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Thinking of going to Costa Rica. How did you like it? Pros and cons? Any must sees? Any input on your general experience would be appreciated. Thank you!

Ashana said "Thinking of going to Costa Rica. How did you like it? Pros and cons? Any must sees? Any input on your general experience would be appreciated. Thank you! "

I have family members who travel to CR once a year and they LOVE it! They plan their own vacation staying at different places each year, not package vacations. Another set of family members travel to various destinations and their favorite is also CR.  
Have fun!

Safety... when in a city you need to be street smart.. google street smart in foreign countries.... you will need to rent a car to get to the beeches. Driving at night is not recommended. Expect a 60km drive to tak 1.5 hours. Gravel roads without gravel.. expect people horses pigs cattle on the roads. Small restaurants called are sodas. Dont expect them to know english. Currency is colins. Know the currency exchange. Zip liness were fun. Beaches were bare. Google what to look for when at the beach.. keep researching. Pm me if you want to know more... depending on kids ages... not sure i would take youg kids unless your only staying at the resort...then you are not getting to see or experience the country at all.

Wow eph2-8 I don't know where in Costa Rica you went but that was nothing like my experience.  
 
I found Costa Rica to be one of the safest countries I have travelled to. However, like anywhere you should always be on guard and never stray in to areas where you likely shouldn't. Basically use a little common sense.  
 
We were in Liberia/Tamarindo area. We did have a car but you certainly don't need one. Lots of buses and cabs and they are very reasonable. Never saw any pigs, cows or donkeys on the road but did see a sloth slowly (very slowly) crossing the road. Some of the roads/highways weren't in ideal condition but nothing crazy.  
 
The local "Tico" restaurants are referred to as Soads and they were some of the best places we found and CHEAP! Beaches were nice but you really need to do a little research on the best ones, most of the public ones were pretty standard. If you like to surf there are lots of great spots.  
 
We took both our kids they were 10 and 12 at the time and they really enjoyed it. We were not at a resort and had a rented a condo on VRBO. The kids made friends with a few of the local kids that lived in the same complex and were playing and swimming in the pool. I wouldn't hesitate to take the kiddos again. We did a day tour to Eco Adventure place and they got to see monkeys, tucans, sloth, snakes and lots of other critters.  
 
The local currency is Colones, although American money is widely accepted pretty much everywhere. But be aware if you are off the beaten path with only American money you will get your change likely in colones. So good idea to know the exchange rate as they will likely short you a few bucks! Majority of people also spoke English in the more touristy areas, even off the beaten path it wasn't difficult to communicate, there was usually someone that could help you.  
 
So ya I definitely recommend Costa Rica even with kids. There are lots of good sites online to help you plan as well. Go! Have fun, you won't regret it

I’ve been to many places in south and Central America and I always say I would never go to the same country twice as I want to see the whole world, not one tiny little region. But! Costa Rica was incredible and I would consider going back. I don’t like historic buildings or architecture, I like oceans and rainforests so this was the best trip yet. We stayed in the La Fortuna area by Lake Arenal. We planned to head all over but there was so much to do in this small area that we ended up staying. We didn’t rent a vehicle as it was recommended and honestly I’m glad we didn’t. Driving in another country is stressful and the amount of curvy gravel backroads would not have made that aspect fun for me. We instead took a bus company from the airport to our area and planned to use them to get around if needed, taxis were also fairly cheap for he area we were in - and we walked a ton as well.  
I suggest looking into this area and saving up money for different activities, we did tons of hiking, zip lines, kayaking, biking, that water thing where you wear a surfboard and it propels you through the air like superman, white water river tubing, hot springs, shopping, and more. We were there for 2 weeks and could have stayed a month.

Thanks so much, I really appreciate the great input!