Ok so you worry about repellent, if not mosquitoes and their evil twins Purrujas will eat you alive. Put it on early morning and at sunset.
And yes please take sunscreen seriously or else you will fry and I mean you will get close to getting blisters on your skin, the sun burns so hot in Costa Rica. And stay away from the sun if possible from 9:00 a.m to about 3:00 pm. Yes you read right if not you will get the bad sun as they call it here. Yes it sounds like a bit much but you will thank me later. And if you must be at the beach, or pool at those times slap sunscreen protection 50 or up and hopefully a hat an one of those nice protective beach shirts...like surfer shirts.
Know that if you need a bank account, and by that I mean a normal simple, savings/ checking account it will be pretty close to impossible to get one. We finally got one, only because I am Costa Rican and after jumping through thousands of hoops. With hard work and after wasting tons of time you might get one, but I would not hold my breath if I were you! For a short vacation, credit cards are great, but if you are planning to live here, or like us be here for a few months this is a huge problem you will need to solve.
Supermarket is as expensive as in Canada or the USA. And I am not kidding you. If you have kids it will be specially expensive with the diapers etc. We spend like $1000 a month for a family of five, it is brutal! I will tell you more in a future post.
Restaurants are super expensive as well. We are horrified. A family of five, but that includes three little kids seven years and under spends an average of $50 to $60 every time we go out, no matter how hard I try to make it a smaller bill.
Vacation rentals frequently post pictures of their golden days. We have had many disappointments since we arrived to our different rental homes. They charge as if they are five stars, but you find three stars...this again is our experience with vacation home rentals. So ask many questions before you commit to a month somewhere.
The most popular beaches were our greatest disappointments. Investigate a lot before you commit to a place. Some were very dirty, others too crowded, and yet others had just too many construction sites that had been abandoned around them.
Most beaches are extremely dangerous. Drownings are common and a big problem here. Rip currents are the biggest enemy, they are pretty much everywhere and they are unpredictable. Even good swimmers drown. Take this seriously. In future posts I will talk about every beach we visited. Hopefully that will help you.
And yes please take sunscreen seriously or else you will fry and I mean you will get close to getting blisters on your skin, the sun burns so hot in Costa Rica. And stay away from the sun if possible from 9:00 a.m to about 3:00 pm. Yes you read right if not you will get the bad sun as they call it here. Yes it sounds like a bit much but you will thank me later. And if you must be at the beach, or pool at those times slap sunscreen protection 50 or up and hopefully a hat an one of those nice protective beach shirts...like surfer shirts.
Know that if you need a bank account, and by that I mean a normal simple, savings/ checking account it will be pretty close to impossible to get one. We finally got one, only because I am Costa Rican and after jumping through thousands of hoops. With hard work and after wasting tons of time you might get one, but I would not hold my breath if I were you! For a short vacation, credit cards are great, but if you are planning to live here, or like us be here for a few months this is a huge problem you will need to solve.
Supermarket is as expensive as in Canada or the USA. And I am not kidding you. If you have kids it will be specially expensive with the diapers etc. We spend like $1000 a month for a family of five, it is brutal! I will tell you more in a future post.
Restaurants are super expensive as well. We are horrified. A family of five, but that includes three little kids seven years and under spends an average of $50 to $60 every time we go out, no matter how hard I try to make it a smaller bill.
Vacation rentals frequently post pictures of their golden days. We have had many disappointments since we arrived to our different rental homes. They charge as if they are five stars, but you find three stars...this again is our experience with vacation home rentals. So ask many questions before you commit to a month somewhere.
The most popular beaches were our greatest disappointments. Investigate a lot before you commit to a place. Some were very dirty, others too crowded, and yet others had just too many construction sites that had been abandoned around them.
Most beaches are extremely dangerous. Drownings are common and a big problem here. Rip currents are the biggest enemy, they are pretty much everywhere and they are unpredictable. Even good swimmers drown. Take this seriously. In future posts I will talk about every beach we visited. Hopefully that will help you.
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