Money

The local currency in Costa Rica is the colon. ($1 = 500 colones [kho-loan-ez]). Most restaurants, food markets, and activities readily accept US dollars as long as they don't have any rips or tears. If you pay in dollars, most all places will accept dollars and give you change in local currency of colons. This beats any exchange rate from a Currency Changer.

Cash is king and the U.S. dollar will do nicely. DO NOT exchange money before traveling, as your exchange rate in the US will not be as good as in Costa Rica. We changed $100 into colons before leaving for Costa Rica and that was the biggest rip-off of our whole trip. Should your budget allow, bring half or at least one-third of what you plan to spend in dollars. Small bills are helpful but not totally necessary. This makes for easier transactions and will not cost you in the long run as some places tack on an exchange rate should you use credit cards or traveler's checks.

ATMs are readily available in large towns and cities - the town of La Fortuna has several.

Traveler's checks are fine, but they can be more difficult to exchange and you will usually receive a poorer exchange rate or be charged an additional fee.

Credit cards are accepted only in the resorts, larger restaurants and stores. Although it is helpful to bring a credit card along, don't count on using it for most small purchases. We found that arranging activities through the front desk of the Lost Iguana made it easy to check out and pay for the room and activities in one big transaction.

Travel cheaply. La Fortuna has a couple of convenient stores called "Super Christians" that sell snacks, soda, juice, beer, wine, hard liquor, fruits, veggies, ice cream, sundries, and assorted aspirins and medications you'd find at any 7-11 Store. Prices are what you'd pay in the States. Stop here should you need more supplies. Most hotels have mini-fridges so you can enjoy a cold one as the volcano erupts at night. We also packed lunches and snacks and found ourselves rarely stopping for lunch as we were always out for the day off having fun!

Our daily budget was $150 for the both of us and we stuck to that pretty closely. This however did not include the cost of any transportation - be it a rental car or airfare. Overall our budget was pretty consistent. Though some days we'd spend under $100 and then other days were closer to $200 depending on the cost of an activity or where we wanted to sleep. Eating at Sodas (diners) was a smart way to save money and we'll dine there most evenings again so we have money to spend on adventures instead of appetites. You can make your trip to Costa Rica as luxurious as you want it to be or as economical as you need it to be. We plan to mix in a bit of both.

Travel smart. Like any new place you travel to, keep your guard up. In our first few days in Costa Rica in 2006, we heard several first hand stories of people losing cameras, purses, and backpacks to theft. This panicked us at first. However, when pressed, these same people admitted that "I left my bag alone for a few seconds and when I came back it was gone." Such an incident can happen in any city! So be smart. It should also be noted that all stories of theft occurred in either the capital of San Jose or on the beaches. Never did we hear of any issues in La Fortuna.

Travel light. Keep all items in a backpack and hold onto it. Do not leave stuff locked in your car. Do not walk around with all of your money in your wallet. Buy a money belt at any travel store and wear it under your shirt. In it, keep some money along with copies of your airline tickets, credit cards, and passports. It may be a pain to carry your camera everywhere, like we found lugging around a video camera everywhere, but bringing with you only what you need makes packing for the day that much easier. We felt very confident leaving all valuable contents in our hotel rooms for the day, like iPods, and never had a worry or an issue about anything being taken. For peace of mind, most hotels have an in-room safe, or, you could simply bring a lock for your suitcase.