How Much We Spent Living In Costa Rica For One Month

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 a month living in Costa Rica.

Breaking down our Costa Rica trip expenses

Food

Food was our biggest expense because even though we stayed at our Condo Boom, which has a kitchen, we bought many of our meals. 47 meals were purchased at restaurants or take-out stands. The only food we prepared at home were cold breakfasts, heating leftovers and scooping ice cream.

We had numerous additional small food purchases that weren’t quite meals. Things like a couple of fresh croissants to go with breakfast, or stopping for a smoothie on the way somewhere, or an occasional dessert, such as ice cream at the grocery store, or churros from the churro truck. (yes, there is a Churro truck in Tamarindo!)

$1416.27 in total for food comes out to about $47 per day. Not bad considering we averaged 1.5 restaurant / take out meals per day, not including grocery items and additional stops for smoothies and desserts!

For true long term living, this cost would be lower as we would eat more home-cooked meals, but at least it gives us a starting point number.

For more details on some of the great restaurants we discovered on this trip, check out 12 More Favorite Restaurants In Tamarindo.

Transportation

Transportation consisted mostly of the $756 in round trip airfare from New York to Liberia. On prior trips we rented a car, but you really don’t need a car in Tamarindo because everything is walkable.

We did end up renting a car twice, for a few days each time:

• first so we could go shopping in Liberia, the closest major city to Tamarindo;
• and second for a short road trip to the Caribbean coast, where we visited Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and Playa Manzanilla.

Interestingly, the first car rental, which was for three days, was cheaper than the cost of our 45 minute Lyft ride home from the airport in New York ($67 v. $105)!

Activities

The beaches are free in Costa Rica, and that was our main activity. However, the Activities item includes expenses relating to that Caribbean road trip — $214 for four nights in Cahuita.

I also included in Activities our $90 monthly membership fee (for two) to Tamarindo Fitness, a great gym right in town. We both worked out several times each week. I took 13 classes during the month (making the average cost $4 per class!), including Zumba, yoga, spin and a boot camp-style. Scott used the weights and took spin.

Our “Activities” also included my foray into dental tourism, when I visited the dentist for a $75 cleaning and check-up.

There are many other activities available that cost money, such as surf lessons and taking one of the many tours available, but we skipped those.

Supplies

The Supplies item includes household items we bought to improve the condo — a small table and chairs workspace for the master bedroom, two outdoor wicker chairs, a yoga mat, two food containers and an additional set of flatware. These are really business expenses to our vacation rental, rather than trip expenses, but we spent it during our 30 days, so it’s captured here.

While we brought all of our toiletries from home, we needed to purchase sunscreen and bug spray – both of which are expensive in a touristy beach town like Tamarindo. We definitely needed more than travel sizes.

Housing not captured

Housing is an item notably missing from the above list. We had no out of pocket expenses to stay at Condo Boom, because we already own it. We use that property when we’re in Costa Rica because our other two properties were purchased with our self-directed retirement account and cannot be used personally.

We financed the Condo Boom using a cash-out refinance of two other properties, as financing is difficult and expensive in Costa Rica. The new loan payments on the refinanced properties is approximately $700 higher than the old loan payments, so the additional $700 monthly mortgage expense really belongs to Condo Boom. In addition, the HOA is $200 and taxes and insurance are just under $100 per month, for a total cost of about $1,000 per month.

If we had to rent or book a place a place of our size on AirBNB for the month, it would have cost more than $1,000 – at least $1500. But if we just stayed in a hotel room instead of a two-bed condo, we could have kept our budget to $1,000 in the low season – you don’t necessarily need to buy a place to find reasonable living costs, at least in the low season.

You don’t need much cash for a Tamarindo vacation

Of the almost $3,400 we spent, just over $400 was in cash. The rest of the time, we used credit cards with no problem. When we did use cash, we could have used US money because dollars are accepted almost everywhere in Costa Rica, but since we have a local bank account in Costa Rica for our vacation rental business, it was easy for us to access colones, the Costa Rican currency. We ended up taking 5 ATM withdrawals over the 30 days, and the exchange rate ranged from 568 to 572 colones to $1 US.

The best entertainment in Tamarindo is free. We went to the beach 28 times. We went to the pool in our condo complex 13 times. We did a 6-mile round-trip walk to the beach next to Tamarindo, which is Playa Grande. This beach is also free, but the beaches are separated by a small body of water, and I can’t swim. So we spent 1,000 colones each way (just under $2) for a small boat to take us across.

We also walked a short trail at Cahuita National Park, when we visited the Caribbean coast. The park is free at the Cahuita entrance, though it takes donations.

Even walking around the town counts as entertainment given the many wildlife sightings we encountered on everyday streets. In our final week there, we were treated to the sight of a dozen monkeys making their way up the street from one corner to the next, swinging and jumping from tree to tree.

Finally, an example of the modern conveniences we enjoyed was the super-fast Internet connection in our condo. I watched a total of 20 movies – one on the flight up, the other 19 on Netflix during our stay. Interestingly, Amazon Prime Video offered a choice of just two movies in Costa Rica.

I also finished reading 8 books.

Slow travel is the way to go

This was the longest trip we have taken – made possible because we officially became empty-nesters and are no longer tethered to the academic year calendar. Slow travel is great for relaxation since we didn’t have to squeeze everything in. We could manage each day and our overall schedule exactly as we wanted.

Since travel to and from a destination is often the largest expense, slow travel is also great for financial reasons. On this Tamarindo trip, our total cost going between Tamarindo and New York amounted to more than 25% of the total cost of the trip!

If we stayed longer, that cost would be spread out across more days, reducing the percentage and the average daily travel cost.

Next year, we’d like to do two month-long stays, perhaps June and September. 30 days was a good amount of time, and we’d like to spread the Pura Vida more evenly across the year.

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On this 30 day trip, while we spent $3400, we ended up with 344 photos, 27 videos, and lots of great memories!

NOTE: Photo at the top of the page is Arenal Volcano, as seen on our road trip to the Caribbean coast.