Costa Rica budget guide: how much we spent in 25 days

Planning a trip to Costa Rica soon and do not know what to expect in terms of costs, or just exploring some options for relocating to Central America? Then this article is for you.

 For us, Costa Rica proved to be the wildlife heaven expected: iguanas and monkeys, sloths, crocodiles, beautiful parrots and toucans and lots of other birds, insects and sea animals species. Costa Rica can be cheaply accessed by land from Nicaragua or Panama via the Ticabus.com service, or by place from all over the world.

Although it might be seen as an expensive country for a vacation we found it to be nothing like that. Indeed, it truly depends on your style of traveling, but you can definitely have a beautiful trip within a smaller budget.

Curious how? You can find below what Costa Rica looked for us in terms of expenses, while visiting everything that we had planned before boarding the plane.

Our budget for 25 days, by category

Accommodation	Description	Cost in EUR	Link
	San Jose 2 nights	41	Booking link here
	Cahuita 5 nights	120	AirBnb link here
	San Jose 1 night	18,25	Booking link here
	Cartago 2 nights	38	Booking link here
	La Fortuna 5 nights	93	AirBnb link here
	Puerto Jimenez 1 night	26	AirBnb link here
	San Jose 1 night	15	Booking link here
	Quepos 7 nights	112	Airbnb link here
Total		463,25

This time we got lucky and all our bookings turned out to be just fine.

In terms of accommodation you can generally find one room/cabin for around 20 EUR/room/2 persons/night. Be prepared also for more expensive areas, such as Cahuita or Puerto Himenez, but if you book with a few weeks in advance you will be able to get lower prices for sure.

In our case, due to the fact that we found out that we are good to fly to Costa Rica only in the morning of the flight, we had to book some of the rooms that exact day, some after the first week of travel through the country and in 2 cases even the night before the stay (hence the higher prices).

When looking for accommodation in Costa Rica make sure to either search for options with AC, or at least with a fan. The second option would mean that it will be hot at times inside the room but manageable. If you are traveling on a budget this will also be the cheaper option.

Food and Drinks	Description	Cost in CRC per 2 persons	Price in EUR per 2 persons
	Restaurants	98386,31	135,52
	Groceries	133110,46	183,35
Total		231496,77	318,87

When it comes to food and essentials prices, Costa Rica is not a cheap country at all. The only category of goods that have a far better price compared to Europe are the fruits (very cheap).

Also, be aware that the prices and availability of goods differ a lot from region to region. For example the Cahuita-Manzanillo area has extremely high prices for everything and just 3 big supermarkets to buy from. On the other hand, the prices in San Jose are more accessible and there are many big supermarkets to choose from (even Walmart).

Transportation	Route	Price in CRC per 2 persons	Price in EUR for 2 persons
	Ticabus San Jose-Panama	63136	85,19
	Bus San Jose center-Juan Santamaria Airport	1310	1,77
	Bus Juan Santamaria Airport-San Juan center	1310	1,77
	Rental car through “Amigo rent a car” (rentalcars.com) for 9 days	192691	260
	Taxi Jose Santamaria Airport-San Jose hotel (at night, during curfew)	17046	23
	Bus San Jose-Cahuita	10310	13,9
	Bus Cahuita-Puerto Viejo de Talamanca	1680	2,27
	Bus Puerto Viejo de Talamnca-Cahuita	1680	2,27
	Bus Cahuita-Manzanillo	2740	3,7
	Bus Manzanillo-Cahuita	2740	3,7
	Bus Cahuita-San Jose	10310	13,9
	Volcan Irazu parking fee	2000	2,7
	Volcan Tenorio parking fee	2000	2,7
	Other parking fees in total	800	1,08
	Uber rides in total	4700	6,4
	Road tolls in total	2655	3,62
	Fuel for the car for 9 days	86551	118
	Bus Juan Santamaria Airport-San Juan center	1030	1,77
	Bus San Jose-Quepos	9260	12,55
	Bus Quepos-Manuel Antonio park	670	1,82
	Bus Manuel Antonio park-Quepos	670	1,82
	Ferry Quepos-El Cocal roundtrip	800	1,08
	Bus Quepos-Manuel Antonio park	670	1,82
	Bus Manuel Antonio park-Quepos	670	1,82
	Bus Quepos-San Jose	9930	13,45
Total		427359	582,1

The public bus service in Costa Rica was quite good and cheap, thus it makes a good option for you to move around. Uber had a good price as well, but unfortunately there is not a very good coverage around the country (only used it in San Jose).

Because we had a short time to spend in Costa Rica and a lot to see, decided that for part of the stay was more time efficient to rent a car. And while it really was, it was also way more expensive than using public transportation. This was mainly because of the gas and road tools taxes which add up a consistent sum in the end.

We went 1 day before to the airport arrivals section and tried to get a good price for renting a car for 9 days, but with no luck. That same day made a search on rentalcars.com and found a very good deal with full insurance (from rentalcars.com only) which we decided to take.

! Be aware of the fact that the car rental companies in Costa Rica will not recognize any full insurance bought online from external providers, thus the cheapest way would be for you to rent the car online (on rentalcars.com or other platforms) with CDW insurance only and then buy your full insurance from the car provider at pick-up time (around 20 EUR/day in our case).

However, there is a good part in this: driving in Costa Rica is really easy. The only area which is very crowded is the capital city, San Jose, and its surroundings.

Activities	Descrption	Price in USD for 2 persons	Price in EUR for 2 persons
	Volcan Irazu National Park entrance fee	33,9	28,64
	Bioluminescence + kayak experience (booked on Airbnb)	112,79	95
	Volcan Arenal National Park entrance fee	32	27
	La Fortuna Waterfall entrance fee	36	30,37
	Volcan Tenorio National Park entrance fee	27,12	22,82
	Manuel Antonio National Park entrance fee	36	30
Total		277,81	233,83

Some of the general entrance fees that you should expect to pay are around 10-15 USD, while the other ones are completely free (or in exchange for a donation). This was the case of the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge, Cahuita National Park, all its beautiful public beaches, several hot springs and a large variety of wildlife-watching in their natural habitat (crocodiles, coatis, parrots, monkeys and many more sometimes just on the side of the road).

Other costs	Descrption	Total cost in EUR
	Shopping	7,85
	Revolut fees	1,5
	SIM Cards and recharge	10,94
	Country exit by land tax	15,35
Total		35,64

The ATMs in Cost Rica worked just fine with both our Revolut and ING debit cards and took no withdrawal or transaction fee. The SIM cards and recharges were a bit expensive though, with a Claro plan for 15 days costing 6,2 EUR.

	Total costs in EUR for 25 days, 2 persons
Accommodation	463,25
Food & drinks	318,87
Transportation	582,1
Activities	233,83
Other costs	35,64
Total	1633,69

In total we spent 1633 EUR (2 persons) during 25 days of travel. These costs could have been much lower without a rental car, which took about 390 EUR (everything car-related included). This sum meant sleeping in budget friendly accommodations, doing our own laundry, eating in restaurants used by locals and lots of locally-grown food and having many outdoor activities. And while the expenses you may have when visiting Costa Rica could be higher compared to South American countries for example, this wildlife and nature heaven is something worth every penny!

Is this total expense is a lot or not? We would be curious to know your thoughts and hope that the above info will help you!