Costa Rica first time

You'll like it. Who are you going with? It's really just one street with a lot of tours outside of that street. Where are you staying? What about transportation to Jaco?

I went there in February ask me anything.

There a beautiful sunset along the beach check it out. If you're into the women part of it hit up hotel Cocal, Oz sports bar, and orange pub.

Women will be everywhere and it will be some of the most beautiful women you laid eyes on believe me. There's a good pizza spot as well I can't remember the name but it has a pub directly behind it. For the most part the food was pretty average at best, but there are some nice restaurants along the beach bring a women with you an enjoy a nice sunset.

quote:

---

Ask your transit driver from the airport to stop just outside San Jose so you can get a couple of beers for the ride to your friend's place.

---

This is a great idea as I will have a driver waiting for me at the airport.

Prepare to be underwhelmed by the food. It’s generally average at best and a lot of ticos seem allergic to any level of seasoning. I love pretty much everything about CR besides the food.

They generally have good fruit though. Rice and beans isn’t bad. Some areas have chilero (fermented, pickled peppers and vegetables in a jar as a condiment) and that’s pretty much my favorite CR specific thing.

We ended up cooking ourselves a lot on this last trip because I got tired of paying out the nose for mediocre food.

quote:

---

Thanks. I kind of expected that might be the case. Never heard of Costa Rican food being all that. I’ll be in a condo and it will be easy to cook.

---

For sure! And like I said, I love Costa Rica. It's such a beautiful country with great people and really set up well, infrastructure wise, for eco and adventure tourism. But I figure it's best to go into a trip with realistic or even low expectations on potential shortcomings of the experience and any bright spots you find in that area will be a bonus!

I should also add that my family are very into food and love places with vibrant food culture (Tucson, Santa Fe, New Orleans, Oaxaca, Italy, France, etc..). Some of our friends we travel with could care less about culinary experiences and they had no complaints about the food in CR.

quote:

---

Prepare to be underwhelmed by the food. It’s generally average at best and a lot of ticos seem allergic to any level of seasoning. I love pretty much everything about CR besides the food.

---

I absolutely love black beans and rice and fried plantains but this is still a fair point.

quote:

---

I would recommend not getting food poisoning........

---

Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been to eight countries but never a “developing” one where it might not be safe to drink the water, lol. My friend will probably have some tips for me.

Glad you survived and didn’t have to go to a hospital there. That could have been dicey.

Same thing happened to my oldest son. We stayed there in February but it didn’t hit until he had been home a few days. He ended up in the ER. Odd

Just pointing out that CR seems to have gotten materially worse crime-wise in the past several years. It has stayed Level 2 for about 6 years now.

LINK

It's no Nicaragua, but its quaint, anodyne image is perhaps not really deserved anymore.

Thanks for the heads up. My flight into San Jose arrives at about 11am, so I should be good there. I have a driver lined up for the drive to Jaco. I guess I’m at his mercy, haha. I’m trusting my friend on that. He lives there four months out of the year.