Cheap Travel: Costa Rica After the Rain

I knew Costa Rica had changing seasons, but I didn’t realize the changes in the landscape would be so extreme. When we flew to Guanacaste, Costa Rica last March, I was surprised by how little green there was. Much like our Northeastern winters, most of the trees were bare, and the grasses were all dried up. But November is at the end of the wet season, and we arrived to lush green fields and forests.

Wet Season vs Dry Season in Costa Rica

Dry Season vs Wet Season in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Not only was it more green and lush, but the weather was also a bit more pleasant and cooler. It was not as dusty, and with some clouds around, the sun wasn’t as overbearing. We also sensed a lot more activity from the wildlife. The howler monkeys were really going at it – they sounded like a cross between an angry Rottweiler and a hungry boar grunting away. Many birds migrate down from the mountains during the wet season and we heard them singing and rustling around. But while we could hear a lot more birds and monkeys, I think we might have seen less of them with all the foliage as camouflage.

white-throated-magpie-jay-costa-rica

This guy was scoping out our breakfast.

We kept a nice lazy pace, spending most of our time surfing, boogie boarding, walking the beach, reading books by the pool, napping, and eating out. Normally we don’t dine out much, but when we’re in Costa Rica, we visit a soda at least once a day – the local food is just too damn good and really cheap. You can get a casado, which is a plate with your choice of meat, rice, beans and salad for $6 including tax and tip. Some meals even have fresh juices included. We ate at a bunch of local sodas and our bills were between $12 and $15 for the two of us.

soda-las-tunas-playa-grande-costa-rica

Lunch for two : $12

We did cook some meals including breakfast everyday. Things like eggs, papaya, and avocados are cheap. We visited a farmers’ market and got some lychees and a passion fruit. I’d only had passion fruit once before in Hawaii – this one was bigger and sweeter. You just pop it open and suck out the pulp, seeds and all. It doesn’t look like much, but the juicy tropical fruitiness is unreal.

passion-fruit-costa-rica

Fresh passion fruit

Trying new fruits is one of our favorite activities, and we were lucky to have a lime tree on the property with plenty of ripe limes. I thought we would throw some slices in our beers, but the limes were surprisingly different from what we’re used to. Instead of being sour, they had a mild flavor and were even a bit sweet. They almost tasted like a very lightly sweetened lemonade.

local-produce-costa-rica

We didn’t exchange any money during the trip. Most places took credit cards, and the rest of them – including the farmers’ market – allowed us to pay with US Dollars. They typically exchange at a rate of 500 Colones to 1 US Dollar. The exchange rate at the time was 560 Colones to a dollar but we would have lost some money at the airport exchange or ATM fees anyway. We just made sure to take a lot of dollar bills so we could make our own change, otherwise it was convenient to just pay with credit cards and the good old USD.

Towards the end of out trip, we started getting news about Hurricane Otto advancing toward Costa Rica. It was predicted to hit Guanacaste on Thanksgiving day – the day we were scheduled to fly out. American Airlines issued a travel warning and offered to change our tickets at no charge. We didn’t want to risk getting stuck in the storm, so we cut our trip from 8 days to 7 days. It started raining when we left, and I don’t think it would have been worth the risk if we stayed another day.

Are bugs in Costa Rica worse during the wet season?

When we were in Guanacaste during the dry season, the ants were unavoidable, especially in bathrooms. We had to be careful about keeping our food in sealed containers or in the fridge, and there were troops of good sized ants that seemed to live in our toilet. It took some getting used to, but the ants in the potty don’t disturb you or bite your butt while you’re crapping. And it was fascinating how well they could swim – almost running on top of the water – if you happened to catch one in a flush. This was common throughout the places we visited and just something we got used to.

When we returned during the wet season, I was expecting the bugs to be much more invasive, but I was pleasantly surprised. There were hardly any ants in our bathroom, and there weren’t as many ants going after our food. I realized that the bugs were all coming into our living space during the dry season because there wasn’t any water outside and our toilet was like an oasis in a desert. Now that it was raining, they could find better resources outside.

While there were less ants to deal with, there were some mosquitoes this time. With the rain leaving lots of puddles, I was sure the mosquitoes would be so thick, they would blot out the sun. But we only encountered a few at dusk and they would dissipate when it got dark. We did get bitten, but it was never the type of onslaught that could chase us indoors.

Do you need a 4×4 in Costa Rica?

Last time, we rented an economy vehicle – a BYD F0 which was a tiny car with tiny wheels. But seeing the locals driving around in their 2 wheel drive compact cars gave us confidence. While the ride was bumpy, and we did bottom out a several times, we made it through the few dirt roads we had to navigate without any issues. But that was during dry season.

A day before we left on our trip, we got a message from our Airbnb host saying the dirt road leading to the house was in really bad condition. We had once again booked an economy car, but we knew our host was not one to mess around. Rather than taking a risk, we scrambled last minute and changed our reservation to a mid sized 4X4 SUV.

dirt-roads-guanacaste-costa-rica

The end of rainy season

When we arrived in Playa Grande, it quickly became clear that our host was right about the road. It was a mess. I have to admit though, I was a bit giddy – I had a 4X4 and this road was looking like an off-road mud course. I kept the vehicle moving at a good pace as we made our way down the road, then we got to a larger puddle. It looked similar to the others, so I just got the momentum going and rolled on into it. We got a bit of a surprise when we took a nose dive and a wave of muddy water came up over our windshield. The center of the puddle must have been closer to 2 ft deep. That was cool, I thought, and hoped the thing didn’t suck up any of the water.

We ended up making it to the house just fine, and I didn’t get any water in the car. After making a few more trips in and out, we did see a few locals make the run in their tiny cars. They seemed to manage the road just fine. The key is, they knew where all the deep holes were. Without knowing how deep the puddles were, I was much more comfortable having some extra clearance.

Do you need a 4x4 in Costa Rica

Things got a bit messy.

We had just under a mile of dirt road to navigate getting in and out of our place. If we go back in the dry season, we’ll just rent whatever is cheapest. But if we go back when it’s raining or has rained recently, we’ll get something that has a bit more clearance. It’s hard to tell which puddles are hiding potholes that can swallow a small wheel.

flying-into-costa-rica-on-aa-miles

How to get free flights to Costa Rica.

I was able to book our tickets using my American Airlines miles. Most of these miles came from a signup bonus I got when I applied for an AAdvantage card. For two tickets from JFK to Liberia, I used 70,000 miles and paid $160 in fees. They were not direct flights, but only had a short layover in Miami.

catching_a_nice_one

How much did our surfing trip to Costa Rica cost?

With a little bit of travel hacking, our 8 7 day vacation to Costa Rica cost $160 in fees for flights + $140 for car rental + $600 for our room + $120 to park our car near JFK. If you count the extra dining out at $15 a day, and surfboard rental at $15 a day – that’s another $210 we spent on activities. So for about $1230 total, or $615 per person, we had a pretty badass surfing vacation in Central America. The only problem is, I now have a pretty serious case of surfing withdrawal. Maybe we need to move to Costa Rica…

22 thoughts on “Cheap Travel: Costa Rica After the Rain

  1. Man, I’ve always wanted to try a fresh passionfruit! They occasionally have them in our grocery store, but they sell them for $4 a pop and they look dried out and gross. No thank you!

    Dude, $1,200 is amazing for an international trip! Hell, I think we paid more than that just to go to Disney World a few years ago! It looks beautiful. 🙂 I’d love to check out Costa Rica one day.

  2. Great read, Mr. CK. I love the bit about Mrs. CK’s genius with the rental 4×4.

    I had no idea the seasons were so pronounced in Costa Rica. I figured those howler monkeys screamed from dense foliage year-round!

    Killer trip, and amazing deals y’all swung. Would you consider a move to CR full-time? Sounds like a cool place, with a nice surf break!

    • Yeah Mrs. CK’s last minute move was clutch. Good thing we have one solid thinker on this team 🙂

      As far as moving to Costa Rica full time, we have been considering it. A lot of our vacations are also part due diligence on places we may want to move or at least slow travel. I did enquire around a bit and a decent apartment by the beach can be had for ~$800 a month. If you live like the locals, then other expenses such as food and healthcare are cheap as well.

      If you want to live like here in the USA then things can get pricier. Cars and pretty much anything imported are not cheap, or easy to get a hold of. Even things like meats and canned vegetables can be cheaper here as well. We have some incredible infrastructure and supply chains that we take for granted here.

      But less development also means more unspoiled beauty. And so far we have only really scratched the surface, there is a lot of diversity in the weather and landscape that we have not explored yet. At this point, I certainly can see us doing some slow travel there. I can’t help but be a bit jealous of all the expats we surfed with who just get up each day and meander down to the beach to check out the waves.

  3. Very cool. The pictures bring back memories. The year I met my wife (8 years ago now) I did 2 weeks there where I rented a car a drove from San Jose to guanacaste via Monte Verde. It’s still one of my favorite trips and I did it on my own. One word of warning, flights are very seasonal dependent. I was forced into doing my trip the week after Xmas due to a work rule on forced time off. My flight ended up being 1000 just for me. At a different time of year your amount is more normal.

    • That sounds like a really cool trip. We were thinking of driving to Monte Verde for the first two days, but last minute we decided to slow things down and just do the beach. One of these days we need to take more time to do a trip like yours to see the cloud forests and San Jose 🙂

  4. Fun adventure Mr. CK and very affordable too!

    How good does one’s spanish need to be in Costa Rica?

    Because you guys were paying with credit cards much of the time, did you have to pay the ‘tourist’ price? Most of these 3rd-ish world countries use cash pretty extensively.

    • If you are at the airport or in touristy locations, there is a good chance someone will speak English, but at the grocery stores and local sodas most people only speak Spanish. My Spanish is not the best, but you only really need a few phrases to get by, and the google translator works wonders on things like menus. Also when they can see you are struggling understanding the numbers many people will write down prices or print a receipt for you to look at before you pay.

      I never sensed we were paying the ‘tourist’ price, but we also stay away from touristy areas. Most local sodas have menus that clearly state prices, and the ones that did not were even cheaper. Paying with credit card worked out great because using travel cards we could get the exact exchange rate without any fees.

      At one local soda we actually thought they gave us some kind of a discount because they charged us less than what the menu stated for our meals. We later realized the price on the menu already included tax and tip which got broken out on the final receipt.

      While I cannot speak for touristy spots, most locals were very accommodating and gave fair prices. Even if you are terrible at speaking Spanish, most folks will appreciate you trying to speak their language first.

  5. My wife and I loved it when we were down in Guancaste in January two years ago. It was 90 degrees and we loved the volcano sand. Such a beautiful area. We have joked around how we too would love to move down there. It’s definitely cost effective 🙂

    Thanks for sharing such awesome pictures!!!

  6. Hey,
    Nice post, I’ve been thinking about going to Costa Rica next Christmas for a few weeks. Is that something you would recommend?
    Are there plenty of things to keep you occupied for multiple weeks?

    • We have only really scratched the surface of Costa Rica on our trips. There are also cloud forests, volcanoes, and the cities to explore. And I could have spent at least another month just where we were enjoying the beach and surf.

      It depends on what you like, but we certainly would like to do some longer trips down there 🙂

      The only issue you might have with with your schedule. As FullTimeFinance mentioned above, the holiday season in December gets quite busy. It might be harder to find good deals on accommodations and flights.

  7. You’ve got me intrigued about Costa Rica now. Great work on creating a super reasonable trip. I’m impressed with how you (er, Mrs. Crazy Kicks) figured out the car insurance. Did I hear you say volcanoes? Can you hike by them?

    • Yep, one of my Costa Rican friends keeps telling me to go check them out before they’re all inactive. We have not seen them yet but I’ve heard good reviews from multiple people. Maybe next trip 🙂

  8. Passion fruit is one of our favorites. My father grows them in the fields back in the Dominican Republic. I’ve seen them used in cheesecake recipes and can’t wait to try it one day.
    I remembered the taste of the sweet limes instantly as you mentioned them. I used to love those as a child.
    That’s a great vaca cost.

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