San José Travel Forum

hello everyone,

we are thinking about moving to Costa Rica (san jose) since we got a job offer there. The problem is that we know nothing about the living costs and other expenses (flats fairs in good regions, transportation, food, movies ets...)

We'll be greatfull for any tip of information.

Hi,

I've never been to CR but am going this week. I've been helped with lots of info from the website: www.welovecostarica.com

The forums are helpful, books, too. I've been thinking of moving there.

wishing you the very best,

I would look at the Tico Times newspaper to see what some of the rentals are going for. Have you even been there? It is a great country but not for everyone. Food is fairly inexpensive. There are movies in the city of San Jose and larger suburbs. Heck there are even bowling alleys. Electricity is fairly inexpensive at the moment. San Jose itself is not a great city but there are some nice areas around it like Heredia. Buses are very cheap to take.

I stayed in Costa Rica for three months at the beginning of 2006. I was surprised at how expensive things were there. I had already done some traveling so I knew that the fact that there were about 500 colones to the dollar wouldn't necessarily mean that the cost of living would make it cheap but I have to admit that I was unprepared for how expensive some things were there. They definitely have instituted a two-tier pricing structure for tourists. In some ways it is like Mexico in that the investment in the country and close ties with the U.S. are driving up prices and making the cost of living there comparable (in some ways) to a small U.S. town (like Cincinnati, Ohio or Jackson, Mississippi). Some times you can get incredible deals and you get a glimpse of what things really costs for locals but in many cases, even if you speak Spanish, you will get the "gringo price". Also be careful about the pricing information that you get on the Internet because a lot of it is out of date. I am reluctant to list the prices that I was paying because they are almost a year old now and I am sure that things have gone up since then. There is a lot of development in Costa Rica now. Many companies are outsourcing functions of their operations to Costa Rican subsidiaries and having the work sent back and forth via the Internet. This is putting a lot of money into the hands of local people there. The flip side of this coin is that there are some really nice high class suburbs in the outskirts of San Jose and many fully stocked American style malls with all of the conforts of home. Even the main highways are pretty good. There is a real problem with crime though and in some areas it can be violent with "non Ticos" being specifically targeted. The police don't seem to be doing much to stop this. As a city, speaking from a cultural perspective, San Jose is really lacking. There is not much to do there. Heredia is a nice college town about an hour away but in my opinion there is not much to do there either but the University generates some activity. Actually, at one point I was staying with a local family in Santa Barbara de Heredia and it was really nice. It was a seriously quiet town with four restaurants and two bars but the people there were really nice and I know that it wouldn't cost much to live there. It is definitly not the place to go if you get bored easily but for me it was an excellent oportunity to see how the people really live. You would probably have to commute 45 minutes to an hour to work every day but the bus service in the area is excellent. Before deciding to pull up stakes and change your life in such a drastic way why don't you go there for 3 weeks and either stay with a family there or rent a place and see if you can adjust to the life there on a trial basis.