Costa Rica is a great place for a family vacation. You can be super active and do tours like zip lining and whitewater rafting, or you can relax and do easy hikes and soak in hot springs. With beaches and rain forests easily accessible around the country, there is something for everyone in Costa Rica.
Don’t be afraid of the green season.
The rainy (or “green”) season in Costa Rica is roughly from the beginning of May to the end of November. Most people instinctually want to go in the dry season (who doesn’t want sun in the forecast each day?!?) but don’t be afraid of going in the rainy season. We went in June and had a fabulous time with no negative impacts from the weather. For the most part we had beautiful days and some rain overnight. We only got rained on during one afternoon activity (coffee and chocolate tour) and it really didn’t impact our experience an all. And a bonus of going in the rainy season… things are cheaper because it is low season for tourists!
Try to visit at least two different parts of the country.
Costa Rica offers rain forests, cloud forests, and beaches (both a Pacific and a Caribbean coast!). If you have at least a week, you should try to visit at least two different parts of the country. It’s great to experience the different landscapes, wildlife, and activities that each area brings.
Plan plenty of time for traveling between locations.
If you do split your time between two or more areas of the country, leave plenty of travel time in your schedule to travel between them. Costa Rica is a small country but it is not easy to get around. The roads aren’t great and because of the topography of the country, there are very few roads that are direct routes from point A to point B. Throw in things like one lane roads, dirt roads, poor signage, traffic, and construction, and your trip will take much longer than you expect. A good rule of thumb is to allow an hour more than your GPS is predicting.
Use a guide.
Most places in Costa Rica can be visited without a guide. While you will almost certainly enjoy any hike without a guide, you will definitely miss out on a lot if you don’t have one. Naturalist guides are a wealth of knowledge and have a much better eye for spotting hard to find wildlife. From tiny poison dart frogs on a faraway tree to birds camouflaged high in the branches, guides will find things that you would walk past on your own. Even larger but more sedentary animals like sloths and howler monkeys can be hard to find on your own but guides are trained to find them. Plus they bring a scope to get a better look at everything they spot and teach you all sorts of fascinating facts about what you are looking at. A great naturalist guide will undoubtedly make any hike a richer experience.
It’s ok to skip Manuel Antonio.
Manuel Antonio is the most visited national park in Costa Rica. Its dense jungle vegetation provides a home for countless wildlife (180+ species of birds and 100+ species of animals) and its beach is a beautiful spot to relax. But it is also extremely crowded. And maybe a little overrated. Many of the resorts in the area are teeming with wildlife and depending on where you are staying, you may see as much or more wildlife on your resort’s grounds. If your main purpose in visiting Manuel Antonio is to see wildlife and you are staying at a resort like Tulemar or Si Como No, you can probably skip the national park.
You don’t need to exchange currency.
US dollars are readily accepted in Costa Rica and are the standard currency for tourism-related activities. We pre-paid for most of our tours (in US dollars) but even once we were in the country, all of our hotel, restaurant, and retail bills were in US dollars. We gave our guides cash tips in US dollars as well.
Costa Rica is not a cheap vacation.
Most people tend to think of vacation destinations in Central America as cheap. Costa Rica is not. We planned and paid for most of our tours, hotels and transportation ahead of time so we had budgeted and didn’t have too many surprises. The one big surprise was groceries. We had a private chef one night and although we knew his fees ahead of time, we didn’t have a great idea of what the groceries would cost. Imagine our surprise when he handed us the receipt and we saw that we were being charged $85 for asparagus (among many other things)! Costa Rica is not a budget destination but we found it to be well worth the cost.
The sun rises and sets early.
Don’t expect to sleep in while you’re in Costa Rica. The sun (and the monkeys!) rises early. Our rooms were flooded with light by 5:30 am and the animals outside were awake and most active then too. The sun sets 12-13 hours later (depending on the time of year) so expect it to be dark by 6:30 pm at the latest. That still leaves a lot of day light to enjoy the sights of Costa Rica but you may have to adjust your schedule to fit the daylight hours.
Don’t flush your toilet paper!
If you’ve travelled in Central or South America before, you probably know this one. Most countries in the region have older septic systems that cannot handle toilet paper. Most places will have a sign in the bathroom instructing you not to flush your toilet paper but to dispose of it in the small trash bin next to the toilet. It seems a little gross at first but you get used to it quickly and it is much better than a clogged toilet!
