Costa Rica - The Final Assessment

Our six weeks in Costa Rica were many things; unexpected, surprising, adventurous, confusing and, more often than not, hot. This is the beautiful thing about travel. You never know what's going to happen. Sometimes, the unexpected isn't pleasant, but more often than not, everything works out the way it should, or, more importantly, in a way that wasn't anticipated but way better than the traveler could imagine. That's my general philosophy.

So how does Costa Rica figure into this? Excellent question. The tiny country has a lot to offer, especially to those of us that have adventure tourism in mind. You can zip line your way across most of the country, surf, paddle board, skim board, kayak. There's also hiking, caving and (I suspect) rock climbing. If you like seeing under the water, both snorkeling and SCUBA are excellent options. Sounds great, right?

To do all these things, you need money, and lots of it. This isn't a big deal if you're only staying a week or two. It gets more financially painful the longer you stay. Case in point, gas is almost as expensive as in Vancouver ($1.50 a litre...that's almost 6 dollars a gallon, for you imperial people.) Price comparison in U.S dollars by Numbeo for San Jose, Costa Rica and Cuenca, Ecuador: We believe these numbers are pretty well dead on and current.

Indices Difference
Consumer Prices in San Jose are 61.58% higher than in Cuenca
Consumer Prices Including Rent in San Jose are 63.41% higher than in Cuenca
Rent Prices in San Jose are 70.32% higher than in Cuenca
Restaurant Prices in San Jose are 100.29% higher than in Cuenca
Groceries Prices in San Jose are 73.42% higher than in Cuenca
Local Purchasing Power in San Jose is 15.21% higher than in Cuenca

There's a bit of police corruption amongst the Transito (transit police), but we only got shaken down once in a month of driving around.

San Jose is not a pretty city (like Vancouver or Cuenca), but has lovely neighbourhoods that we would recommend staying in. Las Escalantes was our favourite, followed by Amon (closer to downtown) and our little neighbourhood of el Zapote seemed decent, not quite as pretty, but nicer homes and friendly neighbours. Rohrmoser and Escazu are well known gringo barrios that are nicely maintained, but too North Americanized for our taste.

Okay, so the final call? Costa Rica (for us), is a great place to visit for a week, maybe two, but not a potential home. If you're a beach body, then you might love it, if you're used to suburbia and always needing a car, maybe it would work for you. For us, there just isn't enough to fill our time on a regular basis. We enjoyed the country and the people, but are glad to be heading back home.