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Hello all,
My wife and I have been lurking on the site for a while and really appreciate what people have said about CR mentioning both the good and the bad.I firmly believe that if someone on a site only mentions the good stuff you don’t get a good picture of what it’s like. Even here in Canada it’s not all rosy.
Ok enough chit chat
My wife and I want to come down to CR in mid October of this year (2012) to visit for about 10 days to get a quick “feel” of the country and look around at some different areas to see if we would be interested in moving down in a few years.
I know we would need to do more trips to finalize exactly where we would like to buy but this is a first trip to see if we even like the place.
Our idea is to fly into San Jose and stay for a couple days and then travel up to the North West part of CR for a couple days and then south to Dominical area for a couple days and then finishing up the trip in San Jose area (I am thinking Atenas?).
We would like to stay in B&B’s or homes more than hotels as we want to be able to go out and buy our food so that we can experience it more than just going to restaurants and living at a hotel because if we do move down we will not be living in a hotel.
We are on an economical budget (try and stay less than 80/night) and would really appreciate any ideas / suggestions / links / contacts on where and who to talk to so that we can make this happen.
We will likely rent a car (4×4?) and I have my own GPS with maps loaded so I am good to go for that. Please help.
Thanks
Not all B&B’s offer the use of a kitchen.
October is one of the rainiest months here, so come prepared, as some roads may be closed due to washouts. It happens every year.Let me suggest that before you get too deep into your planning for this first trip, you give some serious thought to the characteristics of where you want to live.
We moved here from the beach in North Carolina where the summers were very hot and humid, but we loved the place. So our first thought was to live on the beach here. That is, we thought so ’til we learned that the beach areas here are as hot and humid as the North Carolina beaches in the summer but year ’round. That would have been too much for us. So we settled in the Central Valley where the climate much milder and amenities more accessible.
Think about what sort of place you want to live and then pose that question in this forum. If high-end shopping and sophisticated medical care are important, ask about that. If scuba diving is important, ask about that. If you’re avid gardeners, ask about that.
If you can be more specific about yout needs and wants, the advice you get here will be much more meaningful.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Let me suggest that before you get too deep into your planning for this first trip, you give some serious thought to the characteristics of where you want to live.
We moved here from the beach in North Carolina where the summers were very hot and humid, but we loved the place. So our first thought was to live on the beach here. That is, we thought so ’til we learned that the beach areas here are as hot and humid as the North Carolina beaches but year ’round. That would have been too much for us. So we settled in the Central Valley where the climate much milder and amenities more accessible.
Think about what sort of place you want to live and then pose that question in this forum. If high-end shopping and sophisticated medical care are important, ask about that. If scuba diving is important, ask about that. If you’re avid gardeners, ask about that.
If you can be more specific about yout needs and wants, the advice you get here will be much more meaningful.
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We have thought of that and I too at first wanted beach front access but after reading a bit realized we would probably prefer the central valley or at least a bit of elevation to keep it cooler and then go to the beach when we want to. We enjoy having access to shopping but I know when I retire my income will be more limited so a 45 min to a couple hours drive to see the sights would probably suffice.As costaricafinca pointed out, October is the height of the rainy season. It will be very difficult to get a good feel for any place if it is pouring rain all day long and that happens a lot in October. In 10 days, you will be very lucky to have even one dry day. If you like white water rafting, Costa Rica is a hoot at that time of the year.
What has piqued your interest about CR rather than other central american countries? There is so much variety there and you can have whatever you might want.
The NW beach areas are beautiful but incredibly hot as is the south pacific side. A/C will cost you a small fortune year round. Central valley is popular. We just bought land in Aguacate area of lake arenal. While it gets quite a bit of rain up there, the temps are great (no a/c or heat), and it manages to have lovely warm sunny mornings, clouding up as the day goes on and rain in the evening (rain like I’ve never seen but it manages to be dried up by morning).
As the others have said, it really depends on what you are wanting…do you want touristy areas or residential, etc.
FYI, I had a realtor tell me a couple of years back (when I was inquiring about beach area not far from Jaco) that the average length a foreigner stays there is 2 years before moving inland.
You may want to think about going down a little later than mid october…we usually go at the end of october to mid november and the weather really starts to improve once november arrives.
Keep us posted.
How excited you must be! We also planned our first visit to costa rica in mid October of 2009 and stayed our first time for 16 days. I purposely wanted to visit during the supposed worst time of the year.
We are also from Canada and believe me I would rather face an exhilarating torrential downpour than a whiteout snow blizzard going over our mountain summits!! We absolutely fell in love with the costa ballena area between Dominical and Ojochal, and have since purchased property between Dominical and Uvita.
We found there were a lot of sunny mornings, but by 3 or 4 in the afternoon the rain could really get going, and you just have to go with the flow. We have since had the pleasure of being in costa rica during many different months and I myself prefer the rainy season.
The temperature is perfect and the wildlife is incredible, not to mention the miles of unspoiled beaches just waiting to be explored.
I would definitely rent a 4×4. It will allow you to be a lot more mobile and see some pretty incredible places. This is a very slow time of year for most hotels and vacation rentals so you can generally find some pretty nice places for good prices. Here are a couple of websites that may be of help to find some places to rent
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rentals/costa-rica/r1021 and http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/central-america/costa-rica.
When you finally arrive take the time to talk to some local ticos and expats. Everyone is so friendly and nice and and can offer so much more valuable information.
Have fun, enjoy your adventure and pura vida 🙂
[quote=”andynjen”]My wife and I want to come down to CR in mid October of this year (2012) to visit for about 10 days to get a quick “feel” of the country and look around at some different areas to see if we would be interested in moving down in a few years. I know we would need to do more trips to finalize exactly where we would like to buy but this is a first trip to see if we even like the place.
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Be careful andynjen.
My wife and I came to Costa Rica on our first visit in September 2006 just “to see what it was like”. By the end of ten days we were so impressed with the wonderful people and beautiful country that we made arrangements to buy our home.We closed on our home when I retired in December 2007 and have been very happy with our move.
We don’t normally make snap decisions but Costa Rica is extraodinary.
Interesting, Les. Marcia and I did exactly the same thing in 2005. We came here looking for whatever would rule it out as a destination. When we couldn’t find anything, we jumped. Best move we’ve ever made!
me, too, dave and les. came on vacation in jan 2005 and by the end of day 5 i owned a lot and was making plans to build a house. best snap decision i ever made.
It must be contagious! We committed to buy our lot on our first visit to Samara, first day, first ocean view lot we were shown. I was offered almost 3 times what we paid the week before we started construction (3 years after the purchase) but by then we were in love with the Samara area and our lot and the design we had for construction.
We recently had a couple from Massachusetts rent our guest house for a week. I saw them heading to town one morning and then later that afternoon they returned to tell me they had purchased a lot in one development and a condo in another! So it is not only contagious, it is mutating as well!
As far as the “unbearable heat” at the beach – I guess it is all what you are used to. Having lived in Houston and Tampa all my life, I am used to the heat and humidity. We are on the first ridgeline above Playa Samara, about 500 meters back from the beach and about 40 meters up, and so we get a pretty good breeze for most of the day.
But you can have the best of both worlds, being close to the beach and at a higher altitude. We have friends that live within 10-15 minutes of us, less than 7km out of Samara, and they are at about 1200 feet elevation. They get much more breeze and their temp is generally 8-10 degrees Fahrenheit less than ours. There are several developments near Samara that offer this type of altitude, and I am sure the same holds true for other beach areas as well.
I certainly would not change our location to a place that gets as much rainfall as say Fortuna, where the average daily rainfall in September is 5 inches (that is 150 inches in a single month! That is approximately 2.5 times our annual rainfall!
source: http://www.meoweather.com/history/Costa%20Rica/na/10.4833333/-84.65/La%20Fortuna.htmlA closer look at that same chart demonstrates that although the average temperature is 12 +/- degrees Fahrenheit lower than historic highs, the temperature has exceeded 100 degrees in 5 different months of the year. I’m almost certain that doesn’t happen every year, but it has happened. In 3.5 years of living in Samara, I haven’t seen anything above 95degrees Fahrenheit.
I guess it is true when you hear
Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cool, or whether the weather be hot,
Whatever the weather, we’ll weather the weather,
Whether we like it or not!“Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cool, or whether the weather be hot,
Whatever the weather, we’ll weather the weather,
Whether we like it or not!”Can you say that three times fast?
I had been thinking that such a quick decision was out of character for us but reading the comments of those who I consider to be cautious decision makers maybe it wasn’t such a radical decision.:lol:
Les, we came to Costa Rica looking for one or more reasons not to move here. When we couldn’t find one, we jumped.
Well. . You have time to do some research. STUDY Scotto’s book on Costa Rica Realestate. Also try to find a copy of “The Ticos”. Its a bit dated but it helps you understand the people and why they may seem overly helpful but not helpful at the same time.
The best travel guide and maps we found came from National Geographic. But I would also get a current Lonely Planet guide. The National Geographic explorer map is soft treated paper or plastic that is water proof AND easily folded (for back packing). Some of the other waterproof maps are too stiff. We have 4 different maps of Costa Rica and all have the identical content. I thought I could navigate roads anywhere with a map but in rural Costa Rica many roads have no signs and many towns either. In small towns look for the public telephone sign – it usually has the name of the town or village.
GPS is good but maps are also helpful. From what I can tell of Google Earth’s digital maps there are a LOT of missing roads. Your GPS may be better but a map is good backup and has information a GPS does not. IF you are serious about buying property I would get a set of the official government topographic maps which have ALL the roads – including many horse/cattle paths that are used as farm roads. This is where you find the BEST places in Costa Rica.
10 days goes by quickly. My most enjoyable trip was 3 weeks. Had time to relax AND explore.
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