Costa Rica - Budget & Basics
As always, the best way to learn about how to better manage your travels, is to first do them. The second time is always much easier which I now understand why people continue going to the same place over and over. So, I thought it might be helpful to share some really great ways we were able to SAVE money and some other areas that can be improved :) Some of these are specific to Costa, some possibly to Central America, and others universal.
budget -
Overall, here is what we spent on our 9 day, 8 night trip to Costa Rica!
Airfare totals were $725 - flying Spirit, buying 2 checked bags. Without airfare, this is a total spending of $1,965 for TWO people over 9 days; leading to a daily AVG of $218.00. Or when split between us, $109.00 pp/day.
& here are some things that may help that total go down for YOUR trip. I mean, who doesn’t like to save those $$$?!?
ATM fees - ugh. These are tough. I never know exactly the right answer to these as there is always risk with carrying too much cash on you as well, but gosh dang it, these are infuriating! Something I noticed in Costa (which I haven't really seen in other countries), is they list some things, excursions specifically, with a "cash" price and a "card" price. We also ran into this at a couple restaurants - one restaurant added 13% if you pay with card!
Example: surfing lessons in Dominical were $50pp cash, but $56pp with card. Ziplining was ~$10 more pp if you used card as well. So for us and having 2 people, each of these "up-charges" add up. We ended up taking money out after biting the first up-charge, but were hit with a whopping $6.50 ATM fee just from the in-country ATM! Minimize these runs, if possible.
Parking tickets - San Jose has some complicated parking rules. I'll let you do your own research, but we weren't even in San Jose, but Alejuela and within 10mins of parking, we got a ticket. Apparently, it was a permitted area - Whoops! Our ticket was only 4,500colones (~$10), but still. Do you research and you can avoid these silly charges :)
Spontaneous "waterfall" signs - there is always that one sign you fall for on vacay. Ours happened to be one that did a great job of marketing starting 20km back and kept popping up with a giant sign saying "WATERFALL, 130m". We had been driving for quite a while and were ready for a break, so Jakers decided to take the long-way. We turned down a road and immediately it looked like a bad idea. We were still in the mountain area at this point and the road was just shit - not well maintained, extremely steep declines with loose gravel making you pray your breaks don't give up now as your fate is certain, but mostly praying that your vehicle can actually get up this beast.
As we hit the "waterfall sign", a man gardening approached us trying to get us to pay for the trip to the waterfall. They seemed like good-natured people who were just excited for tourists to actually take the off-roading trek to them. $20 for a hike to a 120m waterfall didn't sound bad, but before we agreed, we missed asking the question about the nature of the hike (this communication was all in Jen's broken Spanish vocab). We started on this trek with our guide, Enrique, when we realized this hike was 5km down a mountain and 5km up the mountain. Not a problem on a normal day, but we were going to be starting our Chirripo trek in less than 10 hours….smartly, we decided to abort mission and ended up only going about 30mins in, paid the soul his $20, and never actually made it to the waterfall :)
Essentials - typically, I don't pack for "what if" situations, but that can be no bueno and end up costing dolla. For example - Jakers got some serious sunburn on Chirripo which only was elevated in severity from our surf lessons in 90F+ scorching sun. We ended up making a run to the local supermarket where the CHEAPEST SPF 50 sunscreen was $18 with aloe costing $11. Of course these are tourist areas and the beautifully bronzed locals don't use this stuff, am I right?!?!
Taxes & service fees - tipping isn't necessary in Costa and most restaurants we visited did not even have the option to leave a tip. However, pay attention as you read menus if they add a separate fee for services & taxes or if it's included in the list price. Most restaurants have a generic note stating if it's included or not. If you aren't expecting it, it typically adds around 10% to your meal total, so food may be deceivingly "cheap".
Things that'll get you, but we managed to avoid -
Car rental bogus
Car rental insurance - we are usually pretty good about this one when we do rent a car, but Costa Rica is very strict with their rules on insurance in rental cars. Unlike most places I have been, you CANNOT just "pass" on rental car Collision Insurance. I suggest doing lots of reading on this prior to making a decision on a car rental as the fees can end up being 2-10x more than what you think you signed up for. I first became conscious of something strange when I went to Expedia and found an 8-day 4x4 price of ~$100 from a no-name rental car company, but when I went to my typical Budget, the price was >$500!!! Here is my analysis and some tips -
Insurance sitch - some rental car companies, like Budget, automatically add in the Collision Insurance price - which is ~$40/day and which is why those prices look so much crazier at first glance; some, like "Ace Rental" or "Green Motion" do not include this in the list price. However, when you get to the counter, they will require you get the insurance OR provide proof that you are backed for Collision Insurance.
Tricks to bypassing - we have the Chase Preferred credit card which is a pretty good travel card AND happens to have Rental Car Collision Insurance! However, just knowing this does not do you any good. For the rental car companies to actually accept the insurance, you have to call the service center of Chase and request a letterhead stating your name, credit card number, and proof of insurance. It sounds harder than it is; we actually brought the card pamphlet showing them it was covered and they did not accept it. So, in the rental car office, we made a call to Chase and they provided the letter to us via email within 10 minutes!! Note that this was on a Monday afternoon during normal work days. I would suggest doing this ahead of time to alleviate some stress :) (this card also has NO international fees- BONUS)
What's the difference? For us, the rental without Collision Insurance from the rental company was ~220 ($27.50/day). With Collision Insurance added $330 - bringing the total to $550 ($68.75/day)!!! We "saved" over 60% in the booking by getting this waiver.
Car type - depending on where you are going in Costa, you may want 4-wheel drive. Some places we booked said in the booking "4x4 is needed to get to our property". They are not kidding! We spent about 4 days in the mountains and the roads are bananas! You are winding through constant mountain passes, often on rocky, bumpy roads. Especially if you are doing this in rainy season. Some rental companies, like Budget, do NOT guarantee 4x4 availability which I found crazy. Thus, ensure you know what kind of roads you want to travel prior to booking. There are companies, like Green Motion, that do guarantee to have a car with this feature. If you are staying along the coast and your routes are mostly highway, you may be fine, but I was sure happy we had a 4x4.
Local money probs - something I usually remember to do, but spend your foreign currency PRIOR to leaving the airport! I would suggest to actually spend it instead of converting it back to your currency, but when a LaCroix is $6 at the airport, taking the hit in the exchange may be your best option :) But once you make it home, it's pretty much worthless. More power to you if you try to pay in Colones at a Holiday Station. Please do report back on the experience :)
Share share share - traveling is definitely cheaper the more people you have. Even 2 vs 1 makes all of the difference! Aside from the obvious like sharing checked bags and rental cars, there are so other hidden budget savers. One of the big ones for us is FOOD. Try to understand the size of the plates you are ordering. In Costa Rica, all of the times we ordered something like "arroz con pollo" which is like a fried rice essentially, it came on a GIANT platter. We had take-out after both of us eating! If you are unsure of the size, you can always ask the waiter for their advice. Sometimes the price gives it away, other times, it's trial by fire. If you aren't extremely hungry, I suggest ordering one dish and you can always add another :) BONUS: ask for a take-out box (para llevar) - rice and beans are pretty good cold.
FREE Breakfast - so many places offer it, Booking has a filter for it, just do it. Most hostels won't offer that though, so if you are into the hostel scene and planning to cook for yourself anyways, that will of course be the cheap option. Eggs, rice, and more eggs.
Tours - this happens often at major tourist attractions, but you will find tour guides EVERYWHERE at Manuel Antonio. As I’m sure there are some hikes and places that require a tour guide, this is not one of them. & honestly, we did not find them needed. Someone offered us $20pp. They walk around with large scopes, which I’m sure is fun to see the animals up close, but we saw everything I know that exists in the park - including SLOTHS! So for us, we did not feel a tour was necessary or worth it. If you want to learn more about the animals and their behaviors, you may want to opt-IN to this option :)
I hope you are able to take some of these nuggets and put them to use.
Pura vida amigos,
Jenna (Juana en Espanol)
