Anyone been? If so looking for recommendations. Looking to book a vacation there mid march and possibly stay in the Guanacaste region for the beaches and take a day trip into the jungle for one of the days for some hiking.
Never CR but i’ve been to nicaragua. It’s less touristy and provides the same experience for less money. Highly recommend it.
Is it as safe?
How long are you going for? I was there for about a month and can give some good recommendations. Costa Rica is infinitely better than Niceragua and you can definitely avoid some of the touristy feel by traveling a bit off the path.
Besides one incident of the police, armed with machine guns, patting me down and what i presumed looking for a wallet/bribe, i had no issues. One time i went running 5 miles away and on the way back it got dark out. I planned on the streets being lit but that was far from true and i could hardly see a few feet in front of me. During this, i was approached quite a few times but savage dogs. Fortunately (for them) none attacked and and eventually i hitched a ride from a local.
So long as you respect the country you are visiting and realize this isnt your nation, you won’t have a problem. Knowing you are a female, id suggest being accompanyed by a group.
Going for only like 6-10 days so obviously not going to be able to do a ton of stuff. What did you enjoy there BS?
What type of trip are you looking for? Luxury travel, hippy stuff, nature, surfing, resorts, clubs?
Looking for most likely something in between nature and like resort. Prefer to be able to walk to a beach, but rent a car or take a bus and do a tour of a forest for a day or 2.
Ok, and last question who are you traveling with? Is it a romantic trip, family trip, friends, solo?
I disagree with you 100%. Costa Rica is a piece of shit. You might as well go to Miami or Cancun. Nicaragua is by far the better destination.
Beware of the zika.
Where did you go?
I will say that a lot of people I know love Costa Rica that have gone recently but they’ve traveled off the path. I went 10 years ago for a little over a month so things may have changed a bit.
Back then Niceragua was pretty dangerous still, but I also hear a lot of people saying they loved Niceragua, that it is cheaper and less commercial.
Girlfriend, not romantic. Shes more into the nature stuff than I am
I was recently in Costa Rica - potentially one of my favorite places in central/South America. I stayed in Los Suenos, which made traveling a real pain in the ass (flight/rental car/drive). There’s a Marriott resort here - they also have condos, which is where we stayed (used air bnb).
There are lots of really great places - Jaco (surfing and graffiti restaurant and wine bar - you must get the steak), Manuel Antonio state park and sunset at Villa Calettas hotel (they have an amphitheater just for sunset). One thing to be mindful of, taxes are kind of expensive (13%). Not a deal breaker but relatively one of the more expensive vacations in that area.
In short, Costa Rica is gorgeous and highly recommended.
I’d look into homeaway / airbnb rentals in Costa Rica. One of my friends went there a few months ago and him and his friends got a huge luxurious house for the per person nightly cost of a hotel room.
Awesome thanks for those recommendations! Ill check those spots & airbnb
I get why some people didn’t like Costa Rica, it’s like Central America lite. It’s like going to Asia and only seeing Singapore.
Still beautiful though, if you want to go really off the beaten track head over to the east coast. Nicaragua is less commerical but totally safe. stay out of managua and don’t walk around waving your camera and phones about the place and you’ll be alright.
The food is fucking dreadful though. The national dish is in CR is Gallo Pinto which is just rice and beans…for breakfast…!?!
I ate gallo pinto for 3 meals a day for a month. I kind of got hooked on it after awhile. They mix it up with different seasonings and ingredients. So it’s like rice, beans, and eggs for breakfast then rice beans and pork for lunch, etc.
Things have gotten more expensive and a bit more built up since i was there, but here’s my take.
My recommendation was going to be Jaco or Manuel Antonio. I believe they’re like 10-20 minutes apart so you can do both. Jaco is a bigger town with world class surf while Manuel Antonio is a little more natural with one of the most gorgeous beaches I’ve ever been to. You can also surf there. Google “manuel antonio beach sunset” to get the idea. While there you can do catameran tours of the park, nature tours, stuff like that. There’s a small hotel called Mango Moon in Maneul Antonio that is really well rated with a good location and owned by two couples. I didn’t stay there but stopped in when I was there 10 years ago and thought it was cool. It only has a small number of rooms and is pretty personal. Here’s a list of the other Manuel Antonio hotels:
There are beautiful beaches and forests to see scattered throughout the country so it’s worth looking into it.
While in Costa Rica also check out a farmers market and the coffee, which are unreal. Because of the volcanic soil you get incredible fruits. It’s also why a country the size of Vermont has 6% of the world’s biodiversity. Their economy was largely dependent on coffee in the 90’s and there was a crash in prices so they propped up demand by drinking a ton of it domestically, even some kids will drink it at young ages. As a result, they take their coffee seriously (or at least they did when I was there) and you could get amazing fresh coffee and gallo pinto at pretty much any random gas station.
If you drive there be very careful, people drive agressively and it’s common to find someone passing on a two lane around a corner. You just drive heads up and use the berms to accomodate. Also, it is very humid and most places are open air, so keep that in mind. I was there at the tail end of the rainy season so we’d have a brief deluge every day and it was so humid paper would rip if you wrote on it sometimes.
Avoid the Carribean coast, it has high crime, is very dirty and Limon (when I was there 10 years ago) was one of the few places in the country you couldn’t drink the water as an indication of the feel. However, it was also a rastafarian haven so that part was pretty cool.
Depending on how long you stay, you can also check out Monte Verde which was settled by Amish that fled the US during the WWII draft (they were pacifists). It’s an extremely rare “cloud forest” or high altitude rain forest.
If you want something very touristy and spa like you can check out the Arenal Volcano area (large active volcano). It has natural hot springs and very beautiful hotel / spas. The Nayara Springs hotel is supposed to be beautiful and for a day trip you can check out the sculpted hot springs at Tabacon resort which are pretty cool. It’s basically a naturally heated pool that is slightly cooler than hot tub water that they’ve sculpted into a riverlike pool among vegitation.
San Jose is full of petty theft and very dirty although it is less humid as it’s inland. So I wouldn’t spend more time there than necessary. That being said, if you’re there for a night before or after a flight, check out one of the mirador hotels that are up on the hillsides around San Jose. The views are beautiful at night. Here’s an example:
Lastly, the landing in San Jose can be pretty turbulent given the mountains around it. People typically clap afte the landing. Just a heads up.
If you’re ever not sure what they’re saying, you can say “Pura Vida” in various inflections after almost anything and they’ll just assume you’re following along and ramp up the pace of the conversation, or you can go with “Tuanis” to agree. My spanish used to be a lot better. Enjoy an Imperial.