Travelling

Travelling by plane

Inland flights are secured by companies Sansa, Grupo TACA and Travelair. The flights could be booked by means of any travel agency or via internet. Sansa is operating with small planes (14 passengers) and the demand is big, so that the flights could be reserved in advance. The allowed weight of one piece of luggage is 12 kgs. Travelair offers better connection but it is rather expensive.

Travelling by bus

In Costarica, you can meet two sorts of buses, such as: directo and normal. Directo buses are quicker, but rather expensive. Normal buses present slower lines with more stops. San Jose is a traffic centre for the whole country, however, you cannot find central bus station in the capital. In general, the fare is cheap, the longest distance from San Jose costs USD 8.

Travelling by car

The roads are narrow, with many curves. Road signs are missing. This fact complicates a traffic, especially during the night or fog, or when it is raining. The traffic of lorries is very compact. We wish to recommend you, not to underestimate your efficiency, not to travel in the night and during strong rain. The stage of most roads is relatively bad (consistent asphalted surface is missing, the repairs, if done, are provisional, the landslips are appearing, as a consequence of heavy rains or erosion, the extreme banks of roads are missing). All such facts complicate the driving, especially in the night, in fog or in rain period (since May till December). The traffic rules are often ignored by local drivers.The drive under influence of alcoholic drinks is taken for standard situation during night hours.

If you wish to travel by car in Costarica, most of rent-a-car offices are situated in San Jose. The rent is not too cheap, in high saison the lease costs USD 350 for a week, for small two-doors vehicle and USD 450 approx. for small airconditioned jeep.

Necessary Documents

Travelling to Costarica, you need a passport, valid for six months at least after a moment when you leave the country. Provided you travel by car, the driving licence and a document regarding car ownership are required. In case of loss or theft of travelling document, the Embassy will be helpful to you to issue the provisional document. Costarica authorities require that the citizens would get, before they leave the country, this provisional document the confirmation regarding the entry, which could be obtained in Central Migration Office in San Jose.

The citizens of European Union are permitted to travel to Costarica without entry visa for time period of 90 days. The stay for tourist purposes of 90 days could not be prolonged. If you intend to stay longer in the country, you must leave Costarica minimaly for 72 hours and return again.

The eventualy visas for longer stays, different from tourist purposes, are granted by Costarica Embassies and Consulates abroad.

When you violate stay regime in Costarica, you are menaced with arrest by locale police authorities and could be expelled from the country. Within past time period, local authorities made more severe controls of foreigners´stay regime. We wish to recommend you, in this connection, that, in a moment of passing of Costarica border (in both directions) you receive the respective entry or exit stamp into your passport, not taking into consideration a fact, that in many cases the immigration officer refuses to stamp your passport at all.

Close to the borders with Panama and Nicaragua, local Costarica police authorities effect the controls of travelling documents, whether the respective stamps are placed there. If some stamp is missing, as a fault of local officer at the border, the tourists could have serious troubles and an expulsion is menacing them.

Since August 2002, the changes of migration legislation, regarding long-term stays in Costarica,  went into operation. All these requests could be executed in Costarica Embassy abroad, not in a moment of arrival at migration office.

When leaving Costarica, you have to pay airport tax amounting to USD 26. The fee could be paid in advance in Banco de Credito Agricola de Cartago or in Banco de Costa Rica.

The nearest Costarica Embassy for Central Europe is  placed in Berlin, Germany.(emb@botschaft-costarica.de, consulado@botschaft-costarica.de)