Advice about Visiting Costa Rica
Also see: Visiting Costa Rica by Age
Parent Q&A
Archived Q&A and Reviews
Costa Rica Driver and Guide
Feb 2011
I am planning a first trip to Costa Rica with a friend. Does anyone have a driver/guide and/or a tour company to recommend. Thanks, Patty
My parents and cousins were in Costa Rica last summer and had a wonderful guide and driver through ACTUAR, Marvin Espinoza. He spoke English, but was also willing to let them practice Spanish. The itinerary was planned around their interests. They also have more 'packaged' options.
As a bonus the company works with many local people, so your tourist $$ support local people rather than large companies, and they were able to see glimpses of Costa Rican life they never would have found on their own. The businesses they work with strive to use environmentally-responsible practices and are involved in conservation efforts as well. In addition to having a wonderful vacation, my family felt their tourist $$ were spent in ways that would benefit the place they were visiting.
Eva Arauz is the sales coordinator, and can be reached at eva [at] actuarcostarica.com. They had better luck reaching people by email rather than phone. www.actuarcostarica.com JB
Costa rica for spring break?
Jan 2011
we are 2 parents and 2 kids (3 & 8 yrs old) looking to travel to costa rica for spring break (end of april) and need some suggestions. we have 7-10 days and about a $5000 budget. we want to be able to sightsee as well as lounge and are open to traveling to different locations. is costa rica realistic given our time frame and ages of kids? it seems that because the country is small, one could see rainforests, beaches and volcanos without feeling rushed. is this true? any ideas for things to see, places to stay, cities to visit? does it make sense to use a travel agent or just shop online for flights, lodging, etc? i'd be particularly interested in hearing from parents who have traveled to costa rica with younger children in a short time period. this is our first *big* vacation with kids and i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed! needhelp
We just returned from Costa Rica with our four kids, (8-12)It was was terrific. We went with Backroads, (a Berkeley tour company) and they were wonderful. Our favorite place was a jungle lodge called Rafiki-- tent cabins, birds, a superfast waterslide, great chow, river rafting. The owner is extremely knowledgeable about the region, and took us on an amazing jungle hike, showing the kids ferns that can give you a tattoo, explaining about the local economy, pointing out vanilla beans, toucans and which plants you can eat. Backroads was fantastic! We got to focus on the animals, beach, and bond with our kids and other families, rather than stressing about passports, plane tickets and which national park to explore. Pura vida! Suzanne
I think Costa Rica would be a great first international trip with kids. I will caution that my husband and I went there before our daughter was born, so we haven't been there with kids yet, but I definitely thought at the time that it would be a great trip for kids. While we also went to other, less-developed parts of the country, I would really recommend going to the Arenal and Monteverde areas. We stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge (http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com), and we saw a lot of families with pretty young kids. It has a dining hall, which makes feeding the kids easy, and it offers or will arrange all sorts of activities for you (guided nature walks, hiking, hot springs, horseback riding). Monteverde is not far away and it is a great place to see the rainforest and see wildlife, and I am sure kids would enjoy the outdoor zoo atmosphere. We also found it very affordable--we rented a place in Monteverde that slept four for $40 a night. It was not the fanciest, but if you can pay even a bit more than that you can stay in some very comfortable places. As Arenal and Monteverde are so close together, we were able to see a lot 4-5 days. As I said, these are pretty well-traveled, touristed areas, which has its advantages and disadvantages but which I think generally makes it easier with kids. Good luck! have a great trip
Vaccinations for Costa Rica trip
April 2006
We are traveling to Costa Rica with our 2 girls in May. Kaiser recommends that the 4 year old have a typhoid vaccine and that both kids take 7 weeks of an anti-malarial (methloquine, I think). Right now I am thinking they will take the antimalarials but am iffy on the typhoid. Has anybody taken kids to Costa Rica recently? Any advice? Also, I am looking for an effective, but not-too-toxic insect repellant. Thanks, Jill
Check out the CDC (Center for Disease Control) website to see what they reccommend. http://www.cdc.gov/travel/camerica.htm
I travelled all over Africa and did not take malarial medication. I have heard HORROR stories, the kind of thing to ruin your trip. So, think twice. I was very careful to apply strong insect repellant constantly, and to keep my tent zipped up. A woman that I travelled with that took the malaria pills got malaria.. probably when she was drunk one night and didn't take precautions. So, in short, the pills are not 100% effective and you still have to use repellant! don't do it...
I visited Costa Rica 5 years ago and got a rental car (I think a compact SUV) except for when we were in San Jose. There were a lot of places we went that wouldn't have been accessible by public transportation (e.g Montezuma), and even getting between the larger cities seems difficult. Driving was not that bad - there are some newer roads that were very easy, and there wasn't so much traffic once we got out of the city. Definitely some narrow and rough ones - watch out for roads that look like bridges on Google maps but are actually just shallow streams that cross the road - but I would say it's worth the hassle.
I concur with your take. I visited Costa Rica in 2018 and we rented a car, to determine afterward we would not do that again. The roads were poorly marked, we got lost, and worst of all got pulled over by a fake (?) traffic cop in a speeding scam and ripped off for an "on the spot fine". I would love to visit CR again but absolutely would do an organized tour. Check out Discovery Corps, among others. Also July might not be the right time of year, temp-wise... many micro climates in CR so you'll need to decide if it's right for you.
Driving in Costa Rica is not nearly as hard as it might seem. You can avoid San Jose altogether by flying into Liberia, and renting a car there (I recommend Poas Renta Car). Then all the country “highways” are just two lane roads and when you get off, you either turn right or left. The roads are much improved and mostly paved, but I always get a 4WD and I spring for the extra insurance too. That said, hiring a driver is very easy and safe. It won’t be cheap, but rental cars aren’t either. I’m sure the hotels can help you with that, or point you in the right direction if you call them in advance. Ticos (Costa Ricans) are super friendly and helpful. As for tours, when I have taken my younger teen, I just used viator and that was fine for finding local tour operators - fun for both of us. The hotels can hook you up with all of that too.
I lived in CR in the 90s. It was very different then, but I’ve taken my son back a few times. Very easy traveling and always fantastic. You will have a great time, whether you plan it in advance or wing it. Feel free to ask the admin for my email if you want to chat offline.
PS: there is a 2 week school break in July. You may want to google that and avoid those dates. The beaches will be crowded with people from San Jose, the mountains less so.
Take this info with a grain of salt, especially because we rented a car the last time we were there -- in 2022 with an 11 and 13 year old. BUT, when I was there 20 years ago, we did it without a car. We took the bus from San Jose to Monteverde. Then we hired a driver (maybe it was a couple of taxis, I'm not sure, it was a group of friends) to take us from Monteverde to Tamarindo (on the pacific coast). It was great because the driver pointed out wildlife and stopped at one point so we could see a sloth (an animal we didn't see on our most recent trip). Then we took a van back to San Jose -- it was all tourists, so not a colectivo, but not a private van. Obviously this was a long time ago, but I can't imagine you couldn't do the same these days. I would poke around the TripAdvisor forums as there is often exactly this kind of info there.
Having said all this, almost all our driving in Costa Rica did not involve narrow rough roads. We flew in and out of Liberia which is recommended, unless you are going far south, because it's so much smaller than San Jose and there is not much to see in SJ anyway. The road from there to Samara toward the bottom of the Nicoya peninsula was fine. We then drove up to Arenal area. We did hit a snag when we followed Google maps directions to turn off the main highway for a "shortcut" that took us on more and more narrow roads until we got to a locked gate! If we had stayed on the main highway it would have been fine. (This is also in the point of the trip when we realized we left our passports in the safe at the hotel in Samara so we had to drive two hours back to retrieve them and didn't arrive to Arenal until nighttime... I wouldn't advise that.) We stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge which is inside the park, has amazing views, and tons of trails from there. I'm pretty sure they have a shuttle that can pick you up in La Fortuna and bring you up there. On our way from Liberia to Samara, we also stopped at a rancho near the rio Tempisque and Palo Verde nat'l park. Amazing wildlife viewing there as well! I haven't been to Manuel Antonio or Corcovado, but I've heard great things about both. Would love to see them the next time we go. Good luck with your planning and have fun! Costa Rica is such a great country to visit.