Is Costa Rica expensive? I get this question constantly. The honest answer is: it depends on how you travel.
Most visitors land, head straight to the tourist zones, eat at beachfront restaurants, and wonder why their wallet is empty by day three. That’s not a Costa Rica problem. That’s a planning problem.
The travelers who do it right — the ones who eat where locals eat, sleep outside the tourist bubble, and move between towns smart – find that Costa Rica is very affordable. I’ve made the expensive mistakes and the smart ones. This post is built on both.
Table Of Contents
Estimated Reading Time: 20 Minutes
The Real Cost of Traveling Costa Rica
Why Most Visitors Overpay
Let me tell you about one of my first trips. I booked a rental car through a third party website before I flew in. It looked fine with a good price, confirmation email, and near the airport. When I arrived at the counter, the car wasn’t available. Not delayed. Just gone. I ended up sorting it out on the spot at a higher rate, and the deposit tied up money I hadn’t planned for.
That one decision cost me more than it should have. I’ve since stuck to reputable local companies like Vamos or Adobe. Book directly, pay a fair rate, and avoid the chaos at the counter. It’s the kind of thing you only learn by getting it wrong once.
Tourist areas in Costa Rica are priced for tourists too. Restaurants along the main strips in Tamarindo, Manuel Antonio, and La Fortuna charge two to three times what you’d pay a few blocks off the drag. The car rental story and the restaurant markup are the same lesson: what you pay in Costa Rica has a lot to do with where you’re looking and who you booked with.
Get fresh fruit at a great price at farmers markets in Costa Rica. These markets often also have sodas with cooked plates for cheap.
How Locals Actually Travel
Locals in Costa Rica eat at small family restaurants, drink tap water, and don’t pay tourist rates for accommodation. None of this means roughing it. It just means making different choices about where your money goes.
The three biggest budget levers are where you eat, where you sleep, and how you get around. Get those three right and Costa Rica becomes one of the more affordable countries in the region. The rest of this post breaks each one down.
Eat Like a Local, Spend Like One Too
What Is a Soda?
A soda is a small, family run restaurant. You’ll find them in almost every town in Costa Rica. They don’t usually have big signs or fancy interiors. What they do have is real Costa Rican food at honest prices.
I eat at sodas constantly when I’m on the road. Every one I’ve been to has been worth it. They vary a bit. Different sides, different spices, slightly different flavor profiles depending on the owners style. But they always hit the spot, especially after a long drive into a new town. My go-to order is a casado: rice, beans, salad, plantains, and your choice of protein — usually chicken, beef, or fish. The plate comes out hot, the portions are big, and the whole thing costs somewhere between $5 and $8. Try getting a meal that size at a beachfront restaurant without spending at least double.
If you want to cut your food budget roughly in half, start eating at sodas. It’s the single easiest swap you can make on a Costa Rica trip, and the food is better anyway.
Another great dish is Gallo Pinto, which is a typical Costa Rican breakfast dish. Gallo Pinto is often a bit cheaper than a plate of casado at a soda.
Is Tap Water Safe in Costa Rica?
Yes – in most parts of Costa Rica, tap water is safe to drink. This surprises a lot of first time travelers, but Costa Rica has some of the cleanest tap water in Central America. I drink it regularly and have never had an issue in the main tourist destinations.
Drinking from the tap saves money on bottled water, cuts down on plastic waste, and makes day to day travel easier. You’re not constantly hunting for a tienda(store) every time you’re thirsty. Bring a reusable bottle and refill it at your hotel. A few remote areas are the exception. If you’re unsure about a specific spot, just ask at your hotel. But in the towns covered in this post, the tap is fine.
Where You Stay Changes Everything
This is the biggest budget lever most travelers never pull. Staying inside the main tourist zones means paying tourist prices for your room — and that premium spills over into everything around you. Move your base even 15 minutes out and the difference is real.
Quepos — Your Base for Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio is one of the most visited national parks in Costa Rica. Hotels right outside the park entrance charge premium rates, and the restaurants nearby know it. Quepos is only about 10 minutes from the park entrance, and prices drop noticeably once you’re there. You still get full access to Manuel Antonio — you’re close to restaurants, supermarkets, and transportation. But you won’t have to pay the premium for being right next to the park.
Quepos has a solid local food scene too. There are sodas right in town where you can eat well for under $10. After a morning in the park, sitting down to a casado in Quepos instead of a tourist priced lunch at the entrance is exactly the kind of small decision that keeps a trip budget on track. For a great restaurant that has more upscale food without a high price, try Sabromar. They serve dishes with freshly caught fish. It’s right before the bridge entrance to Quepos.
I used the same logic in Guanacaste — except there, the gap between tourist pricing and local pricing is even wider.
Liberia — The Smart Hub for Guanacaste
Liberia is my top pick for a budget base when I’m exploring Guanacaste. It’s a real city with local prices, and it puts you within easy reach of some of the best beaches on the Pacific coast. From Liberia, Playas del Coco is about a an hour away. Tamarindo is roughly an hour and thirty minutes. Rincón de la Vieja is about an hour in the other direction. You hit different beaches on different days without paying beach-town hotel rates every night. My favorite free swimming location just 10 minutes from Liberia is Pozas del Cañón.
I stay at Hotel Primavera when I’m in Liberia. Rooms run about $40 a night and come with AC. The rooms have multiple beds, which makes it a strong option for families who want everyone in one room without paying for two. It’s clean, it’s central, and the price is hard to argue with. For families trying to keep costs down in Guanacaste, the setup of being based in Liberia, day trips to the coast — makes a lot of financial sense. It also connects back to the bus strategy: Liberia has good intercity connections, so you don’t always need a car to make this hub approach work.
When I’m in bigger cities in Costa Rica, I like using a lockable sling backpack. The sidewalks and stores can be densely packed, and I like knowing my stuff isn’t going to wander away.
La Fortuna — Sleep Nearby, Drive In Early
La Fortuna is the main town for Arenal Volcano and the adventure activities in that region. The town center has hotels and restaurants, but prices there reflect how popular it’s become with international visitors. The smarter move is to stay in a smaller nearby town and drive into La Fortuna when you need to. On my last trip through La Fortuna I stayed just a 2 minute drive from downtown. It only cost about $40 for a small 2 bedroom apartment.
You pay less for your room, you beat the midday crowds, and you still have full access to everything the area has. Getting there early in the morning also improves your odds of seeing the volcano clearly — clouds tend to roll in later in the day and it disappears fast.
Getting Around Without Burning Your Budget
Take the Bus
Here’s something I do that most tourists never consider: I take the bus between towns. Not the cramped, standing room only kind. Between major destinations in Costa Rica, the intercity buses are proper coach style with AC and assigned seating. They’re comfortable, and they’re cheap.
A longer trip between major towns runs about $10 to $15. Compare that to renting a car, paying for gas, and sitting in stop and go mountain traffic doing clutch/brake for two hours straight. Those mountain roads earn every bit of that reputation. The bus handles all of it while you sit back. For getting between places like San José, La Fortuna, Liberia, or Tamarindo, the intercity bus makes real financial sense. It also pairs directly with the Liberia base strategy, as you can use buses for the longer legs between cities and sort out beach day trips separately.
Check schedules before you lock in your itinerary. Some routes only run once or twice a day, and that one detail can change how your whole trip flows.
Ride-Hailing and Timing Your Moves
Uber and DiDi both operate in Costa Rica and work well for shorter trips. I took an Uber from Jacó to Manuel Antonio once — smooth ride, great driver who spoke English, no problems. It was one of those trips where you realize the app based options here are genuinely reliable, not just a backup plan.
Both apps are generally cheaper than flagging a taxi on the street. Avoiding peak hours helps too, especially around San José. Morning and evening rush traffic in the capital is rough. Shift your departure by an hour in either direction and you save time and sometimes money. Small calls like that add up across a full trip.
Using Uber in downtown city centers is much more stressfree than zigzagging in and out of traffic. Motorcycles, one way streets and cars stopping in the road is common. It can be stressful the first time experiencing it.
Planning Is the Real Budget Hack
Costa Rica isn’t expensive. Traveling without information is.
The thing nobody told me before my first trip is how fast the country rewards you for going slightly off script. Not deep off script, you don’t need to avoid the popular spots. You just need to stop treating the tourist infrastructure as the default. The moment I started eating at sodas, basing out of Liberia, and taking the bus on longer stretches, Costa Rica stopped feeling like a place that was draining my account and started feeling like one I could actually afford to come back to. And I do come back.
One practical note before you finalize anything: check bus schedules on the TRACOPA or Tica Bus websites before you lock in your itinerary. You can show up and buy a ticket, but it’s better to have it booked in advance. That one detail changes how your whole trip flows, and it takes five minutes to look up the night before you fly.
If these blog posts and videos help plan your Costa Rica vacation, please support our channel.
Follow Us
Keep up with our latest Costa Rica travel videos and guides by subscribing to our YouTube channel. We regularly post new content showing real conditions across different regions and seasons.
Leave a comment with your Costa Rica travel questions – we’re happy to help plan your perfect time to visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Costa Rica more expensive than other Central American countries?
Yes, Costa Rica is generally pricier than neighbors like Nicaragua or Guatemala. But it’s very affordable when you eat at local sodas, stay outside the main tourist zones, and use public buses between towns. Travelers who plan ahead often spend far less than they expected.
How much does a casado cost at a soda in Costa Rica?
A casado at a typical soda runs between $5 and $8. You get rice, beans, salad, plantains, and a protein like chicken, beef, or fish. It’s a large, filling plate — and one of the best-value meals you’ll find anywhere in the country.
Is tap water safe to drink in Costa Rica?
In most parts of Costa Rica, yes — tap water is safe to drink. Costa Rica has some of the cleanest tap water in Central America. A few remote areas are exceptions, so it’s worth confirming with your hotel if you’re staying somewhere off the main tourist routes.
How far is Quepos from Manuel Antonio National Park?
Quepos is about 15 minutes from the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park. Staying in Quepos instead of right outside the park entrance saves money on accommodation and puts you close to local restaurants, supermarkets, and public transport.
How much does a bus ride cost in Costa Rica?
Longer intercity bus trips between major destinations typically cost between $10 and $15. Buses on these routes are comfortable coach-style with AC and assigned seating. It’s one of the cheapest and most practical ways to move between towns like San José, La Fortuna, Liberia, and Tamarindo.
Is Hotel Primavera in Liberia a good option for families?
Yes. Hotel Primavera in Liberia runs about $40 a night with AC. The rooms have multiple beds, which makes it practical for families who want everyone in one room without paying for two. Liberia is also a great base for day trips to Guanacaste beaches like Playas del Coco and Tamarindo.
What is the cheapest way to get around Costa Rica?
Public buses are the most affordable option for getting between major towns, with longer routes costing $10 to $15. For shorter trips within a city or region, Uber and InDriver are reliable and usually cheaper than traditional taxis. Combining both keeps transportation costs very manageable across a full trip.
0 Comments