Costa Rica On A Budget: How Expensive is Costa Rica?

Thinking of going to Costa Rica but worried about how much it costs? Travelling in Costa Rica is not as expensive as people make it out to be.

In this post, I’ll debunk the myth that Costa Rica is expensive, share actual costs from our trip and give tips on how to travel in Costa Rica on a budget. 

This article may contain affiliate / compensated links, that may earn me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. For full information, please see our disclaimer here. While all efforts have been taken to ensure the information included in this post is correct and current, travel information such as opening hours, business operations and prices change frequently. If you find anything in this post that is incorrect or outdated please let me know in the comments so I can update it for other readers.

Visiting Costa Rica on a budget

If you’re travelling through Central America, you’ll inevitably reach a point in your journey when you have to make the dreaded decision – do I go to Costa Rica?

Whether you’re heading south from Mexico, or coming up from South America via the San Blas Islands in Panama, you would have heard whispers from other travellers about Costa Rica. 

‘It’s so expensive’. ‘I can’t afford it’. ‘It’s only for rich American tourists’. ‘Don’t bother, it’s so pricey’. ‘Everything costs money’. ‘It’s not worth it’. 

We heard this time and time again from travellers heading north, while we were heading south with our sights set firmly on the rich coast. 

If we hadn’t done our research in advance and understood what we would have been missing out on, we might not have gone to Costa Rica at all. 

If we’d listened to the unsubstantiated claims of travellers who hadn’t even been to Costa Rica, we could have skipped what ended up being the absolute highlight of our 6 months in Central America. 

So is it really THAT expensive? In this post, I want to set the record straight. (Hint: it’s not). 

I’ll unpack the common myth spreading along the gringo trail, by sharing actual examples of what things cost, and tips on how you can make the most of Costa Rica on a budget.

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Currency quick facts

• 💰 Currency: Costa Rica uses the Costa Rican Colon (plural: Colones) CRC or ₡. 100 centimos make up 1 Colon, and they use notes and coins
• 💵 Conversion: at the time of writing, $1 USD = 513 CRC 
• 🏧 ATMs: Banco Nacional has the best ATMs to withdraw cash, they don’t charge any withdrawal fees
• Prices for higher-cost items like tours or accommodation are generally quoted in US Dollars
• You can usually pay for things in either CRC or USD all over the country
• If the price is quoted in USD, it’s best to pay in USD
• If the price is quoted in CRC, you’ll get the best rate to pay in CRC
• The best exchange rate for getting CRC is withdrawing money from an ATM

So, how expensive is Costa Rica?

Let’s get straight to it – how expensive is Costa Rica? Is it really that bad?

My answer is, it can be. But it doesn’t have to be. 

Yes, if we’re talking big picture, overall without any further explanations, Costa Rica is more expensive than other countries in Central America. 

Instead of leaving it at that, it’s worth diving into WHY it’s a little bit more costly.

It’s the most developed country in the region, with the highest human development index (aka their people live a generally good, happy life which we all deserve). It also has the most pristine nature and diverse wildlife in all of Central America. 

If anyone tries to tell you that you can have similar natural experiences in other countries in Central America, they’re lying. 

This isn’t to downplay the amazing natural sights in countries like Guatemala and Nicaragua. But the fact of the matter is, NOWHERE else in this region has protected their nature like Costa Rica. 

We spent 6 months in Central America, and I can say with confidence that the natural areas and animals we saw in Costa Rica were absolutely unrivalled. It can’t be replicated anywhere else, and to me, that’s worth paying for. 

In saying all that, it’s actually not that much more expensive. In many different categories, it’s on par or cheaper than its neighbours. 

Those whispers you hear around hostels are largely myths, and completely unfounded. The entire backpacking community has given Costa Rica a reputation it doesn’t deserve. 

Like I said, it can be. If you stay in fancy resorts, take up all the tours and don’t research your transport options properly, yeah it’ll cost you a mint! 

But I’d say the same thing could happen in any other country in the region. With some careful planning and a few sacrifices, Costa Rica can be affordable for budget to mid-range travellers. 

The best tip to keep in mind when travelling Costa Rica on a budget is to always remember what you’re here for. For the majority of us, I’d say that’s seeing wildlife, immersing yourself in stunning nature and enjoying pristine beaches. 

If that remains your priority, and you’re willing to sacrifice other luxuries, like cocktails and alcohol, fancy cafes and restaurants, and bougee stays, you can do Costa Rica on a budget. 

It’s not that kind of place anyway, and if that’s what you’re looking for, you can have much better (and cheaper) experiences in other countries. 

Costa Rica is for the nature, the adventure, the animals and the beaches. So remember that, and you don’t have to break the bank to experience the best of this amazing country. 

If you’re a serious shoestring traveller who wants to spend the least amount of money for bragging rights, don’t come to Costa Rica. As a matter of fact, don’t go anywhere. Just stay home. 

Summary of what things cost in Costa Rica

I’m going to deep dive into the costs for common travel expenses, like transport, accommodation, food and activities in Costa Rica, and include actual costs from our trip. 

As a summary, here are some rough costs for basic items for travellers conscious of their spending:

• 🚌 Long-distance bus ride (4 hours) on public bus – $15 USD
• 🚐 Tourist shuttle between popular destinations (4 hours) – $40 USD 
• 🚙 Standard sedan car rental with all insurance – $60 USD per day
• 🛏️ Dorm bed in a well-rated hostel – $20 USD per night
• 🏡 Airbnb private room with bathroom and kitchen – $50 USD per night 
• 🍛 Casado meal in local soda restaurant – $6 USD
• 🍍 Groceries for 6 servings of a home-cooked dinner – $10 USD
• 🐒 Average national park entrance fee – $18 USD 
• 💦 Average waterfall entrance fee – $15 USD 

Cost of travel in Costa Rica

In the following sections, I’ll flesh out what you can expect to pay for different elements of your trip to Costa Rica if you’re a budget traveller or at least one who is conscious of how much they’re spending. 

We tracked all our expenses during our 5 weeks in Costa Rica, and as I write more Costa Rica blogs, I research constantly the costs of things we might not have done. 

Prices are constantly rising in Costa Rica (like every other country in the world), so I’ve done my best to ensure these estimates are accurate as of the date of publishing, but be aware they will outdate quickly. 

This post is designed to give you a rough overview of what to expect when it comes to the cost of travel in Costa Rica. It’s not a specific budget, and although I have included specific costs, the purpose is more to flesh out different options and ways of doing things on the cheap. 

Transport in Costa Rica

Transport is what gets most people in Costa Rica. It’s very closely tied to how much you will spend on activities and tours, and even accommodation too. 

I think this is the most important factor to consider when planning your trip, and whatever you decide will have a big impact on your budget. 

Public transport

When you think about budget travel, you usually think of public transport. 

There’s a perception that public transportation is bad in Costa Rica, and to an extent, that’s true. 

Based on our travel experiences, in countries where locals are a bit wealthier and tend to own cars, the public transport is worse. From my brief research, Costa Rica has the highest rate of car ownership in Central America, so that bodes with our hypothesis. 

If you’re on a really tight budget and you only want to use public transport, you’ll have a really difficult time. 

It’s not that it doesn’t exist, it’s just that many of the most common routes to reach popular tourist destinations originate in San Jose. 

Unless you want a very long and convoluted journey between places, or you follow a very specific route that caters for bus connections, you might have to go to and from the capital more than you’d like. 

It’s very easy to get almost anywhere in the country, from San Jose. But once you’re at that destination and you want to move on, it gets a little trickier to work out. 

I will admit, that we didn’t take the bus very often (I’ll explain why below), but the routes we did use were actually quite nice. They’re not chicken buses and most are modern coaches. 

For a price reference, we paid 7,500 Colones ($15 USD) per person for a 4-hour journey from San Jose to Puerto Viejo on the public bus. 

The second issue with public transport is that although there are long-distance buses around the country when you arrive in a town, there is limited or no local transport. 

You might have gotten yourself to the town, but in many places the attractions and main sites are spread all over, and there aren’t colectivos or buses. Then you’re back to being reliant on expensive taxis or taking a tour when you don’t really need one, purely to answer the question of transport, and allow you to fit multiple attractions in one day. 

La Fortuna and Monteverde are particularly bad for this, and I think where many budget travellers get stung because they can’t get anywhere or do any of the activities (that aren’t that costly) without paying for hefty taxis or tours. 

Tourist shuttles

If you’ve got a bit more give in your budget, you can use local buses for the easy routes, and substitute the more complicated ones with tourist shuttles. 

These shared vans are designed to shuttle tourists from destination A to destination B. They’re common all over Central America, but they’re quite a bit more expensive in Costa Rica. 

The further the journey, obviously the more expensive, so if you’re route is not logical and you’re travelling to all corners of the country, the costs will add up. But if you’re moving through a pretty linear itinerary, you can expect 3 – 5 hour shuttle journeys to cost between $30 – $60 USD. 

🚐 I recommend booking shuttles via Bookaway so you can compare prices and schedules of different companies in one place

Renting a car

It sounds counterintuitive to suggest renting a car to save money, but unless you’re in the very bottom penny-pinching category of traveller, in my opinion, it’s totally worth it. 

Having a car gives you complete freedom and flexibility to go anywhere you like, on your own schedule. You don’t have to worry about mapping bus routes or having to use shuttles or taxis when the buses don’t work out. 

The other MAJOR cost-saving factor with having a car is that you don’t need to take tours. 

9 times of out 10, tours are primarily for people that don’t have transport. You don’t need a guide to take you to a waterfall, or on a hike, it’s just packaged that way for those travellers who don’t have their own means of transport. 

Having a rental car also means you can choose accommodation that is on the outskirts of town. This is generally cheaper, but also in Costa Rica means you’re more likely to be staying in nature and have fantastic wildlife-watching opportunities from your room! 

You can rent a standard sedan with all insurances for around $60 – $80 USD per day if you book in advance. If you’re a couple or a group, this can definitely work out cheaper than shuttles, taxis and tours. 

I touch more on the process of renting a car, the benefits of doing it, whether or not you need a 4×4 and all about the insurance associated in my road trip guide. 

Accommodation

Costa Rica has all kinds of accommodation, for every level of budget. If you want to spend, you will find resorts, gorgeous boutique ecolodges, unique stays and chain hotels. These are of course expensive and can exceed $300 USD a night in some cases. 

If you don’t want to splurge on accommodation, equally, you will find something to suit your budget. 

There are hostels, guesthouses, cabañas and Airbnb options. 

We had no trouble finding accommodation in Costa Rica that was within our budget (generally around $50 USD per night), and in fact, we found it quite cheap in comparison to neighbouring countries. 

Costa Rica is a very seasonal destination, so you can expect accommodation prices to fluctuate A LOT between the high and low seasons. 

The high season (dry season) is generally November – April, with a peak in December – February. This is when things are at their most expensive, and if you’re on a budget, I would book in advance to secure the cheaper options. 

However, if you’re happy to travel between May – October (low / wet season), accommodation prices drop up to 50%. 

Now I don’t suggest travelling in the peak of the wet season, in fact, I would discourage it. But if you can visit during the shoulder months (May, early June), you will find much cheaper accommodation. 

We visited in May, and we didn’t book accommodation until the last minute. Our average spend was around $45 USD per night. This was always for a private room with a bathroom, air con, and either private or communal kitchen facilities. We found all these places on Airbnb. 

If you’re a solo traveller with a tighter budget, dorm beds usually run for around $20 USD. 

Eating out

Eating out can be pricey in Costa Rica, and I’ll admit, we cooked a lot more here than we did in other Central American countries. 

This was partly because we had the 4×4 Troopy from Nomad America (more on this below), and we were camping with all our own cooking facilities. But also as a way to keep costs down. 

However, eating out in Costa Rica isn’t all that expensive if you go to the right places – SODAS! 

Local, family-owned restaurants, you can find sodas all over the country serving up delicious, hearty and filling Tico cuisine. 

The most common thing on the menu is a ‘casado’ which is kind of a set menu dish, like a menu del dia in other Latin American countries. 

Basically, you choose your protein (chicken, steak, pork chop etc.) and your plate will come loaded with rice, beans, salads, vegetables, plantains and whatever other sides that soda does. They’re all a little different, but the key elements are the same. And they are always huge, filling and cheap. 

Prices varied slightly around the country, but our cheapest casado was 3,000 Colones (~ $5.50 USD) from Soda El Angel in Manuel Antonio, and anything under 4,500 Colones (~ $8.50 USD) we were happy. 

We weren’t spending that much less than this in Nicaragua, where most of our meals also averaged around $5 – 8 USD. 

Drinks

One huge budget saver in Costa Rica is that you can safely drink the tap water in most of the country. Always do a quick Google before you start slurping, but in most popular tourist areas the water from the tap is clean and safe to drink. This cuts out one small, but persistent expense.

We tried not to drink alcohol in Costa Rica, as costs definitely add up. 

Buying beers from the supermarket was cheaper, usually around 1,500 Colones (~ $3 USD) for a big bottle of Imperial (local) beer. But this cost doubled in bars or restaurants. 

I’m a cocktail gal, but I had to say no in Costa Rica. We did have a fun night out in Puerto Viejo, where we had delicious cocktails at happy hour at Puerto Pirata Tiki Bar for about $6 USD, which was very cheap for this part of the world. 

If partying is your priority, don’t bother with Costa Rica. If you’re there to see nature and wildlife, then you’ll happily go without alcohol for a few weeks. 

My budget-breaking weakness is wanting smoothies and coffees. The batidos (fruit smoothies) in Costa Rica are EXCELLENT and very tempting. They ranged from around 1,200 – 2,000 Colones (around $2 – $4 USD) which doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up if you want with every meal! 

I said goodbye to barista coffee in Costa Rica. If I found a latte or cappuccino for less than $3 USD, that was a win, but far too expensive to do every day. Luckily we had a moka pot in our Nomad America camper, and enjoyed Costa Rican coffee beans on the beach at sunrise every day – not a bad compromise!  

Cost of groceries

To save money on eating out, we cooked a fair bit while we were in Costa Rica. 

I’ll be the first to say, I HATE cooking while travelling, and besides making some fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, I really do not like making my own meals. 

But, it is something we had to do in Costa Rica to cut down on costs, and the groceries here are affordable. Fresh produce is abundant and the fruit is soooo delicious. 

We found it a lot easier to shop for groceries in Costa Rica, compared to places like Nicaragua. They stock a lot more international products, so we were able to find items we would normally use at home, for a much cheaper price. 

We tend to cook in bulk and make one big meal like pasta or curry that will be dinner for 2 – 3 nights. It’s hard to calculate exactly, but I reckon we spent around $10 USD for 3 home-cooked dinners for the 2 of us. Round it up to $2 USD per meal.  

Breakfast was even cheaper, and we usually ate out for lunch. 

Buy fruit from roadside stalls and markets or produce stalls. Our best bargain was 3 sweet, juicy pineapples from a stall on the side of the road for 1,000 Colones ($2 USD). 

For the rest of your food, skip the international chains like Walmart and instead go for local grocery stores. We found Mega Super and Maxi Pali were a good balance of cheap but well-stocked. 

Camping in Costa Rica

Something worth considering for a unique and budget-friendly way of seeing Costa Rica is hiring a campervan or kitted-out 4×4 vehicle with a rooftop tent. 

We rented a 4×4 Toyota Landcruiser from Nomad America, that had a rooftop tent and all camping gear included. There are other companies that rent campervans too with a similar concept. 

It’s legal to free camp in Costa Rica, and you can essentially park up along the beach and sleep for free. If you want more amenities (like bathrooms, wifi etc.) there are great campgrounds all around the country, that charge around $5 – $10 USD per person, per night. 

I can’t sugarcoat it, the upfront cost is high. You can expect to pay at least $100 USD per day at a minimum. 

But if you factor in that this is your transport, your accommodation and it gives you the ability to cook a lot of your meals, it can actually save you a lot of money. 

Plus the experience of camping is not something to scoff at, and just being outside in Costa Rica’s nature 24/7, you might find you don’t feel the need to do as many tours or sightseeing – you’re living the pura vida life in the way you’ve chosen to travel. 

I cover the pros and cons, costs and considerations of camping in Costa Rica in more detail in these articles:

• The Complete Guide to Camping in Costa Rica
• Nomad America 4×4 Camper Rental in Costa Rica – Our Review

Activities and tours

If you took up every tour and activity available in Costa Rica, you’d be broke. I think this is where people get their ‘Costa Rica is so expensive’ claims from. 

Ziplining, white water rafting, waterfall rappelling, the list goes on. But in my opinion, these activities aren’t quintessentially Costa Rica, and skipping out on them doesn’t mean you’re not experiencing the country. 

Sure, choose one thrilling adrenaline activity (ziplining is a good and popular choice), but don’t get tour-happy and feel the need to join everyone you see. That’s when Costa Rica IS expensive, but I hope you can see my point that it doesn’t HAVE to be. 

The best things to see and do are the unique natural attractions and national parks you can only find in Costa Rica. You can go white water rafting or ATV riding anywhere. 

As I’ll outline below, most of these sights are either free or under $20 USD.

Free things to do in Costa Rica

This is by no means an extensive list. I’ve randomly selected 10 things we did in Costa Rica that didn’t cost us a cent, to show that not everything has a price tag here. 

• 👙 Go to the beach: there are hundreds of stunning beaches in Costa Rica, and the vast majority of them are completely free! Generally, the only time you would need to pay to access a beach is if it’s inside a national park. Development on beaches has been tightly controlled in Costa Rica, so it’s rare that resorts or private beach clubs restrict access to the beach like you’ll find in Mexico and the Caribbean. Our favourite beaches were around Puerto Viejo in the Caribbean. 
• 💦 Cascada Poza Azul: just outside the town of Dominical, this waterfall might be small, but it is in such a gorgeous jungle setting, it’s totally free and you’ll most likely have it all to yourself. 
• 🥾 Hike the Drake Bay Coastal Trail: one of the best free things we did in Costa Rica was this hike along the coast in Drake Bay to dozens of gorgeous beaches, through the rainforest with so much wildlife to see! 
• 🐦‍⬛ Hummingbird Gallery: located outside the entrance to the cloud forest in Monteverde, this area of hummingbird feeders is technically on the grounds of Cafe Colibri, so it’s nice to buy a coffee but it’s not mandatory. You can watch hundreds of colourful hummingbirds fly around you. 
• 🪨 Relax in tidal rock pools: we loved the rock pools at Playa Palmeras in Montezuma, but there are tons of other fantastic pools around the Nicoya Peninsula in Mal Pais and Santa Teresa. 
• ♨️ Free hot springs in La Fortuna: skip the pricey spas and soak in steamy volcanic geothermal waters at the El Choyin outside La Fortuna. 
• 🦥 Visit Cahuita National Park: entrance to this park is by donation so technically, you can go for free, although I would encourage you to contribute a small amount. Stunning beaches, gorgeous trails and tons of wildlife are waiting at Cahuita!
• 🏊🏻 Swim at Montezuma Waterfalls: a three-tiered waterfall walking distance from Montezuma town, with huge pools to swim in, this one doesn’t cost a cent. 
• 🌊 See a waterfall flowing into the ocean: a long hike along a stunning beach and dense jungle will take you to El Chorro on Playa Cocalito in Montezuma. 
• 🐒 Look for wildlife: Costa Rica’s unique wildlife is not just restricted to the national parks. So many of the animals we saw were by chance, and completely free. We pulled over on the side of the road in Manuel Antonio for a whole squad of squirrel monkeys, and we’ve seen sloths on the roadside in La Fortuna. We saw toucans and macaws while wandering along the coast. Howler monkeys roared around our accommodation in Montezuma and we had many meals interrupted by capuchin monkeys running around on the roof or in nearby trees. Keep your eyes out and you will see animals for free, all the time! 

Cheap things to do in Costa Rica

Yes, some tours in Costa Rica are outrageously expensive. But honestly, 9 times out of 10 you don’t have to do them to see the best of the country. 

Here is a list of things to do in Costa Rica under $20 USD that are absolute bang for your buck and showcase the best of this country. 

I chose a $20 USD limit, as this is a pretty common and standard amount we paid for activities and natural attractions all over Mexico and Central America.

• Manuel Antonio National Park – $18 USD
• Hiking trails around Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna – $9 USD
• The Blue Falls of Costa Rica – $17 USD 
• One day’s bike rental to beach hop in Puerto Viejo – $8 USD 
• Self-guided hike to Catarata Vuelta del Cañon – $15 USD
• The mystical Santa Elena Cloud Forest – $18 USD
• Uvita Whale Tail & Marino Ballena National Park – $6 USD
• Rent a surfboard in Domincalito – $12 USD
• Hike to Nauyaca Waterfalls – $10 USD
• 1-hour double kayak rental in Punta Uva – $15 USD

This list isn’t extensive, and I could add at least another 10 activities we did that fell into this price bracket. 

In fact, there were only four activities and tours we did across 5 weeks in Costa Rica that cost us more than this amount (and we were busy exploring every single day!). 

Experiences worth paying for

No matter where you travel, there are always going to be bucket list experiences with a higher cost. If you don’t want to do any of them, then what’s the point in going?! 

We are all for spending money on experiences, and there are some fantastic tour options in Costa Rica that are absolutely worth it. 

The point is prioritising what is important to you, and just choosing a couple of expensive experiences. You have to sacrifice some other things to be able to enjoy the big stuff. 

The only activities we paid more than $20 USD for were: 

• Mistico Hanging Bridges – $32 USD 
• Guided sloth-watching walk – $40 USD 
• Ziplining in Monteverde – $50 USD 
• Overnight tour of Corcovado National Park – $345 USD (worth every single cent)

Paying for a guide to help spot wildlife is one very worthwhile expense, and will immensely change your experience in the country. You don’t need one at every national park, but it’s worth doing at least once. 

A 1 – 2 hour shared guided wildlife-watching tour in a national park goes for around $30 – $70 USD, depending on inclusions. 

We went all in with our overnight Corcovado tour so we skipped guides in places like Manuel Antonio and Cahuita. But I would really encourage you to get a guide in at least one of these parks, especially if you’re not going to Corcovado. 

I will note that we didn’t do any scuba diving in Costa Rica. From what we saw, it was very expensive. If that’s a priority for you, this is one area that’ll hit your wallet hard. We saved our diving for the very affordable Roatan and Utila in Honduras. 

Tips for saving money in Costa Rica

• 🦥 Get your priorities right: if you’re looking for a holiday destination to eat, drink and relax – don’t choose Costa Rica. If you’re here to see the country’s pristine nature and wildlife, then make that a priority and channel the biggest portion of your budget towards these activities. That’s what Costa Rica is good for, and you can live without the other luxuries when you’re having those unique experiences in nature. 

• 🚌 Work out your transport before you arrive: it’s a tedious job, but if you really want to save, you need to map out your route and work out the transport. If you don’t want to rent a car, then research local bus routes and work out if you can get from A to B without tourist shuttles. Also assess the attractions you want to see, and how to get there from your accommodation. A waterfall might be cheap or free, but if the taxi there and back is $20, it’s become an expensive day. 

• 🐸 Choose your tours wisely: if you start browsing all the available experiences, you’ll want to do them all. But choose a couple of fun tours/activities that you will really enjoy, and limit yourself. Focus on activities that are unique to Costa Rica (e.g. ATV tours are not), and choose one place to do activities. You don’t have to zipline, do a night walk and a coffee tour in every place, just because they are available. Once is enough. 

• 🏝️ Load up on free activities: there are tons of free things to do in Costa Rica, so make sure you’ve got as many of these on your itinerary as possible! If you know you have an expensive tour one day, plan to spend the following day hiking or enjoying the beaches to counteract the cost a bit. 

• 🐢 Travel slower: it can be tempting to want to go everywhere and see it all, but choose a couple of destinations and see them deeply, and properly. As you can see, transport is an expensive part of travel in Costa Rica, so if you can avoid taking a shuttle every second day, you’ll save a lot. Plus you’ll get a more immersive experience and understanding of each destination you visit if you stay 3+ nights. 

• 🗓️ Consider travelling in the shoulder months: December, January and February are the peak peak, and if you can avoid those months, things will be cheaper. May and early June are even cheaper as they mark the beginning of the rainy season, but the weather generally isn’t that wet yet. 

• 👩🏼‍🍳 Cook some of your own meals: yes it sucks, as travelling shouldn’t involve cooking and cleaning in my opinion, but it really will help your budget out in Costa Rica. Make it fun and more of a local experience by trying different local fruits and vegetables and shopping at markets, so you at least get a taste of the culture and cuisine, even though you’re cooking for yourself. 

• 🍛 Eat at sodas and eat Costa Rican food: skip the touristy restaurants, and skip the international cuisine. Prices will be at least double. Opt for locally-owned sodas, and eat the local food. It’s delicious and servings are huge, so you get great bang for your buck. 

• 🎟️ Book in advance: mainly if you’re travelling in the ultra-peak months. The more affordable accommodation and rental car options get snapped up quickly. The other strategy is leaving things to the last minute and booking on the fly, where prices are reduced if things aren’t booked. We had luck with this in May, but I wouldn’t do it in January. 

• 🍹 Give up alcohol and barista coffee: think of all the wildlife you can see if you spend this money elsewhere! Before you even arrive in Costa Rica, give yourself a pep talk on living without these things. It’s not a party and leisure destination. It’s about raw nature and wildlife so sacrifice these things in favour of more adventure!

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I hope this post has helped you realise that travelling in Costa Rica is not THAT expensive. Next time you hear someone tell you that this amazing country is not worth visiting because things cost so much, ask them if they’ve been there, and tell them what you’ve learnt! You can travel in Costa Rica on a budget, and enjoy the incredible nature, unique wildlife and stunning beaches without breaking the bank. 

MORE COSTA RICA POSTS

• The Ultimate Costa Rica Road Trip Guide & Itinerary
• The Complete Guide to Camping in Costa Rica
• Nomad America 4×4 Camper Rental in Costa Rica – Our Review
• 10 Best Beach Towns in Costa Rica: Which is Right For You?