Is it just a meme or an actual fun place to visit? I am into Mountain Biking and it seems like some good terrain for that, as well as chilling on the beach. How are the women? It it dangerous?
I am American and the only traveling I have done abroad is to Europe.
Costa Rica is one of the most accessible and safest Latin American countries. You will be fine.
It's not that safe anymore thanks to COVID and a growing Venezuelan/"migrant" problem.
Grossly overrated destination for all reasons except surfing, and for that it's become extremely expensive compared to the entire Pacific coast south of California (and that's questionable).
The country is a LARP for European sex workers to go boost their Insta profiles for more work or retirees/trust fund kiddies/whatever the fucks with too much money to go disappear into depsite it being a tin shack shithole barely better than Nicaragua or bumfuck Panama.
You have to go to see it, but it's a Paris Derangement Syndrome tier destination and, as for the wildlife, only the wold parrots/birds are worth wiritng home about. The rest of the stuff is lies, exaggerations, or expensive day trips to wildlife refuges where the scarred up and rescued animals are kept that can't be returned to he wild so, naturally they whore them out to more retard tourists.
They're also transitioning (quickly) to a cashless system for their state/federal entries and tha ks to COVID everything either got a price hike or got a fence and a new entry fee... So you have to carry your debit card to a remote beach where 20 fucking signs say "watch your shit here, there, and everywhere because of Venezuelans and literal monkeys stealing shit".
Fuck CR. Birds were cool as shit though. Flocks of parrots and toucans were nice to see shitting on the tim shanties.
All of this is true OP, transportation is Africa tier and prices are retarded because of American boomers like
that don't know South America exists.
What is a good alternative to Costa Rica? With wildlife too
Pretty much all Latin countries will have the tropical wildlife you can find in Costa Rica (except Uruguay). It's only a question of finding the one that's best suited to what you're looking for.
Oh and it's not "accessible" unless you rent a car which I'm sure Mr. Tourism there expects you to do. Bus transport there is shit compared to a y other LatAm country regardless of what you expect. There are no plentiful bus routes augmented with clean vans like in Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, etc. And no bus routes augmented with chicken busses or cheap taxis like Guatemala or Nicaragua.
You can get between major cities find bit trying to get anywhere central in the country without going all the way back to San Jose is impossible.
Go to say you went like everyone else but don't expect much unless high prices and bragging rights are your reason to go.
And english isn't spoken well by anyone except tourism service providers but that's normal for the region. They're actually more 'fluent' in that regard even outside of Tamarindo where all of the established expats are.
>major cities
Lol. San Jose, which is the capital and the largest "city" by far, only has a population of 300k people. That's like a tier 4 city in any other country. A very boring shithole.
The only thing Costa Rica had going for it is that it wasn't as big a shithole as other countries in the region. But that's gone, too.
Wanna build a house in the woods? Forget about it. In some villages, there are multi-year waiting lists, because "digital nomad" communities have sprung up like mushrooms, and they don't have enough water to go around.
The country's infrastructure just cannot handle the strain. Villagers have to drive 2 hours for their monthly groceries, because the local ones are way overpriced now. It's as primitive as anywhere in Latin America once you leave their metropolis San Jose.
I was thinking of going in May over Memorial Day weekend. I don't speak any Spanish though, so I'm a bit worried about the language barrier.
My gf really wants to go to Costa Rica for 1 week. What should I know? Where to stay? What to see? What activities to do? Do I need a rental car? How much should we budget for the trip? Any good travel guides for it? Any better alternative countries?
The food sucks
Posted from my iPhone
The food is ok but the portions are gigantic. I felt they were even bigger than in Burgerland.