They say hindsight is 2020. It's priceless
and more often you hear the old timer say if only
I knew then would I know now. Well I thought about it a little bit and
you hear more people today say, "What would I tell my younger self?"...
and you know if I could go back to November 2013
and give my younger self advice, my younger self
who is trying to find out what is the best place to live
in Costa Rica, well I believe I tell my younger self exactly
what I'm going to share with you today.
Welcome to another beautiful but slightly windy day in paradise.
Indeed... welcome back, it is a beautiful day but windy which always messes
up my hair... I work so hard on it but today we are going to be talking
about the best places or the best areas to live in Costa Rica.
you know we've lived all over the place and in the process of creating this
video I realized wow there's just a lot of information
and I would just not be able to put it all
together in one video and Rebecca really had a great idea. I
did We have lived in five different regions
and I thought why don't we just make a video
you know five separate videos talking about each region going into more detail
and let you know in within that region what was
the area that we liked the most and what was the area that we liked
the least and give you some reasons why you know from our perspective having
lived there. Yeah this way we can kind of go into
detail and share with you from our experience exactly what we felt.
Right and there are a couple of areas that we have not lived in and we're
going to do a sixth video, letting you know why we haven't lived
in those areas. Yes because while it's probably a nice place to go
visit you probably don't want to live there.
All of Costa Rica is beautiful. Absolutely so we're going to go into
detail on those videos but today we're actually going to give you just a
general overview of those five areas which is
going to give you some very valuable information, also you're going
to want to download the pdf that's in the description below
because in this pdf I'm going to go into detail on the name of the towns that are
in each of those five areas where it's located in Costa Rica.
The approximate population of the people in that area.
The altitude. The temperature so you know the comfort level
of you know what does it feel like in that area? is it hot? is it cold?
We're going to talk about the proximity to the border because you'll need to
stamp out every 90 days until you become a
resident if you decide to stay. The proximity to the coast if you like
the beaches. Proximity to the airport. Is there a hospital in that area and
what about shopping. You know how difficult is it to be able to buy stuff
and also the proximity to schools in the event you decide to come with children.
So all of that's going to be very important make sure to download that pdf.
So I guess we ought to go to the map and actually start looking at those
five areas that we've actually lived in. Right because we've lived in what
12, 13 houses. 13 different. Our 13 houses 12 different locations all over Costa
Rica. Right we went back to one place twice for
three it was. So nice we went twice so we're gonna
actually give you more information in coming videos which
is going to really make it very helpful. So with that said
let's go ahead and go to the map now to give you an idea, a
general idea of those five locations and you can look forward to the
other videos coming so you'll have more detailed information.
Let's take a look at the five areas we've lived in
and give you a general idea as to why these are great places to live. However
almost any place in Costa Rica is going to be
beautiful. But like any other place in the world
Costa Rica has places that might be nice to visit but I
wouldn't suggest living there. Don't forget you can
download the pdf that is full of valuable information
about each of these five areas. So let's get started.
When you arrive in Costa Rica you'll probably
fly into the San Jose international airport
or the Liberia international airport although we've visited most of Costa
Rica and have lived in many different places in Costa
Rica. The one small area we haven't lived in
is one of the most popular areas for foreigners
or the gringos. I'm talking about the area between San Jose and Liberia.
My guess is many of the people who choose to live
in this area choose to do so because it is
close to the airport. They enjoy easy access to shopping and
entertainment. The upper half of that area has a lot of flat terrain
and doesn't quite feel like the mountainous Costa Rica we're used to.
However it's still very beautiful and because this area has a lot of Gringos.
You'll find lots of tourist activities and
access to a lot of amenities that you will not
find south of San Jose because this is a very touristy area.
You can expect most things to cost more but there is a lot more entertainment a
lot of different things to do you'll also find many ex-pat communities
where you can meet other people who speak your
language and again, because this area has so many
English-speaking foreigners you'll find quite a few Ticos that can
understand and speak English here than anywhere
else in Costa Rica. So while it's helpful to
know Spanish it's much easier to get by day to day here than any other part of
Costa Rica. If you don't speak the local lingo so to
sum it up this is a nice place to live however you'll
see a lot of Gringos flat terrain access to easy shopping
lots of amenities but it will be more expensive than anywhere else in
Costa Rica. Now let's go South of this area and
start looking at the five areas we've lived.
Number one is near the border of Panama. That area is rich with Costa Rican
culture. If you choose to live in this area
you'll experience real raw Costa Rica.
From Las Juntas down to San Beto to the small town of Sabalito down to
Agua Buena and back up through Linda Vista are
great places to live. You will not see many gringos in this
area however there is a favorite gringo
hangout located just before you get to Linda
Vista. A restaurant called Cascada Del Bosco
seems to be a favorite place to eat, enjoy a few drinks and
catch up with a few local gringos that do
live in this area because there are so few gringos in this area.
We were always pleasantly surprised when we did find someone who spoke a little
English this area is what I call raw Costa Rica there's not really
anything for foreign tourists other than Wilson's botanical gardens.
While you can find most of what you need shopping in San
Vito or Sabalito you can enjoy much easier and more affordable shopping by
traveling about an hour to the border town of Paso Canoas.
The border of Panama is a tax-free zone and you'll have
access to a much larger variety. Surprisingly
gas and a lot of other things you buy in Panama is about
half the price of what you'll pay in Costa Rica.
Let's go a bit north to the Perez Zeledon area which is
our second area from the little town of San Jorado De Rivers to the main town of
Rivers onto Miravalles continuing through
San Isidro to Palmyras and following the highway past
Tinamaste to the coast are great places to live.
That area is often called Perez Zeledon and San Isidro the second largest and
fastest growing city is found within that area.
If you choose to live in any of these areas you're within
30 minutes of lots of restaurants, hospitals
and clinics with the ability to buy just about
anything even better. A super Walmart has recently been completed which saves you
a ton of time because you can now find just about
everything at a one-stop location.
This South Central area has a good number of gringos.
However you still feel the rich Costa Rican culture here
without seeing lots and lots of foreigners.
While you will find some nice waterfalls and some
private wildlife reserves this area's main tourist attraction is Mount Chirripo.
Very popular because it is the highest point of Costa Rica.
A lot of people hike this mountain but you don't really
see these tourists much because they stay in such a remote area
of Costa Rica. Tinamaste is a prime location and has a high
concentration of gringos because it is about 30 minutes from the
coast and 30 minutes from San Isidro because
of the altitude proximity to the coast and the city of
San Isidro. Tinamaste does cost a little more
than the rest of the locations in the Perez Zeledon area.
Our third area is at the Pacific Coast.
From the very popular town of Hako all the way down to Golfito
while there are some beautiful beaches along this area.
Our favorite beach is in the Estuarios area. In my opinion this area has the
most beautiful beaches in all of Costa Rica. When we lived here
many times I would go surfing or we would go
run the beach and it felt like we had our own piece of paradise.
We seldom saw tourists all along the beaches of Costa Rica. You'll find
lots of things for tourists to do. However
Estuarios is a peaceful and quiet place. Uvita on the other hand is a very
popular place because it has the whale's tale
along with. Actually having the ability to watch
whales in this area. Hakko is a very
popular tourist destination which makes it a nice place to visit
but I wouldn't want to live there. All the
way down to Golfito which is a fishing community.
There you'll be able to get a lot of fresh seafood
and enjoy some great fishing but this place is hotter than most places in
Costa Rica and because it is a fishing community
you can smell the fish in the air. How about we go to
the Caribbean coast and visit our fourth area from the port town of
Limon all the way to Manzanillo is our next
area. Limon is a very busy port town and does not feel safe at all but offers
some of the shopping you'll need I would not want to live anywhere near
Limon. So let's go south to Coweta.
Living in Coweta was amazing. Every day we'd wake up to the sound of howler
monkeys and it was fun to sit on the porch
watching the sloths and other wildlife. If you're into
enjoying nature or spotting wildlife this place is great and you'll
definitely see lots of wildlife at the Coweta National Park Puerto
Viejo is just a few miles away and has a lot
of tourists. This is a party town on the beautiful
Caribbean coast but you need to be careful every time
we'd visit this town. To enjoy a good meal or the beach we
would be approached by someone offering to sell us some drugs.
Those incidents make this place a bit unsafe.
In my opinion and not an ideal place to live
but just past Puerto Viejo is Punta Cockles.
From Punta Cockles up Margarita Hill back down to the end of the road at
Manzanillo and over to Coweta are many great
places to live. Just try to avoid living near Puerto
Viejo or Limon. This area is still pretty raw
and has not been developed much which means that it
is a bit more difficult for shopping. The culture and feel here is night and
day different from the rest of Costa Rica.
This area has an Afro-Jamaican heritage and
a cool Caribbean vibe with the most spectacular ocean colors.
Our fifth area is the Nicoya Peninsula. The lower half or two-thirds of Nicoya
offers many great places to live however when you get on
the northern side of the city of Nicoya
and up towards Tamarindo the terrain quickly gets flat and we prefer the
mountains. That area also has a lot more gringos
and a lot of tourist activity. The lower half of Nicoya
is less developed and has a lot of interesting places to visit with, lots of
interesting coastal towns. It's not quite as easy to do shopping
here but you'll find most of what you need
without having to travel too far. The lower half of the Nicoya Peninsula
offers some great places to live with beautiful views of the pacific on
one side and the gulf on the other. That's an
overall look at the five areas we've lived in
and the areas we can safely recommend. Next week we'll give you a detailed
breakdown of our favorite area and share with you why you might
consider living in that area too. Make sure to like and
share this video download the pdf and tell us
in the comments below of the five areas we looked at today.
Which one right now is your favorite we'll see you next week.