Explore Costa Rica Through Eyes

Our time in Costa Rica (Jan 2024 and Feb 2024) was packed with beautiful contrasts—vibrant cities, stunning nature, and unique adventures. This page is your one-stop shop for all our blog posts and videos from our real world experiences while in Costa Rica. From tips for budget-friendly activities to our experiences living here, we’re sharing it all with you to help guide your own Costa Rican adventure. (Don’t forget to get grab your free Grab our list of affordable places to stay in San Jose Costa Rica – scroll down!)

Discover Costa Rica: Video Highlights of Our Journey

Explore Costa Rica through our video gallery, where we share real moments from our time there. These videos highlight everything from everyday life to must-see sights, giving you a clear picture of what it’s like to visit Costa Rica. As full-time slow travelers, we focus on authentic experiences and share practical insights to help you plan your own trip. Each clip reflects our personal journey, providing useful, trustworthy information to make your travel decisions easier.

Costa Rica: Practical Travel Tips

• Practice your Spanish and try to speak it. The locals love that you are trying.
• Credit Cards are widely accepted but make sure you carry colones (Costa Rican money), which is helpful for street vendors.
  • Be sure to let your credit card company know you are traveling!
• Plan ahead if you’re traveling at peak times – Book your accommodation well in advance if you plan to visit Costa Rica at peak times such as Christmas, New Year, Easter or the US spring break. Prices also rise during major festivals and events, and high-end restaurants and popular tours should be booked ahead of time.
• Bring Binoculars! – Wildlife is usually found high in the trees or far away from the designated path. If you want to get a closer look, binoculars are very useful. 
• Less is more – in terms of packing
• It’s hot & humid – bring your comfy clothes and shoes. Don’t even bother with hair dryers, straighteners, etc.
• Bring layers if traveling in the higher elevations as it can get quite cold
• Shop groceries at the big local supermarkets, but only local products because other things are super expensive
• Book Tours in advanced and request the guide be fluent in your native language, if you get someone you can barely understand, you won’t enjoy the tour as much.
• Always double look both ways at street corners, specially in San Jose center, cars drive like crazy and blow through Stop signs and traffic lights as if they didn’t exist.
• Bring your probiotics, Immodium, Tums, Pepto Bismol or what ever it is you use – Costa Rica’s water is perfectly safe in most urban areas, but may have a different microbiome than your gut is used too
• Bring sunblock or lightweight, long-sleeved SPF shirts
• Eat at Sodas (small roadside restaurants) – quality food for much cheaper prices.
• Don’t drive at night – roads are not what you are use too
• As with any tourist area;
  • avoid showing wealth, leave any pieces of jewelry you don’t want to loose in your home country, anything you bring can be lost or stolen.
  • Don’t talk on the phone while walking, step up next to a building or wall before pulling the phone out of your pocket.