We LOVED our time in Costa Rica. There’s nowhere like it for wildlife, turquoise waterfalls, pristine rainforest and incredible beaches. There’s a reason people go back time and time again, us included!
This isn’t a guide to put you off going, but simply to highlight a few things that are worth knowing ahead of time to make sure you have the best trip possible.
Here are some common mistakes to avoid when visiting Costa Rica.
Mistakes to avoid in Costa Rica
1. Thinking you always need to hire a guide
One quick sweep of internet forums and travel articles would leave you thinking that you need a guide for most things in Costa Rica, especially when it comes to wildlife spotting. This is simply not the case.
Go with a guide if you would like some local knowledge and expertise, but not because everyone else has told you that you must. Clearly word has got around that you should take a guide as we’d never seen so many before and it wasn’t exclusive to big groups, even couples had a guide.
We love to explore independently and will generally only hire a guide when it’s strictly necessary. We found travelling around Costa Rica to be very safe and easy, whether that was driving the spectacular roads, hiking the epic trails or searching for wildlife.
Whether it was Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna or San Gerardo de Dota, we spotted sloths, monkeys, anteaters, scarlet macaws, quetzals and so much more without a guide.
If you also love independence, or you simply want to save a little cash, then don’t feel that you must always hire a guide. Costa Rica’s a great place to explore on your own.
2. Only visiting the super touristy spots
Absolutely visit the touristy spots - they’re touristy for a reason after all - but don’t only visit the touristy sites. Some of the very best experiences you can have in Costa Rica will happen when you leave the crowds of La Fortuna and Manuel Antonio behind.
Love turquoise waterfalls? Head to Bajos del Toro, or Liberia.
Want to hike a spectacular cloud forest? Try San Gerardo de Dota.
However, you don’t actually need to visit less touristy destinations to escape the crowds, you can always find less visited places even in the most popular areas.
Want to visit Monteverde Cloud Forest, but don’t like the sound of the crowds? Try Santa Elena, it’s much quieter and we actually preferred the forest too!
3. Thinking you have to hire a 4WD
Depending on where you’re going and which season, you absolutely do not need a 4WD. If you’re heading to places like La Fortuna, Manuel Antonio, Monteverde and many beach towns in the dry season, you do not need a 4WD. The presence of a gravel road does not mean it’s 4WD territory.
There are some areas that require 4WD’s of course, especially in rainy season, but the majority of places that travellers visit do not. We nearly bailed on our trip to San Gerardo de Dota after reading so many times online that we needed a 4WD. As it turns out you don’t, and we would have missed one of our favourite places in Costa Rica.
The best thing to do is read reviews (not one but many, as some people say a flat gravel road in good condition requires a 4WD) and contact the accommodation you’re planning to book in any area you might be worried about and see what they say. We Whatsapped the hotel we wanted to stay at in San Gerardo and were told that we didn’t need a 4WD, so we went for it!
Obviously if gravel roads make you nervous then absolutely hire a 4WD, but if not, research carefully. It’s also worth being eagle eyed when it comes to Airbnb. Many Airbnbs don’t state in the description they are on steep gravel roads and I saw many reviews of people being caught out this way.
4. Underestimating the journey times
Costa Rica is a small country and depending on what time you’re looking at the distances on Google maps, you could be forgiven for thinking that journeys will be quick. I often made the mistake of doing my journey planning at night when the roads were clear. Come the day time three hour journeys became seven and this was not an isolated occurrence.
Traffic around San Jose and Jaco in particular can be diabolical. Mountain roads can also be painfully slow because there are so many big trucks chugging along at a snail’s pace and no safe way to pass them.
Don’t pack your itinerary too full of completely different areas if you’re only on a short trip, and allow more time for journeys than you think you’ll need.
5. Paying in dollars instead of colones
Almost everywhere in Costa Rica will accept US dollars, but often they’ll use a pretty unfavourable exchange rate. We often saw that the dollar rate was 5-10% more expensive than the colones rate.
However, the exception to this is if it would cost more in ATM withdrawal fees or credit card charges than the poor exchange rate. In places such as Drake Bay, many tour companies, restaurants and shops will charge 13% extra to pay by card in any currency, so it would make more sense to pay in cash in dollars than by colones on credit card.
We chose to use a debit card that charged no withdrawal or foreign currency fees and withdrew colones from ATM’s.
6. Thinking the tap water isn’t safe to drink
In almost every part of Costa Rica the tap water is safe to drink and it tastes good. We saw so many people ordering bottled water because they didn’t think you could drink from the tap.
In all but one area we visited in our 11 week trip we could, and did, drink from the tap. Drake Bay was the exception. If you are going somewhere really remote or off grid do check, ask your accommodation provider or give it a Google. Almost all of the time you’ll find that it’s all good.
7. Taking a wildlife selfie
Believe it or not, taking a wildlife selfie in Costa Rica is actually illegal. You shouldn’t feed, touch, hold, or take photos with wildlife. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if this was true when I first heard it, but Google confirms that it is, and to be honest, that can only be a good thing.
We’ve seen too many instances where wildlife has become reliant on human handouts etc, so take pictures by all means, but don’t hop in them!
8. Falling victim to the car rental scam
I’m not going to go into too much detail here, because we have a whole guide dedicated to exactly how to avoid this scam, however, it essentially works like this: you’ll be lured into booking a car at either a really cheap, or pretty reasonable price.
You will likely even be told on your confirmation that there’s nothing to pay upon pick up. When you arrive at the counter to pick up your car, you’ll be told that you don’t have the mandatory insurances (the stuff you normally gloss over in the small print) and if you don’t have it explicitly stated on your email confirmation, then that’s unfortunately correct.
The kicker is that the insurance often runs to more than the entire car rental fee and sometimes even double or treble the amount. Read our guide and then read the fine print on your rental booking carefully.
Never book a car that doesn’t have free cancellation without combing through the details and making sure you have those insurances included.
9. Visiting Rio Celeste first thing in the morning
Rio Celeste waterfall has become the most popular waterfall in all of Costa Rica and most sources will tell you that you need to arrive at opening time (8am) to visit without the huge crowds.
Whilst visiting at 8am will mean you have less crowds, you certainly won’t be alone. The only time you’re likely to get it to yourself is actually later in the day, using our little hack that we’ve never seen written anywhere else online.
We got Rio Celeste to ourselves for a whole hour and it wasn’t a fluke, here’s how.
10. Going to popular places on weekends
In towns such as La Fortuna, things get really busy on the weekends. Costa Ricans love to travel their own beautiful country on the weekend, and combined with the huge number of tourists (in peak season) it can make your experience distinctly unenjoyable.
Sitting body to body in a natural hot spring or queuing to cross a hanging bridge is probably not what you had in mind when dreaming of your Costa Rican holiday.
Obviously you still want to utilise weekends, but pick the less popular attractions on weekends, or get up very early and be the first one there!
11. Underestimating the cost
Although you can still find budget accommodation and cheap local food in Costa Rica, when it comes to activities, it is seriously expensive; it’s probably the most expensive country we’ve ever visited on that front.
This is mainly down to the fact that access to natural attractions, such as waterfalls and hiking trails, is usually on private land. It’s common to pay anywhere between USD $18 and $25 for a hike in a popular area.
Even in less touristy places you sometimes have to take a mandatory guide, which usually runs from anywhere between USD $15-30 per person. Very little comes for free in Costa Rica.
It’s worth noting that the national parks charge by the day and don’t offer weekly fees like the US does, so you have to pay around USD $17 per time you enter. If you want to enjoy the great outdoors, you’re going to have to pay for it. But all that said, it is totally worth it.
12. Blindly following your sat nav
Whether it’s Google maps or Waze, your sat nav will sometimes lead you astray. If you’re visiting somewhere that is slightly off the beaten track, then make sure you cast your eye over the route before setting off. If you see some really minor roads, you may want to set it to go via major roads instead.
We ended up on a gnarly 4WD road when we didn’t check the route and that was heading to the wildly popular Nauyaca Falls.
13. Avoiding Uber because it’s illegal
So technically Uber is illegal in Costa Rica. However, it’s still widely used and generally cheaper than getting a taxi.
We used Uber countless times in San Jose, and it was no different to any other country - but for one thing, you’ll want to sit up front so it doesn’t look like an Uber : )
14. Not doing your research on the wildlife sanctuaries
There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding wildlife sanctuaries in Costa Rica, with claims that healthy animals are taken from the wild and put into captivity and then passed off as having being injured.
Of course this won’t be the case with all sanctuaries, but do your research before visiting. Any that allow touching or selfies with the animals are not ethical and actually breaching the law.
Even with the best will in the world you may slip up, but it’s worth at least trying to avoid the unscrupulous ones.
15. Believing a high res jacket makes someone a ‘proper official’
Unfortunately Costa Rica has a little industry that has sprung up that I like to refer to as the ‘parking mafia’. Now this isn’t anything to be hugely worried about, but it is annoying. In popular places such as El Choyin free hot spring in La Fortuna and on the road leading to Manuel Antonio National Park, you’ll be told you need to pay a parking fee.
Sometimes this is demanded, and sometimes you are asked for a donation. The amount varies from person to person. In Manuel Antonio people will literally whistle at you and actually jump in front of your car. They will be dressed in high vis jackets and tell you they are the official parking attendants. They are not.
Keep on driving and don’t stop until you get to this point, the closest car park to the gates of the national park. You’ll still have to pay for parking, as there is no free car park inside the national park, but at least it’s a close by car park and not run by someone lying to you!
As mentioned these are little scams to get some money out of you, so it’s not the end of the world, but we try to avoid lining the pockets of scammers if we can.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we will earn a small commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase. This helps towards the costs of running our website. Thanks for your support.
