A mid-range day in Costa Rica, without the flight, is often about $80 to $150 a person. The room and the car are most of that. A careful day, with a simple room, a casado, and the bus, can sit nearer $50 to $70. Rooms cost less from May to November than they do in January, and they jump again at Christmas and Easter week.
This page cannot price your flight. On the ground, a careful day is a simple room, lunch at a soda, and a public bus. A mid-range day adds a better room, a shared shuttle or a rental car split two ways, and one paid stop, such as a park or the hot springs. A luxury day is a private transfer and a guide, and it climbs past $180 a person before dinner.
A week is not seven beach days if you also cross the mountains. San José to La Fortuna is about three hours. La Fortuna to Quepos is most of a day. Those travel days still cost a shuttle or a car, even when you buy no tour. Two people sharing a room and a car spend less per person than one person on the same route, because the car and the room are the large numbers.
Lunch is the main meal, and a soda is the inexpensive way to eat it. A casado, rice, beans, a salad, and meat or fish, is often about $6 to $12. A coffee is a couple of dollars. It is the plate to order when you want a real lunch without a resort menu. Dinner in a beach town, with a drink, is often two or three times that plate, and it is usually earlier and lighter than visitors expect.
A restaurant bill often already includes sales tax and a 10 percent service charge. Read the bill before you add more. If the service was the reason you would have tipped, it is already there. A soda may not include it, and a few coins are enough. For a guide, a boat driver, or someone who carries the bags, the tip is not already on a bill. That part is in the ticos.
A park gate is often about $15 to $25 a person. Manuel Antonio sits toward the top of that range, and it also caps how many people enter. Corcovado adds a required guide, so the day is the gate plus the guide, not the gate alone. Tortuguero adds the boat, because there is no road. Check the current fee before you go. It changes.
An evening in the hot springs near La Fortuna is a separate ticket, and it is often the expensive night of that stop. A canopy line is optional. It is closer to the price of a nice dinner for two than to a bus fare. You do not need one every day. A town beach and a walk cost nothing once you are there. Which parks are worth the fee is in national parks in Costa Rica.
The car, with the insurance already on the contract, is often the largest daily cost after the room. Expect something like $60 to $130 a day once that policy is on it, more for a 4x4 in the busy months. The desk will offer more coverage. Read the deductible before you add it. Ask whether tires, glass, and the underside are included. Many desks set a minimum age of 21 or 25.
A public bus from San José to Jacó, Tamarindo, or Puerto Viejo costs a few dollars and takes a long morning. It fills up on Friday and Sunday afternoons. A shared shuttle costs more and goes door to door. A domestic flight to Puerto Jiménez or Golfito costs more than either and saves the day on the road. The choice is in getting around Costa Rica.
May to November, the green season, is the cheaper version of the same trip. Rooms cost less than they do in January, February, and March, and the towns are quieter. On the Pacific the rain usually waits until afternoon, so a morning plan still works. September and October are the wettest months on that coast, and often the lowest room rates.
Christmas and Easter week are the exception inside the dry season. Beach towns fill, and a room that was easy in early December is not easy then. If your dates are September or October and you want sun, look at the Caribbean, around Puerto Viejo and Cahuita. The month-by-month picture is in the best time to visit.
