Costa Rica has always enjoyed a sterling reputation in the US travel market. Long known as the safest and most stable country in Central America, many travelers value the ability to see all or most of it on a trip of just 1-2 weeks. The possibilities of where you could go in that time and the opinions about how to spend your trip are almost limitless. Among those opinions is my own, which is “go somewhere else instead.”
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Driving All Over Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country where having a rental car is absolutely crucial for your trip. Fortunately they are not terribly expensive. A small SUV can be found for between $25 and $35 a day on Expedia anytime. Roads throughout the country are not as bad as some travel content would have you believe. A regular car should be fine. It’s not necessary to pay more for 4-wheel drive.
The experience of driving throughout the country is not enjoyable. Yes it’s scenic, but it’s also a lot of making sharp turns and climbing steep mountains. Traffic around the cities can be very heavy and stressful, with other drivers doing as much as they can to stick to the car in front of them and not cede an inch of space to any other car. There are also toll booths scattered all over the country. While the tolls aren’t expensive, stopping at multiple toll gates in a couple hours’ drive is very annoying. Some toll booths take cards and some don’t.
If you don’t or can’t rent a car you’re going to be forced to either spend your whole trip on organized tours from San Jose or be at the mercy of riding buses where you want to go. For $25 a day the freedom of a car is a no-brainer even if driving it is unpleasant.
Don’t Stay in San Jose
I enjoy cities so my plan was to spend most of my time in Costa Rica staying in the city and doing daily excursions out of town. This was a bad plan! Don’t do that if you’re going to Costa Rica. I stayed at a Holiday Inn near the center of the city (full review here). As a hotel it was just okay but there are so few quality hotels in San Jose that it’s probably the best choice in the city center.
But you should not stay in the city center. It’s a dump. It’s full of these sleazy little casinos and the city is so depressed that even a number of those have shuttered and been abandoned. A large part of the area around downtown transforms into a red light district at night. But there’s not any nightlife or adult businesses to support that, it’s just a lot of street prostitution. Very sketchy vibes. Even by 8:00 pm many stores and restaurants have closed and the streets begin to feel abandoned.
If there’s no nightlife in San Jose it’s probably because no one has any money. It’s overwhelming how everyone in San Jose is working class. All of the shops and cafes are incredibly shabby and exist to serve people who spend their days working very hard and not having much fun. If you are compelled to stay in San Jose during part of your trip I recommend finding a hotel near the airport.
Plan Your Itinerary Very Carefully
I’m the sort of traveler who likes to sort of just show up and explore. I like to have a general idea of what’s around as far as attractions and activities. But mostly I take a “maybe I’ll check it out” approach to sightseeing. Costa Rica is a terrible place to try to go around like that. It’s so much driving, you really have to know where you’re going if you have any hope of getting there. You’ve also got to know where and how many nights you want to stay in remote hotels and tiny towns.
Book Early: Browse Attractions and Tour Opportunities on Viator.
I like to arrive. I don’t enjoy a trip where you go all the way to an exotic country and then you have to keep going to have a full experience. A lot of the destinations in Costa Rica strike me as more than a little fake. Whether it’s a sloth petting zoo or a hot spring with a resort built around it. I don’t want to trek deep into the rainforest just to have a typical tourist experience. I’d rather grab a lounge chair at an all-inclusive in the DR or Mexico.
I got the impression that a lot of the points of interest throughout Costa Rica are best enjoyed by couples or families. As a solo traveler, I didn’t enjoy it at all.
Costa Rica’s Beaches are Overrated
It might be a broad statement to call all of the beaches overrated. I only visited two of them, and neither was in the Guanacaste area, which is said to be the best in the country. Jaco is perhaps the largest and most popular beach in Costa Rica and it is thoroughly mediocre. It gets points for being uncrowded. But why would people crowd here? It’s just not a very good beach.There are a lot of rocks in the sand both on the beach and in the water. The rocks combine with an unusually short wave period to make swimming here difficult and unpleasant.
While it’s the biggest beach town in Costa Rica, Jaco is not very large at all. Everything is along one road and you can walk the length of the town in around 20 minutes. Jaco does have the best food I found in Costa Rica, but the choices here are not exceptional. It’s just that the food in the rest of the country is so bad that slightly below average is very good by comparison.
While Jaco is safe, it’s also full of prostitutes at night. There are a few bars in town and a very sleazy casino but overall there’s not much to do at night. All of the hotels are small and local. The one I found was just all right, despite its glowing Expedia reviews.
Just Go to Virginia Instead
During almost the entire week I spent driving around in in Costa Rica I just kept thinking about how even though it’s scenic, the mountains are just as pretty in Virginia. In fact, everything in Virginia is superior to Costa Rica and I would have been much better off just driving through that state for a week.
Virginia’s beaches are far superior. Its cities are nicer. Its history is more interesting. The food is better. From Appalachia and the Blue Ridge Mountains to Civil War battlefields, the cities of the tidewater, the history of colonial Williamsburg, the beaches of Cape Charles and the natural beauty of Assateague. A trip to Virginia offers a lot more enjoyment than Costa Rica, while being cheaper and easier to reach.
