An Extended Trip to Costa Rica
First Stop, Playa Flamingo!
It’s a couple of years later than we originally planned…but Covid had its own plan. Finally, our second family trip to Costa Rica begins in 2022 with a flight to San Jose! This time, we’ll be traveling for just under one month.
Our goals are to:
- Find a location where our family can spend 3 to 6 months away, that feels right to us.
- Be immersed in Costa Rican culture and become fluent in the Spanish language.
- Find a vacation rental property to purchase.
I’ve chronicled our trip along the way in order to share our experience with other people who may be interested in doing something similar. First, we had to decide and plan…
Flying into Costa Rica
There are two good options for flying into Costa Rica. As far as flights go, San Jose usually offers cheaper flights and is centrally located. You can expect a long drive to some parts of the coast if that’s your destination. Many American surfers and beachgoers fly directly into Liberia, which is much closer to the very popular Northwest beaches like Tamarindo and Langosta.
We considered Liberia which was about two hours closer to our first destination, but the prices and the times were far worse than in San Jose. We flew out of New York from JFK to San Jose on a Jet Blue direct flight for about $500 per person. The good news is San Jose was a lot closer to the last place we’d be so the trip back would be easier.
Parking at JFK International Airport
As it turns out, JFK has a pretty difficult parking situation and definitely a shortage. I didn't anticipate just how high the level of crazy was going to be…We were leaving for a three-week trip, so I figured worst case, JFK would be somewhere around $15-$20 per day. Nope.
Long-term parking at JFK can be found for about $20 a day, off-site anywhere from three to six miles away. In most cases we would have had to take a rideshare service from the lot, others had shuttles. The problem was, that there are only two services that the airport recommends and both of them were either fully booked or both required reservations to be made within 48 hours. Neither of which helped us a day in advance of the trip.
We could have shown up at the airport that day and headed to long-term parking. For that, if you can get a spot, you can easily expect between $40–60 per day. Do the math for a month…No Bueno.
Luckily, I had a friend in Long Beach, NY twelve miles away from the airport where we left our car and took an Uber for about $70 to JFK. Many travelers seem to agree this option is one of the best if you can find it.
Driving all night in a strange country
Our first destination is Playa Flamingo, a resort town on the northwestern shore, about 45 minutes North of Tamarindo. My wife isn’t thrilled about the timing, but since I decided to take advantage of a nonstop flight opportunity from JFK to SJO, we are getting in very late. When we landed in San Jose, it was 9 pm local time. To us, it felt like 11 pm with the two-hour time difference. Costa Rica is on Central Standard Time, but they don’t move clocks for daylight savings time.
Because we were heading to the northwest coast, our late arrival time meant that we’d be driving in the middle of the night through a foreign country over roads that can be, at best, terrible. At worst, they can be treacherous. Plainly, Costa Rican driving is sketchy. I put a few tips in the piece here:
In hindsight, driving all night was another poor decision on my part. In my defense, we were in no hurry. I also sort of thought it would be easy to just find someplace to stay if we needed to. That would have been another bad assumption. Doing it my way was stressful and I do not recommend it.
In addition to it being the middle of the night, it was the rainy season on a Friday night, which increases risk factors. More people walking around on the roads, more people partying, and a pretty tired driver could have been a bad recipe. Luckily, I like driving and I’d driven across this country before. A couple of stops for some roadside empanadas and coffee in the middle of the night, and we arrived safely at the condo at about 3 am.
Navigating Playa Flamingo
Playa Flamingo is right on the ocean. A hundred meters. Get used to meters if you’re going abroad. As you move away from the beach, it quickly starts to get very hilly. On foot, in just a few steps from the beach, you’ll have to climb some very steep hills. There are steps added in along the way and we even found an elevator in our complex that helped us traverse the journey up and down each day.
If you’re elderly or have trouble navigating steep hills and narrow roadways, you may want to consider that Playa Flamingo will be a tougher town in which to get around. There are golf cart rentals and scooters available but when we tried to rent one of those, they were all sold out. Since this was the low season, I’d expect the high season would be harder to find rentals so if this is a concern, you’ll want to plan this well in advance.
Flamingo Accommodations
There are lots of options for accommodations, especially in resort towns like Playa Flamingo. Right on the ocean, there is a Margaritaville Resort before the inclines but there’s no way I’d go to Costa Rica and stay at a chain hotel — but that’s just me. I’ve stayed at Margaritaville resorts and they are very nice, but it doesn’t fit what my family and I are looking for. Not this time.
We stayed in the Presidential Suites condo complex managed by a company called Special Places of Costa Rica. The price was right, the location was perfect with an ocean view, and it was more than enough space for my family, my wife’s parents, and her sister.
The management company was great, and their office was right in the complex. The place was really overstaffed, likely because we were there in the low season. Basically, six people in the office doing nothing, until we walked in and asked to rent boogie boards and whatever else we needed. It was as if they all worked just for us. I’m cool with that.
Every day my boys and I would go down to the beach and ride waves for hours. The surf was small enough to allow for easy swimming but powerful enough to provide lots of wave riding. Surf lessons are easily found and there are many local vendors trying to rent or sell you anything you can think of.
A local vendor and maybe, a new friend…
Many locals are doing what you’d expect them to do…trying to make a buck (a.k.a. 660 Colones). On our first day at the beach, we met a local named Marlo. Marlo seemed nice enough but listen, I obviously do not trust locals strolling up to us Gringos on the beach trying to sell me things.
Many of them seem to have the same tactic and some can be pushy. They watch you for a while, then decide what they can offer you. In Marlo’s case, he watched my youngest boy and me bodysurfing and came out into the surf after us to see if he could teach my son how to surf. I didn’t see any surfboards and Marlo didn’t have a business card. It was a little sketchy but turned out fine. I declined the lessons, but Marlo didn’t give up.
Over the course of the next couple of days, we’d see Marlo on the beach, bright and early every day. He had a towel and a backpack which he hung on a tree. He’d disappear for a bit and come back with some coconuts. One day he showed us how to smash them on the rocks and drink the milk. I saw him climb right up the tree and get them down. Another time, he helped my son get a shovel and dug a hole for him. I was pretty sure Marlo wasn’t an established businessman and while he never gave any indication he wasn’t trustworthy, I always kept my belongings and my kids within close sight. I guess I’ll never really know.
On the last day, we were there, I saw Marlo at the local Mini Super (this is what they call convenience stores in Costa Rica). I went up to him and thanked him for showing us how to get the coconuts and drink the milk and I let him know that we appreciated his attempts to help us out. He sort of grew on us after a few days… I asked him in Spanish if I could pay him a few Colones, which is the Costa Rican currency. “Puedo pagarle por ayudar le, por favor?” My Spanish is bad and I’m learning more every day, but he knew what I meant. Marlo accepted my offer, so I gave him the equivalent of about $30 dollars.
I’ll never know if it was genuine or not… but he immediately teared up and thanked me repeatedly. He said, “thank you man, you don’t know what you just did…Now I can finally get home.” In hindsight, I do think Marlo was either homeless or pretty far from home.
It warmed my heart to think we could have helped Marlo and it showed us that a little bit can still go a long way here. It was sad, happy, depressing, and encouraging…simultaneously.
Playas Tamarindo & Langosta
We left Playa Flamingo on day 7 in Costa Rica. The town was small, and the school we put the boys in was nice, but the idea of staying there for a long term didn’t quite feel right.
Heading out, we aimed for a meeting with Isabelle Emond, a real estate agent for ReMax, based out of Playa Tamarindo. I’d been corresponding with Isabelle for a couple of years at this point. All along we had been looking for a 2+ bedroom condo with a pool. Nothing fancy, but it would have to be nice enough for us to rent out for a profit.
Our plans are ever-evolving but at this point, we were considering renting out the unit for about ½ a year and living in it for the other half. It’s a lofty goal. Isabelle explained that while we could purchase something in the lower price range, the rental income would be low and we “might” break even. Alternatively, if we spent more for a better location with higher-end finishings, the expenses would remain the same as a lower-end unit, but the profit would be exponentially higher. It was a great meeting and she provided a lot of insight.
Final Thoughts
With Playa Flamingo now in the rearview, we headed away from Tamarindo still feeling like we hadn’t found our spot. With some new options and knowledge under our belts, our impressions were that all three beaches (Flamingo, Langosta, and Tamarindo) were really nice places but they were all very developed tourist destinations. High-end units, really nice houses, and great beaches were all things we wanted but the town just seemed to be filled with wealthy Americans. Tamarindo felt more like an American town in a lot of ways than a Costa Rican one.
We drove off, heading out for a little-known shortcut to our next destination for the next few weeks, Manuel Antonio!
Pura Vida!
Thank you for reading! I write about how I see the world through my husband/father/investor/headcase-shaded glasses. Please consider following me on Medium. Subscribe to receive an alert each time I publish.
