Perhaps the best recommendation can be made is to come and visit. Before buying a car, you take a test drive first. Relocation to a foreign country is also a major investment and it is important to 'test drive' the country first. Ideally, you should consider spending at least a month or two getting to know Costa Rica - from the inside. It's just not enough to do a week's flying visit and expect to get the picture. It's important to get under the tourist veneer and look for the real Costa Rica that might become your home.
"Introductory tours" are available that bring down potential settlers and offer seminars and whistle-stop visits around the country. Whilst providing helpful information, some of the professionals involved have vested interests in wooing your custom and may not provide a balanced appraisal of what day-to-day living is like. Give one a try certainly, but then extend the visit to travel around by yourself.
Successful, content expatriates are often those who have made several visits over the years before finally making the decision to move permanently and finding which part of the country will suit their needs best.
The country is small but very varied and time should be spent in different areas to find out both the positive and negative aspects to each region. The view from that mountain refuge might be gorgeous but what about utilities, access, communications?
Would you be able to tolerate the soaring temperatures and high humidity along some parts of the coast? Do you really want the isolation of the Guanacaste peninsula however beautiful or the cosmopolitan bustle of San José - where is the best mid-way compromise?
You should try to meet other expatriates who have made the transition into the 'Tico' lifestyle. There are many popular watering holes both in the Central Valley and on the beaches to meet with and chat to foreign residents.
English-speaking clubs in San José are worth contacting to find out their angle. Most don't charge for a first visit and you will get to hear about the real 'ins and outs' of what happens here.
Scoring High with your Homework
As well as giving the country a thorough test drive by coming for an extended visit, do your homework before finally committing to a move. Find out as much as possible about what will be required.
You will save yourself expense, worry and possible disappointment by looking carefully into several main areas such as these:
- Residency requirements
- If setting up a business interests you, what is involved?
- Accessing your income if you depend on a pension or income from outside
- Where to live and what climate?
- Health concerns
- Education of your children
- Getting around
And you need to consider carefully other factors that will influence your successful integration into life here such as learning Spanish or whether you will still have close ties back home that might need you to fly back on a regular basis or even where you are going to find friends.
Good luck with your research!
gLooking around this website will help provide much background and answers to these questions and it is well worth reading books, such as Mavis Biesanz' "The Ticos" which is a treasure trove of background information and facts.
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