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Hi All,
We are coming to Costa Rica for 10 days later this year to scout out places to retire.
What areas of the country do you recommend?
Some of our concerns:
1. Safety
2. Some access to academic or cultural places
3. Close enough to a Pacific coast beach town to get there in an hour or less
Thanks for your ideas!
TwoCanDuo 😉 😉
You are asking people to give answers to a question almost impossible to answer. You will not make an intelligent decision based upon a 10 day trip.
1) What you think you want and really want are probably quite different..but you have to live it to know. Rent at least 3 to 6 months in an area before you buy. It will take you that long to get the lay of the land and a feel for the area. (By the way, we did not follow this advice and bought, built and moved in, fortunately it has worked out extremely well, but it doesn’t mean it always will.)
2) Think about what it is you want – you mention cultural/academic activities, do you speak fluent Spanish? You are not going to find these in English.
3) An hour to the beach includes a great deal of the country so shouldn’t be too big a problem.
I hate cities, smog and conjestion, we settled on the hills above Lake Arenal. It is a 2.5-3 hour journey into San Jose, we normally do a days trip but for some activity you wanted to attend you could do an overnight, hit a good restaurant, ballet/opera/play/concert etc and return the next day after doing some “gringo” shopping on the way home.
Liberia is a 1.5 hr drive (cut a 1/2 hour off that if you are closer to Tilaran), Playa del Coco and related beaches another 15 mins. more.
Our cultural life and activities center around our friends, we are a diverse and interesting community and around the table conversations can be everything from deeply philisophical to delightfully funny tales of adventures past and present.
I can’t think of anywhere I would rather be, but I am sure that many people feel the same about where they live in Costa Rica, so there is no right answer to your question…..just starting points for your own adventure.
Good advice posted above!
One thing to add, since many of the ‘events’ are held at night, and may not in what we would call a particularly safe area. You will find that many of ‘us’ here avoid driving at night…. hence staying overnight in town … and unfortunately it does gets dark about 6pm.I hear a lot of good things about Atenas. A lot of gringos are retiring there. Go to Google maps and you will be able to see that it is in a great location to drive west to the beaches of Puntarenas province, and close to the International airport in Alajuela and not too far from San Jose.
If you don’t mind living under the Arenal volcano which is still active, well, why not. Personally I was in C.R. back in 1962 when it exploded suddenly and killed quite a few people. At that time it was mostly farmers. The next time it will be expats! Take a risk? But then I’m a cautious person. I won’t bungee jump, or skydive or sky in the snow. I won’t even skateboard. I do ride a touring bike, and I just had an operation to repair a separated shoulder due to an accident I had in the strand close to the Huntington Beach pier back in the year 2000. I had the operation December 24th, and right now I have a stainless steel plate with screws and a hook. Even now is still hurts! And it’s not over, I have to go back sometime in June for a second operation to remove the dam*d thing. Ouch.
Me, I’m thinking of the Caribbean Coast where It’s more laid back, and not as overbought as the Pacific side. There are some smaller but yet beautiful beaches towards Cahuita-Puerto Viejo-Manzanillo area. And they are really far from the San Jose congestion.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESBORwT0haU%5Bquote=”johnnyh”%5DI hear a lot of good things about Atenas. A lot of gringos are retiring there. Go to Google maps and you will be able to see that it is in a great location to drive west to the beaches of Puntarenas province, and close to the International airport in Alajuela and not too far from San Jose.
If you don’t mind living under the Arenal volcano which is still active, well, why not. Personally I was in C.R. back in 1962 when it exploded suddenly and killed quite a few people. At that time it was mostly farmers. The next time it will be expats! Take a risk? But then I’m a cautious person. I won’t bungee jump, or skydive or sky in the snow. I won’t even skateboard. I do ride a touring bike, and I just had an operation to repair a separated shoulder due to an accident I had in the strand close to the Huntington Beach pier back in the year 2000. I had the operation December 24th, and right now I have a stainless steel plate with screws and a hook. Even now is still hurts! And it’s not over, I have to go back sometime in June for a second operation to remove the dam*d thing. Ouch.
Me, I’m thinking of the Caribbean Coast where It’s more laid back, and not as overbought as the Pacific side. There are some smaller but yet beautiful beaches towards Cahuita-Puerto Viejo-Manzanillo area. And they are really far from the San Jose congestion.oops, Arenal exploded 1968!
[quote=”johnnyh”]I hear a lot of good things about Atenas. A lot of gringos are retiring there. Go to Google maps and you will be able to see that it is in a great location to drive west to the beaches of Puntarenas province, and close to the International airport in Alajuela and not too far from San Jose.
If you don’t mind living under the Arenal volcano which is still active, well, why not. Personally I was in C.R. back in 1962 when it exploded suddenly and killed quite a few people. At that time it was mostly farmers. The next time it will be expats! Take a risk? But then I’m a cautious person. I won’t bungee jump, or skydive or sky in the snow. I won’t even skateboard. I do ride a touring bike, and I just had an operation to repair a separated shoulder due to an accident I had in the strand close to the Huntington Beach pier back in the year 2000. I had the operation December 24th, and right now I have a stainless steel plate with screws and a hook. Even now is still hurts! And it’s not over, I have to go back sometime in June for a second operation to remove the dam*d thing. Ouch.
Me, I’m thinking of the Caribbean Coast where It’s more laid back, and not as overbought as the Pacific side. There are some smaller but yet beautiful beaches towards Cahuita-Puerto Viejo-Manzanillo area. And they are really far from the San Jose congestion.[/quote]
In june 2011 La Nacion reported:
http://www.nacion.com/2011-06-10/AldeaGlobal/UltimaHora/AldeaGlobal2806155.aspx
Arenal Volcano has been inactive for a while and OVSICORI says it will be for another 50 or 60 years (one of their sysmologists is a friend of mine). Small clouds coming out of the crater are from steam (it is still hot inside, cooling down slowly). However, it is not save to climb the volcano, but it will be a while until the next explosion, and we will not be the ones to observe it. It is more likely to get killed in a car accident than by the volcano.
I have been living at Lake Arenal (Tilaran, Tronadora area) for the last 21 years and have been all over Costa Rica but never wanted to be anywhere else.johnnyh –
On the Caribbean Coast you are MUCH more likely to get shot by drug dealers than you are to suffer any damage from the Arenal volcano, even if you are in La Fortuna, we are 40 or so miles from the volcano! Read La Nacion, it is rough over there.
We looked at Atenas, it is nice but this area has something very special about it.
[quote=”Rf2cr”]johnnyh –
On the Caribbean Coast you are MUCH more likely to get shot by drug dealers than you are to suffer any damage from the Arenal volcano, even if you are in La Fortuna, we are 40 or so miles from the volcano! Read La Nacion, it is rough over there.
We looked at Atenas, it is nice but this area has something very special about it.[/quote]
I agree the Lake area is very special. What side of the lake are you on? Yes, I think the volcano is going to sleep. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see it erupt a couple of times a few years back. It was a sight to behold!
I have to agree with Loraine and Johnny. We moved to Aguacate near Nuevo Arenal 11 months ago. We live, as my hubby says “between two volcanos”. Lightning is more likely to kill you.
As for ‘culture’, I think it is highly overrated 😉 I can go to “the big city” and ride in cabs (don’t drive in SJ, did it, no more) to see museums and churches, but I would rather play or sail in the lake or take a dip in the Rio Aguacate than anything else. Lots of expats up here, several social groups, a garden club, friends to see. Unless my sons decide to present me with grandkids, I don’t even want to visit the states.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]I have to agree with Loraine and Johnny. We moved to Aguacate near Nuevo Arenal 11 months ago. We live, as my hubby says “between two volcanos”. Lightning is more likely to kill you.
As for ‘culture’, I think it is highly overrated 😉 I can go to “the big city” and ride in cabs (don’t drive in SJ, did it, no more) to see museums and churches, but I would rather play or sail in the lake or take a dip in the Rio Aguacate than anything else. Lots of expats up here, several social groups, a garden club, friends to see. Unless my sons decide to present me with grandkids, I don’t even want to visit the states.[/quote]
The US and San Jose are much the same. Got a number for a septic truck ?:(Another reason to stay in the Tilaran area:
Cañas y Tilarán a la cabeza – POR UN PAÍS MÁS LIMPIO
http://www.nacion.com/2013-02-23/Opinion/Cartas-a-la-Columna.aspx#sb0
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