In May 2018, just over a year after our first visit to Costa Rica, I compiled a list of my favorite restaurants in Tamarindo. You can see the full roundup here, but in summary, I selected the following (in alphabetical order): Asian FusionBreakfast GrindsCafé NordicoCafé TicoEnea’sLa BaulaLa BodegaLa EsquinaLongboardsNoguisPasta CaseraSurf Shack We are obviously adept at picking the good places to eat, because a year and a half later, all [...]
We received this reader question about whether to buy a small condo for a first investment: Hi guys, Thanks for all the really useful info! I'm thinking of buying a small condo as an income property. I am a single mum living in Vancouver, Canada at the moment. Do you think this would be a good idea. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!- Gillian We are not financial advisers, real [...]
Costa Rica real estate represents over 20% of our portfolio. While we are still bullish on the area, we prioritize diversification in our portfolio, including geographic diversification. While we continually view real estate listings in Costa Rica to stay informed about the market, we are looking for a new area to invest in. We have written before about how we picked Costa Rica and why we selected it for our [...]
One of our most frequent reader questions is how we picked our real estate investments, and how we are investing in real estate in today’s market. To start answering this question, I will first focus on what we are NOT doing – i.e., real estate investment options we considered but ruled out. We are not financial advisers, so this isn’t about ruling out these investments for others. This post is [...]
Jim Reilly - photo by Happy Rice As much as we love writing our own Costa Rica stories, we are only there part-time, and have only recently spent a full month. To get more diversity and insight, we have been on the hunt for ex-pats to interview. First up is Jim Reilly, a lawyer (and the lawyer on all of our real estate matters) who moved to Tamarindo in 2003: [...]
Three new tax and corporation laws were introduced in Costa Rica in 2019. We weren’t planning on covering these because they are so new that it’s premature to measure the impact on our real estate. And more importantly, we’re not lawyers or accountants so didn’t want even the appearance of giving official advice. But that said, a reader asked a slew of questions about these new laws, so it’s clearly [...]
We just finished spending 30 full days in Costa Rica, by far our longest trip anywhere! We wanted to see what an extended stay would feel like, and also experience the rainier season in the country. All in all, a very successful trip. Since geo-arbitage in Costa Rica is a possibility for us going forward, we were also curious to know how much it would cost for us to spend [...]
The Flight Network, a deal-focused travel provider, polled over 1,000 travel writers and agencies (including Costa Rica FIRE!) to come up with its 2019 list for the 50 most beautiful cities. And the top 10 winners are: ParisNew YorkLondon Venice VancouverBarcelonaCape TownSan FranciscoSydneyRome Downtown New York City from Governor's Island In addition to our hometown New York City, I voted for Tamarindo, though it’s really a town, not a city. [...]
CNN Health reported on a new study out of Heidelberg University in Germany, which found that parents are happier than non-parents in old age, but ONLY if their kids have moved out. We are a sample size of one: we dropped off our youngest to college in late August and were on a plane to Costa Rica within the week. While our oldest still lives at our official home address, we [...]
We’re staying in Costa Rica for a full month, so it’s a great experiment in day-to-day living. One of my goals for our stay this time was trying out the health care. I decided to start with a visit to the dentist since I am in-between dentists at home. My regular New York City dentist was on a sabbatical. I tried a neighborhood dentist in Riverdale but wasn’t 100% convinced [...]
