Costa Rica Travel
Plan your Costa Rica trip with fewer surprises.
Practical articles on when to go, getting around, money and the national parks, written to correct what most travelers get wrong.
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The questions almost every first-time visitor asks.
Best time to visitDry and rainy season, region by regionWhich airport?San José or Liberia, and why it mattersDo you need cash?When colones beat cardsDriving in Costa RicaRules, fines and what to do after an accidentBeach safetyRip currents and where to swimVisa runs & the 180-day ruleHow long you can stay, and border runs
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Wildlife & NatureMacaws in Costa Rica: Where to See Scarlet and Great GreenMost visitors picture one macaw: red, yellow and blue, screeching across a beach. Costa Rica has two, and they live on opposite…
Trip Planning4 Days in Costa Rica: Arenal and Monteverde Road TripFour days sounds too short for Costa Rica, and for a coast-to-coast tour it is. For Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde cloud…
Trip PlanningMosquitoes in Costa Rica: Dengue, Chikungunya and How to Not Get BittenMost travelers prepare for the wrong mosquito. They picture a bed net at midnight and worry about malaria. The insect that does…
DestinationsPuerto Viejo, Costa Rica: A Practical Caribbean GuideMost trip planners treat Costa Rica's Caribbean coast as the rainy side and send travelers to the Pacific instead. On this coast…
DestinationsLa Fortuna, Costa Rica: How to Plan Your Arenal BaseMany first-time visitors picture La Fortuna as a village at the foot of an erupting volcano. Arenal has not erupted since 2010,…
Trip PlanningCosta Rica Cafes: Find Local Coffee Shops Worth VisitingThe TicoTravel cafe finder below lets you search Costa Rica cafes by town and check what matters before you drive there: where…Useful links
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