Costa Rica 2025

In February 2025, my family and I visited Costa Rica to escape the harsh NY winter. We had just gotten 3 feet of snow the week before so we were desperate to go somewhere warm and sunny. Fortunately, my wife has stockpiled a mountain of credit-card points and is an expert trip planner. In less than 2 weeks, she threw together an epic Costa Rican vacation for under $1,000.

Costa Rica

Crystal and I had been once before (last year for my birthday) so we already knew it was a great place to go. It's located in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama so the weather is beautiful all year round. It's a little rainy and humid from May-Nov, but still very nice. It is also in the US central time zone so jet lag wasn't really an issue for us coming from the east coast.

The country has 6 main zones.

1. The Caribbean zone. Limón province. Similar to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, or Aruba.
2. The central valley zone. Cartago and San José provinces. Where the cities are. San José, Cartago, and San Isidro.
3. The northern zone. Alajuela and Heredia provinces. Mostly rainforest with some towns like La Fortuna. Has the Arenal Volcano. Very cool for nature lovers and not as hard to get to as the Southern Zone.
4. Guanacaste zone. Guanacaste province, northern Puntarenas province, and western Alajuela province. Has great beaches but is heavily touristed, much like Hawaii. You'll find the spring break crowd here.
5. The central Pacific zone. Central Puntarenas province. A mix of rainforest, beaches, and mountains. Lots of wildlife. Harder to get to. Fewer tourists. Some American and Canadian expats have moved there, but still very Tico (what the locals call themselves).
6. The southern zone. Southern Puntarenas province. Mountains and rainforest. Mostly uninhabited. Very hard to get to. Great for nature lovers.

The central Pacific zone is our favorite (so far). It takes about 3 hours to drive to the area south of Quepos from San José since you have to circumvent the mountains, but it's totally worth it. There aren't a ton of tourists. The beaches aren't crowded. Due to all of the expats living there, amenities like grocery stores and restaurants have popped up in the last few years. Enough people speak at least some English that you will never feel lost, but many of the locals only speak a little English so it's great if you want to practice your Spanish.

Since one of their main exports is ecotourism, they have a lot of regulations protecting the environment. That's their secret sauce: the rainforest, beaches, weather, and wildlife. Other than that, everything else seems mostly regulated by Pura Vida, the national catch phrase that pretty much captures the general vibe. Translated literally, it means "pure life," but it connotes so much more. It is a perspective on life that evokes a spirit that is carefree, laid back, and optimistic. What I love about Pura Vida is that it also embodies a bit of "live and let live," a motto that we say in the US but don't actually honor anymore.

Juan Santamariá International Airport

Juan Santamariá International Airport (SJO) in San José is one of two international airports in Costa Rica. The other is Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIA) in Liberia, but you would only use this one to get to the Guanacaste zone. Costa Rica has domestic flights, but they are literally six-passenger propeller planes. It's more direct than flying—San José to Quepos is about a 3-hour, 90-mile drive since you have to go around the mountains, but only a 1-hour, 50-mile flight—but don't expect to be too comfortable. If you need to rent a car anyway, you might as well get it in San José and drive to your destination. Alamo/Enterprise has a free shuttle from SJO to their location about 1 km away. There you can pick up and drop off your rental.

Currency

The Colón (¢, CRC) is the national currency of Costa Rica with an exchange rate of 500 CRC = 1 USD. However, literally everywhere in Costa Rica accepts both CRC and USD. It's an official secondary currency, so don't worry about converting ahead of time. Be aware that you will probably get your change back in CRC though.

You can also usually skip cash altogether if you want. Costa Rica has cellphone and Internet service everywhere people gather and almost every restaurant and shop I visited had a credit-card point of sale. I had to use cash only once, but it was a tent selling food on the beach, so that's pretty understandable. When using a credit card, just make sure your card doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.

Tipping is usually not necessary in Costa Rica. Restaurants will automatically add a 10% gratuity to your bill, which is usually enough. You only tip more if you want to reward exceptional service. The main exception is to always tip your shuttle/taxi driver a few dollars if you want to ensure that you get good service.

Cellphone Service

Costa Rica has the same cellphone technology we have in the US and has coverage in all populated areas (there are dead zones if you go deep into the mountains or rain forest) so your phone will work just fine there as long as you have roaming enabled. But you do have to look at the roaming charges that your carrier will apply ahead of time because they can add up fast. We have AT&T which offers an International Day Pass. $6 per device per day extends your wireless service to many countries around the world. You just have to enable it in your account and it kicks in automatically whenever you leave the US. This can be fine for a short stay, but if you plan on staying longer, like longer than 1 week, then these charges can pile up.

For an extended visit, they recommend buying a prepaid Costa Rican SIM card at the airport. $10 gets you 2 GB of data so buy as much as you need and/or try to limit your data usage to when you have WiFi access.

The latter option can be tricky though as modern smartphones are data hogs. For example, a couple of years ago, we went on a Caribbean cruise. Cruise ships these days have their own cellphone tower that your phone will automatically connect to and use it as if you are at home. But these towers aren't included in the International Day Pass. We knew this and disabled data roaming on all of our phones ... except Lily's. Her iCloud backups had racked up $500 in roaming charges before AT&T gave me a heads up. Gee, thanks guys. 🙄 So long story short, limiting your data usage is harder than you think.

Driving

If you're planning on leaving the cities, which I highly recommend doing, the one thing you must know is that Costa Rica is mountainous. I cannot overstate this. Crystal and I have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back so we know steep inclines, and let me tell you, this is no joke.

The main roads are paved so you don't have to worry about them, but all of the side roads are either dirt or gravel. Even if it's dry, i's loose terrain. Then there's a significant chance you will encounter rain at some point, which means mud. You must rent a vehicle with 4-wheel drive or you are risking getting stuck.

Another thing to know when driving in Costa Rica is that there is often only one two-lane road connecting towns. There are no expressways, there are no back roads. If you need to go from Jacó to Quepos, you have to take Route 34. There are literally no other options. This means if there is an accident on Route 34, you might be stuck in traffic for a while, so plan accordingly when going somewhere important, like to your flight back home.

Also, you will get passed on the road. Don't take it personally. You might be driving along a few km per hour over the speed limit, thinking you're doing fine, when the car behind you passes you and merges back in front of you a little too close for comfort. In the US, we would take this a slight. We might be insulted that 1) we weren't going fast enough and 2) there's no reason to cut it that close. But in Costa Rica, everyone passes at every opportunity they get. Even if it is just one place in a line of cars, they will take it. They aren't being rude. There is no honking, shouting, or fist shaking. Since there is often only one road that will take you where you want to go, minimizing the number of cars between you and your destination reduces the risk that something will happen in front of you and block you from getting there. So passing is just part of the driving culture.

And it is an acquired skill to know when it's safe to pass. The roads in Costa Rica are very winding. You usually cannot see more than 50 yards in front of you, so gauging when it is safe to pass is tricky. There were times when I wanted to pass a bus or tractor trailer and didn't think it was safe, but then a car 3 behind me would pass all of us at once, then merge back in just before the oncoming traffic arrives. It's just how it's done down there so don't get mad about it.

Finally, pretty much anything with wheels is street legal. While driving, you'll encounter all of the normal types of vehicles you'll see in the US (sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks, tractor trailers, delivery trucks, busses, etc.), but you will also see people driving golf carts, ATVs, UTVs, side-by-sides, all sorts of other stuff. And then there are the motorcycles and dirt bikes. These are ubiquitous in Costa Rica because they allow you to get around a traffic jam. And the motorcycle drivers in Costa Rica are fearless; they will pass you whenever and wherever possible. Dirt bikes, on the other hand, have a low top speed. So while more maneuverable than a car, you will need to pass them (safely!) on the open road. The dirt bike riders are usually pretty good about moving to the shoulder so others can pass them.

Navigating

In the US, we're used to every establishment having a precise street address, but it doesn't really work that way in Costa Rica. In places where there are street addresses, they are likely directions from a specific landmark like the church in the center of town, a large rock painted a certain color, or the site of a fire that happened back in 1920. In the less developed areas, there simply are no addresses. Some places are listed in Google Maps or Waze so you can look them up by name and get directions. But even then, the directions might take you to where you turn off of the main road, but then there are several hundred yards of dirt roads that aren't on your map for you to navigate.

To get to our Airbnb, we had directions from SJO to Calle Hatillo, but then the owners had to send us the GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) and a video demonstrating how to get to the house from Calle Hatillo. The official address is directions from a large rock painted yellow that doesn't exist anymore. This was an opportunity for me to whip out What3Words and use that to mark points of interest. When I mention places later on, I will also give the What3Words address since that is the most precise way to do it.

Villa Vista Azul

The house is called Villa Vista Azul (Airbnb, What3Words). It is owned by a gay couple, Lars and Paul, one from Germany (Lars?) and the other from Australia (Paul?). There were some pictures of them on the shelves and the place was decked out with nerdy pop-culture wall art. These are my people!

Then there's the terrace though the all-glass (and completely openable!) back wall.

Out on the terrace there are two sitting areas on either side of an infinity pool overlooking the valley below, the village of Hatillo, and the Pacific ocean beyond.

Looking back at the house you can see the two bedrooms on either side, each with floor-to-ceiling windows on 3 sides.

And the terrace facing westward means it's cool in the mornings, so we could open up the back wall, and it had a great view at sunset.

I can't say enough good things about this house. It was great to hang out here all week. It has high-speed internet, air conditioning, a workable kitchen, a washer and dryer on site. The location was great. We could get to several towns, beaches, and other things to do within a 30-minute drive. If you want to visit this area of Costa Rica, I would highly recommend staying here.

Places of Interest

There are tons of things to do in this part of Costa Rica. Below I'll write about some of the things we did, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

Dominical

The closest town to Villa Vista Azul is Dominical, where the Barú River flows into the Pacific Ocean. It's a little less authentically Tico than the other nearby towns since it is mostly occupied by tourists and American and Canadian expatriates, but it's not nearly as much of a tourist trap as say Jacó to the north. The expats have done a pretty good job at balancing the amenities of their home countries without making it feel like a resort.

Mama Toucan's Natural Market

Mama Toucan's is a little health food store in Dominical (What3Words). It's like a mini Whole Foods where you will find a mix of American and Costa Rican brands. It has lots of gluten-free and vegan options if that's something you need.

BM Supermercado

Right on Route 34, there's BM Supermercado (Website, What3Words). This is more like your traditional grocery store in the US, like a Tops, Kroger, or Publix. It is only a year or two old and speaks to the area's commitment to welcoming American and Canadian visitors. Here you'll find a lot of American brands as well as Costa Rican, lots of local produce, a full on-site butcher shop, beer, wine, liquor, and home goods like pans and Tupperware. It has everything you'd need to stock your Airbnb for an extended stay.

Sodas

All over Costa Rica, there are little mom-and-pop restaurants called sodas. They are like diners here in the US. They are usually small, the staff will speak minimal English, if any at all, but this is where you will get the authentic Tico experience. Order a tipical plate (not a typo) which is pretty much the same at every soda. It consists of rice and beans, your choice of meat marinated in something mildly spicy, grilled plantains, Tico cheese (similar to firm tofu in consistency), and a side salad.

Café Mono Congo

Next to Mama Toucan's is Café Mono Congo (Trip Advisor, What3Words). This little outdoor restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch and has a mix of American and Tico dishes. I went twice for breakfast and had the breakfast tacos with eggs and chicken, and the Tico burrito (a tipical plate but in burrito form).

El Pescado Loco Taco Shack

I stumbled across this place (Trip Advisor, What3Words) as I was wandering around Dominical. It's a little taco stand with a couple of tables in front. I ordered some blackened fish tacos and an Imperial (the Costa Rican local beer) and sat down to wait for my order. I was looking around as I was waiting and saw a hockey jersey and a Saskatchewan license plate on the wall. Hmmm. That's odd. Then I saw a plaque on the wall saying they were featured on House Hunters International. Wait! I've seen this episode! This couple and their kids moved from Saskatchewan to Costa Rica and bought a taco stand. This taco stand!

The blackened fish tacos were tremendous. I ate there three times. And I talked to both of the owners. They were cool and recommended some restaurants and beaches to check out.

La Junta

One of the places El Pescado Loco recommended was La Junta (Trip Advisor, What3Words). It's a little restaurant with a covered deck around back. The staff is mostly Tico, but there is an American/Canadian waitress there who seems to normally deal with the tourists. She was fluent in both English and Spanish. I ate there twice. First was pork belly tacos (fantastic) with some sort of mango mixed drink. The second time was fish tacos (not as amazing as El Pescado Loco, but still good) and some sangria.

Del Mar Taco Shop

The owners of the Airbnb told us that Del Mar Taco Shop (Trip Advisor, What3Words) offers discounts on Taco Tuesday so naturally I had to give it a try (I love tacos!). Like El Pescado Loco, it was just a little kitchen with some picnic tables on a covered patio. I ordered two steak tacos, two fish tacos, and an Imperial. The tacos were fine, but not as good as El Pescado Loco or even La Junta. I feel like I could get tacos like these at any Mexican restaurant back home. I think the appeal of this place is that it is right near the crowded part of Playa Dominical so beach-goers can just walk up and grab something to eat.

El Ticanero

This was one of those sodas I mentioned earlier and is right near Villa Vista Azul on Route 34 (Trip Advisor, What3Words). It also serves as a de facto truck stop for all the tractor trailers traveling down Route 34. The staff spoke English about as well as I spoke Spanish, but we made it work. I got rice with shrimp, yuca fries (like potato but a little starchier), and a side salad. Delicious!

La Langosta Feliz

Another recommendation from El Pescado Loco, La Langosta Feliz is up in Savegre (Trip Advisor, What3Words) rather than Dominical, but it's still only a 10 minute drive from Villa Vista Azul. This place feels more like a Tico family restaurant. I likened it to a Greek diner back home, except it is run by Ticos and serving Tico food. The staff here spoke enough English to deal with customers, but weren't very comfortable if the conversation moved beyond ordering food. So between their English and my Spanish, we got the job done. I got rice with shrimp, yuca fries, and a side salad like at El Ticanero just to see how it compared. It was pretty similar, just a larger portion.

Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary

Ticos are very into the environment and wildlife conservation. All sport hunting is banned and it is illegal to keep local wildlife as pets. So when animals are found injured in the wild or confiscated from homes, they are sent to sanctuaries like Alturas (Website, What3Words). There they are either rehabilitated and returned to the wild, or if they cannot be returned for some reason, then they are kept in captivity at the sanctuary.

When we visited, there were toucans, parrots, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, and wild pigs on display. A guide (ours was an American expat) takes you through the zoo and tells you about all of the animals they have and the work that they do there. It was really interesting and very cool to see all of the different animals.

Parque Reptilandia

Like Alturas, Parque Reptilandia (Website, What3Words) is an animal sanctuary but specifically for reptiles. It's a self-guided tour through dozens of exhibits with various snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, and crocodiles.

Hacienda Barú Wildlife Refuge

Hacienda Barú (Webstite, What3Words) is 815 acres of protected land where visitors can see the local wildlife in their natural habitat. We hired a guide, Freddy, who took us on a 2-hour walk through the rainforest where we saw capuchin monkeys, sloths, wild pigs, coatis, agoutis, many types of birds, termites, and leafcutter ants. This was the highlight of the trip since we got to see a lot of really cool animals up close and not in a cage.

Termites are good for the forest. They eat the dead wood off of the trees and keep them healthy. Bees and small birds will also come to live in the termite nest and they will all protect it together.

The leafcutter ants are really cool. They make these huge underground colonies and carve pathways on the forest floor. There will be thousands of them on the path, either carrying bits of leaf to the colony or waste away from it.

Fun fact: Leafcutter ants don't eat the leaves they cut. They compost them to grow fungus inside the colony and eat the fungus.

The two-toed sloth hanging upside down is about 7 months old. Our guide heard it squeaking as we walked down the path and got super giddy when he found it. He said at that age, the mother will leave it by itself in a tree for a while to see how it will do. If it falls, then she will come get it, but if it doesn't, then it is ready to live on its own.

The capuchin monkey was one of a troop of about 10-15 that we saw roaming around in the trees and on the ground. They don't mind humans being nearby, but if you get too close they will attack you. One alone probably couldn't do much harm, but 10 would not be easy to fight off.

The three-toed sloth was sleeping high up in the canopy. Freddy spotted it and set up his portable telescope so we could get a good look.

Playa Dominical & Playa Dominicalito

Of the 4 beaches we went to, Playa Dominical (What3Words) was our least favorite, which isn't totally fair to say because it was still a really great beach. The only knocks against it are that the sand was slightly rocky (I'm nitpicking, I know) and the north end, closer to Dominical, was the most crowded area of any beach we went to (there might have been a dozen people there). It's walking distance from the hotels, bars, and restaurants in town so no surprises there. But just a few minutes walk south and the beach is completely deserted.

Just a couple minutes drive south on Route 34 is Playa Dominicalito (What3Words), which is much better. The sand was smooth and there was almost no one else there. We also saw hundreds of hermit crabs here, which was neat.

Playa Matapalo

Playa Matapalo (What3Words) might have been our favorite beach. The sand was so smooth, the water was warm, there was almost no one else there. It's an ideal spot to play in the ocean and soak up the sunshine.

The V shapes in the sand are burrowed snails. They dig into the sand, then roll over so they are upside down. I assume as the waves wash over them they filter food out of the water. They were the only animal we saw on every beach. Other than them, each beach had its own unique ecosystem.

Playa Ventenas

This one was recommended by El Pescado Loco. The locals come here to set up tents to rent to the visitors and sell food and merch (t-shirts, hats, towels, bracelets, and whatnot). I ordered from the red tent on the far left (rice and shrimp), so they let me use their table to eat.

The beach itself is in a valley between two hills with a little river that pools near the beach and overflows into the ocean. In the hills on either side of the beach, there are little caves carved out by the tides. One goes all the way through the hill to the ocean on the other side. If we had life vests and were feeling brave, we could have gone all the way through. The waves were crashing pretty hard on the other side.

Because the beach is somewhat protected by the hills, the waves weren't as big here, making it a little safer to swim. There were also lifeguards on duty.

Final Thoughts

If you're looking for somewhere to snowbird and are over the Caribbean, Costa Rica is a fantastic place! So much of it is undeveloped yet with modern technology, you can live there very comfortably. For a week, a month, permanently (I've looked into this and it's actually not very difficult). The weather is great all year round. The locals are friendly. Being in the central time zone means no jet lag. Many of the locals speak some English. I could go on and on, but let's just say it's my new favorite place.

¡Pura Vida!