The best time to visit Costa Rica is January after the holiday peak season tourist crowds head home. The rains end in December but the forests remain lush into the new year while dry sunny weather prevails on the beaches. It's one of the best times for wildlife when tropical species like monkeys … [Read more...]
Travel
Practical travel information like transportation options, driving, safety, health, packing, lodging, holidays, festivals, money and much more. Includes a section on weather, seasons, crowds and pricing to help you decide the best time to visit
Uber in Costa Rica – Okay? for Travelers
Uber in Costa Rica is worth a try but tourists cannot rely on it yet. Unlicensed private taxi services are not legal in Costa Rica. Despite this Uber has been operating in San Jose since August of 2015 and expanded the service area in 2019. Uber and Lyft have never been formally legalized … [Read more...]
How to Rent a Car in Costa Rica
Renting a car in Costa Rica can be different - for example needing to decide whether 4WD is necessary or not. Other aspects are just plain bizarre, like the bumpy number requirement. If you want to skip all the fascinating quirks and just take the path of least resistance we've also written … [Read more...]
Traveler’s Health Tips
Some basic planning and precautions can help keep you healthy and happy while traveling. Where to Get Care Emergencies Dial 911 toll free, and no coin required at a pay phone for emergency assistance. The Red Cross Rescue unit may be reached directly at 128 throughout the country (2221-5818 in San … [Read more...]
Preventing Theft
Each time I update this page I struggle to figure out how to get people to take crime seriously without making Costa Rica sound like a war zone. What the tourist board wants everyone to know is that "Costa Rica has the lowest crime rate of any Central American country", but this a dubious … [Read more...]
Getting the Best Airfare to Costa Rica
Any time you travel to Costa Rica your best bet for getting cheap airfare is to know a good deal when you see one. The second most important thing to know when shopping for flights is that cheapest is almost never the best. The third and maybe most important is that finding the least expensive … [Read more...]
The Most Dangerous Thing in Costa Rica
Can you guess what danger is hiding in plain sight in this photo of a room with a view in Costa Rica...? There are a lot of candidates for the most treacherous, risky, menacing peril awaiting visitors to Costa Rica - crocodiles in the estuaries, dengue mosquitoes in the swamps, deadly vipers … [Read more...]
Best Restaurants in Costa Rica
Costa Rica boasts an off the grid farm where internationally renowned guest chefs create signature dishes based on the day's organic harvest, luxury resort seafood platters piled with langosta and camarones, and a modern menuless Mediterranean cafe that's truly family style because you'll eat what … [Read more...]
Costa Rica Coffee Making
We have two different systems for preparing our Costa Rican coffee and they couldn't be more different. Which one makes a better cup of coffee? We'll probably take a lot of flack for saying it but the ultra-modern super-automatic wins hands down. Coffee Taste & Quality - advantage … [Read more...]
You Can’t Get There From Here
We frequently get questions about route finding from visitors planning to drive in Costa Rica where geography, weather, and (lack of) infrastructure can conspire to make it surprisingly difficult to get "there". We recommend a three pronged approach which includes a good map for the overview, … [Read more...]
Typical Menu
90% of Costa Rican restaurants have menus that are 90% the same (I just made that up but it might be true) so the menu below will give you a pretty good idea what it's like eating in Costa Rica. Unless you're in a Chinese restaurant (and possibly even if you are) odds are very good that you'll be … [Read more...]
Here Comes the Rain Again
The 2019 Costa Rica rainy season arrived along with the intertropical convergence zone right on schedule at the beginning of May and June is shaping up to be slightly wetter than average. The Costa Rican Emergency Alert System - Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias … [Read more...]
Costa Rica Small Boats – Panga, Lancha, Ferry & Raft
Shortcuts - boating across may be much faster than driving around a body of water in Costa Rica. For example the boat ride across the Gulf of Nicoya from Jacó on the mainland to Montezuma on the peninsula (see orange line below) takes about an hour while driving around takes over four … [Read more...]
National Parks & Reserves Under Siege
Most visitors would never consider intentionally taking a tresspassing tour to areas closed for safety and wildlife conservation but according to officials Costa Rica's National Parks, Reserves and Wildlife Refuges are experiencing a crisis of trespassing and more serious illegal activity. tourists … [Read more...]
Riders on the Storm(s)
Costa Rica Rainy Season Travel A lot of people ask us "will there be any sun if I go to the beach in rainy season?" but a better question might be "is it possible to go to the beach in rainy season?" We spent this August and an unexpected bit of September traveling all over Costa Rica gathering … [Read more...]
Current Storms in Costa Rica
current storms | forecasts to avoid | useful forecasts | historical storms After a very wet middle of August 2019 Costa Rica dried out a bit at the end of the month as the cyclonic weather cleared out of the Pacific near Central America. However it's returning and NOAA has a high degree of … [Read more...]
Traffic Violations, Citations & Fines in Costa Rica
Most of Costa Rica's traffic laws are familiar to drivers from anywhere even if the tendency to treat the laws as suggestions is not so familiar. A valid driver's license from nearly any other country in the world allows you to get behind the wheel in Costa Rica. Like the U.S. and all of … [Read more...]
You GOTTA Be Kidding – Stupidity on the Roads
Never underestimate the sheer stupidity possible Costa Rica's roads. In 40 years of driving in some of the most infamous countries in the world I’ve never seen anything like it. The first time I drove down the ramp onto the new section of the PanAmerican between Liberia and Canas in Guanacaste I … [Read more...]
January in Costa Rica
The last three weeks of January is one of the best times for a Costa Rica vacation. New Years is also great from the perspective of weather but it's crowded and peak season surcharges make it one of the most expensive few days of the year. All the best tours and activities are going full blast … [Read more...]
February in Costa Rica
Best Time to Travel? Select Month January February March April May June July August September October November December or see when to travel summary February might just be the best time there is for a Costa Rica vacation. The weather is hot and dry in the most beach popular … [Read more...]