk. With tourism down, activities were not crowded and we regularly had beaches and miles of trail to ourselves. We were required to get a COVID test to re-enter the US to travel home.
Masks still common outside in crowded areas of San Jose.
Packing List
Since we were traveling in a rental car, we packed into duffel bags and also brought small day backpacks. Pretty obvious what to bring, but some key items for us:
Lightweight clothing that you can wash out in a sink – t-shirts, shorts - laundry is expensive
Lightweight Raincoat
Pre-sprayed (with mosquito repellent) long sleeve light weight shirt and light weight pants
Backpacking towel (not always provided in budget accommodations
Cooler – we bought a small cheap hard sided one in San Jose that we used for six weeks then gave away. But next time, we would see if we could bring a soft sided insulated one to keep drinks and groceries cool
Headlamp – for any night tours or walks
Mosquito Repellent – we went through one Cutter Deep Wood spray can in 6 weeks. We didn’t have a lot of problems with mosquitos, but did find that when they were present they were stealthy and would sneak up on us and bite our ankles without us realizing it until much later. They did not have the characteristic warning whine of their Northern relatives.
Sun block and sun hats
We each had three pairs of shoes – flip flops, lightweight sneakers and hiking shoes
Reusable water bottles (although to be honest, after two weeks we both succumbed to intestinal issues and switched to refilling our metal bottles with store-bought bottled water, which felt ironic).
Steri-pens – we have these and wish we had brought them to sterilize water, reputedly more necessary on the Caribbean side
Swiss Army knife or Leatherman type tool
Ziploc bags for food storage
Shopping bags (we forgot these and ended up buying two in Costa Rica which we used constantly)
Bathing suits
Lightweight coat for warmth in mountains
Underwear of your choice – preferably lightweight and easy to wash out
Things Dawn brought and almost never used:
Joggers
Snorkeling mask (snorkeling not really great in Costa Rica unless you get out to the islands)
Medium weight hiking pants (only wore lightweight ones)
Lightweight sneakers – only wore trail shoes or flip flops
Lightweight fleece pullover (wore lighter weight long sleeve shirt for cooler nights)
Backpacking sleep sack (sheets provided in hostels, although to be fair, she did use it one night when she was doubtful about the cleanliness of the sheets)
Wool socks
Tights (why on earth?)
Zip-up hoodie (worn only on flight to and from Costa Rica)
Favorite all-time item that Dawn wore almost every day: Arcteryx Contenta dress, an amazing lightweight sleeveless loose-fitting dress that could be washed out in any sink and dry overnight, great for river crossings, beaches, etc.
Dawn’s most-worn item of clothing - lightweight black dress
Andy sporting his favorite beach wear
Let us know if you are planning a trip and we can answer any questions. Happy trails to all you travelers out there- both the in person and armchair version.
