Anyone who’s followed our blog over the years knows that Costa Rica ranks high on our “overrated” list. We spent a month there a few years back – in 2011 in fact, so it’s been 10 years. So I laughed when one of our readers commented to me on one of our Costa Rica posts: “Costa Rica?! That’s so 2004”. I laughed because the comment was bang on. Maybe we showed up in Costa Rica 7 years too late…
We had spent 3 weeks in Costa Rica between Orosi, Manuel Antonio, Uvita, Dominical, La Fortuna, and then Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa was in fact was the only place we really enjoyed. Otherwise Costa Rica left us unenthused.
So why do we think Costa Rica is Overrated?
1) It’s Over touristed and Overpriced. I ranted about it on my posts on both Manuel Antonio and La Fortuna. I knew before going to Costa Rica that it’s popular. But I never expected the hordes of tourists that we saw (most tourists are American and Canadian, with a sprinkling of Europeans). Or the crazy, out of whack, pricing. Imagine going to some hot springs and paying $120 US for 2 people? (including lunch and drinks). Or paying $90 US (again for 2 people) to visit a small animal sanctuary? Maybe we’ve been spoiled by the quality and pricing of places we’ve visited in Mexico and Nicaragua…but pricing in Costa Rica is just crazy considering this is a poor and still developing country.
I don’t mind paying a lot for something amazing. In Switzerland we took the train up 2000 m to the North Face of the Eiger. In Cape Town I paraglided over the city. In both cases the experience was worth the money. In Costa Rica we just felt that there was very little value for money. We felt ripped off.
2) We both felt that this country was run by foreigners and not by Costa Ricans. Hotels and restaurants were almost all foreign owned (save for a few local mom-and-pop restaurants) and I found it amazing how much of the staff were also foreigners. We travel because we like the interaction with locals – we don’t want or need to be served at the neighborhood cafe by a Canadian or American. It left us wondering about Costa Rican employment laws.
3) We’ve been to quite a lot of Latin American countries where we’ve met a lot of very friendly people. Costa Ricans left us indifferent. Maybe because there are too many tourists? Or is it because their economy is run by foreigners? For those who’ll accuse us of bashing the Ticos – I’m not. Unlike in Brazil (where we had a lot of very unfriendly encounters) Ticos were never unfriendly. They were just reserved and formal. We just missed the connection to locals that we’ve felt in other places.
4) Logistics – as I’ve detailed in the last few posts, transportation was always complicated and expensive. I don’t say this for many places, but you have to rent a car in Costa Rica. Not only that, do it early because (as I’ve mentioned in other posts) they go fast.
5) Infrastructure is bad. Jeez. I never thought Costa Rica would have worse infrastructure than Cuba or the Dominican Republic. We walked through popular beach towns where there were no sidewalks. We had to walk on the side of the road next to a dirty gutter. There’s money in Costa Rica because you’ll see lots of nice resorts and restaurants. But that’s private property…nobody seems to want to invest in public infrastructure.
Summing it up, we just weren’t impressed by Costa Rica. It’s overrated.
What do you think?
PS. What countries are on your “overrated” list?
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I was born and raised in Costa Rican and I think you should consider yourself lucky because you actually got to appreciate ticos as they truly are, hehe. If you care about experiencing the local culture when you travel, well, you got it 🙂
I must confess I’m a little surprised because Ticos tend to be overly friendly with American tourists. Sometimes you can actually tell they’re trying too hard to be funny (I wonder if that’s changing and why).
But that’s not the way they are with other ticos they don’t know. Ticos are very reserved and distrustful of other ticos they don’t know. Going to a bar to meet new people? Good luck. Everyone is having fun in their little groups.
That’s probably one of the reasons why San José as a city never took off and all the relatively modern developments took place in suburban areas. The desire to be “just with my people” is deeply ingrained in the culture.
Just for the record, I’m not trying to bash my own country. I have a friend from France and he says the ticos remind him of the Swiss. Apparently they’re exactly the same in this regard. I wonder if the mountains have something to do with it.
I spent a month in Samara in November. There are pluses and minuses to Costa Rica. Pluses: You can drink the water, you can swim in the ocean, the weather is generally good, the beaches are clean (except for some horse manure), the people are fairly friendly if you speak some Spanish (don’t go there without learning some), and the atmosphere is pretty laid back. Minuses: it is expensive – same cost as USA/Canada for most items, the mosquitos are tiny, nasty little bastards, there is no snorkelling to speak of, bus transportation is cheap but slow and unreliable (I was stranded a long way from home by a bus that failed to appear), and crime is getting worse. There were a number of cartel killings in the area (in Nicoya and Nosara mostly), an armed robbery of a tourist, and a bunch of car contents and laptop thefts while I was there. The police won’t do anything and seem to be completely overwhelmed. Having said that, there was no moment where I felt unsafe, but the place I was staying had a tall chain-link fence around it and dogs. Would I go back? Yes, but I would move around more and allow a lot of time to use the bus system instead of very expensive car rentals or shuttles.
Thanks for the comment Tim!
This article is spot-on. We just returned from 10 days in CR and we hated it, for exactly all the reasons listed above. We felt CR is basically a marketing scheme – its popularity and appeal is seemingly driven by misleading Instagram posts and fake reviews, which are then redistributed by unsuspecting young American tourists.
The one time I went to Costa was in the off-season (July) and rented a car with three friends. We had the most amazing time of our lives – epic volcano hikes; cloud forest canopy walks/ziplines; caiman cruises in national parks; local free hot springs; Jaco surfing; Montezuma night life; ultra light flights; and gorgeous beach walks in Nosara/Samara. Just an outstanding time. We’d cruise into a new town and find hotels the day we arrived for peanuts. Never waited anywhere to get into attractions. Loved the comida tipica. Pura vida!
(I say this as someone who has lived in Japan, Ghana, Germany and Canada while travelling across the world as well.)
We just got back from 10 days in Costa Rica and agree with all the points you made in your article. While CR was on my bucket list of places to visit, it ended up being a disappointing— from the over priced everything (accommodations, food, souvenirs, water, transportation and excursions) to what we really experienced was indifferent (and sometimes rude) people. Travel to Europe was far cheaper, and Mexico is one of our favorite places to visit— where value, friendliness, etc, far exceeds what we experienced in Costa Rica. In terms of safety, seems like there are growing concerns… ran into an American at LAX who was selling his CR home- he shared in the last 10 years he’s had his TVs and computers stolen 7 or more times. Our tour guide in San Jose had us remove necklaces and earrings because she had other incidents where visitors had their jewelry ripped from them as they walked with her. We won’t be back.
Amen, totally agree with you. Been to Mexico so many times, great people. I tried to be polite here but yeah…agree with everything you say. Sorry about your experience.
yea the prices in SJ was ridiculous, the starbucks there cost more than ones in the US, i paid $7 for a frap. on top of that, restaurants display prices does not include 10% tip and another 10% tax, and if the restaurant has a band, they expect a tip from you too, so that one meal cost me almost $30
That’s crazy. Who can afford a $7 frap? We live in Spain and I’ve gone to Starbucks in Madrid. Didn’t even come close to that. Who are they catering to in SJ that would pay $7 for that. I just don’t get it. I can’t imagine the locals have tons of money. It just seems out of whack, I don’t get CR….
You’d be surprised. Starbucks are always full of locals (I’m tico myself).
Salaries in CR are nowhere close to the US, but in some industries they can go from $4k to $10k a month, which again, is way less than you would get in the US but it’s better than what you get in some European countries. But that’s only for qualified jobs and you need to be fluent in multiple languages. Unqualified jobs in CR get paid about $600 a month or even less if they get hired informally.
Thank you for all the feedback Steven! Nice to get an insight from a local. And living in Europe now, always seems that unqualified jobs everywhere get paid about $600/mo. Global minimum wage?
Honestly – agree with every word. I want to mention first that I’ll forever be biased about CR as on my second day there some horrible man stole my backpack in the bus San Jose – Monteverde – that had all of my documents and money/cards/electronics in it. This messed up months of my further travel plans – I now have to go back home. Police is incredibly slow and doesn’t care in general. After the incident we spent five weeks traveling around the country, still hoping for the documents to be found – and nothing. The crime is incredibly high – we met quite a few people who were mugged, robbed or harassed – so CR doesn’t live up to the expectation of being the safest county in CA either. Everything is overpriced, people are trying to rip you off by making you pay 50$ to do the night tour around their backyard – traveling without renting a car is pretty much wasting hours going back to San Jose and somewhere else again (unless you fancy paying 100$ for a shared shuttle….). Nature is nice – but you can get THE SAME landscapes and wildlife all around South and Central America – for a fraction of the price. NEVER would I intend to come here again.
Agree once again!
Had a very similar experience there. It was the Central American country I liked the least (I’ve been to all except Honduras). Definitely overrated. Hot springs were $$$ and full of loud-mouthed/wasted foreigners. 🙁
The transportation logistics…a nightmare and expensive! I recall there being a taxi syndicate where one could not negotiate; prices were fixed and so astronomical! But then, no good bus options. Either an $80 taxi or a $15 bus that took 5x as long—with multiple transfers, etc..
Will not be returning to CR.
Thanks Lisa. It’s crazy the pricing in CR. I just don’t get it…
Of course if you go to the tourists traps it will cost you an arm and a leg. And another thing, labor laws in Costa Rica are very strict, no stranger is allowed to work without a permanent residency. Prices are high it’s because of the import tax ( 13%), if you live like a gringo and consume gringo food it will cost you a lot. Lots of the hotels and restaurants are expats owned and the majority of the workers are Ticos. Yes you are right that the prices are high due to one-upmanship. You know the most green country in the world ( That is totally false ) has a price.
Costa Rica besides the overpriced things really hasn’t got a lot to offer. You get this picture of a oasis for wildlife but it really is probably for me the worst country in Central America…I can’t really find anything positive to say about it..I enjoyed Manuel Antonio but the idea that the country is a paradise is really due to great advertising.. don’t be fooled. I spent 3 weeks there and really felt I allocated too much time there go en the prices and over-hyped things.. won’t return ever.
Hi Frank….. interesting that you’re writing this perspective 10 yrs after your trip there….. the comment that prompted you to write this post made me wonder…..do travel destinations go in and out of fashion like clothes? Could i say….. oh Thailand, that’s so 1984!?
Anyways we lived/worked in CR for 3 yrs from 2003-2007, and a lot of what you mention was evident back then, especially the poor infrastructure, high costs and that ballsy Tico attitude (hey! pura vida!). This last bit probably starts in junior school where ticos are taught well about what makes CR special in comparison to the historical (and more recent) mess of their neighbor countries. One thing you didn’t mention which was a big deal when we were there was the poor personal security situation. Many of our tico and expat friends frequently told us stories of muggings, B&Es, etc. We lived in a well to do barrio, and every house had bars on windows, walls, razor wire, vicious dogs in the yard and Nicaraguan guardias standing guard on every block! We enjoyed our time there, travelling frequently to the Caribbean coast, rather than the more surfy touristy pacific coast. It was also a great base for travelling throughout the region. But like you guys, we felt somewhat indifferent after leaving and ndver bothered to return…… bonne journée!
Hi Don! Where in the world are you right now?
Yes, not much to write about these days so I’m reaching a bit. But will be doing some local travel in the near future and have a big trip to Mexico later in the year which I’m looking forward to.
“Pura Vida” has to be one of the most annoying sayings anywhere in the world. We came up with our own version of that which we would say (between us) anytime something negative happened in CR. And we said it quite a few times.
We never had first hand experience with the security situation but have heard it’s bad and has gotten worse.
As I say, it was 10 years back and I guess we fell victim to all the hype.
Hey Frank….. i just got back to south france after a month long cycle tour up the Rhone, down the Moselle to Koblenz and up the Rhine to Basel. The trip went pretty much as planned……but the weather sucked! – 3 weeks of overcast, regular drenching rains – i managed to avoid the seriously flooded areas to the north. But i still got soaked and had to stay on the dikes as all the usual routes through the leafy wetlands were flooded.
Heading back to TO again in a few days time to apply for the long séjour visa. Last year with covid they weren’t accepting applications for the category i needed to apply under ….. this year, it’s green light so far!
I know you love biking. How did you organize that Don? Do you have a link or something I can look at? Would love to do something like that.
Yes, I’ve been following the news. Horrible what’s happened in that area.
I remember well following your story last year. We got lucky with the Spanish consulate…you didn’t with the French. Any idea of where you want to settle in France?