Working remotely in Costa Rica - Digital No-Mad Guide

How we ended up in Costa Rica

Hi there! We are Markus and Heidi, two digital nomads who recently spent four months in Latin America. We were nearing the end of our 1-month trip in Mexico and couldn’t figure out where to go next. At that moment we were staying in Puerto Escondido and we knew we didn’t want to go back home to Estonia just yet. The adventure needed to go on, and it did… We decided to head to Costa Rica.

We had a bunch of new experiences in Costa Rica: we experienced our first relatively strong earthquake (while staying in a wooden house built on the edge of a hill). I got a deep head wound during a shamanic ritual and got to explore the local hospitals together with tourist police who didn’t speak a word of English. A scorpion fell into our Airbnb room from the ceiling. But more about these later…

Costa Rica was a place that had always been on top of our minds as a blissful and calm place with an abundance of nature. As always, Heidi had stronger emotions about where to go. For me, the main criteria would be if there is good enough internet for video calls and if the time zone isn’t any worse than it was in Puerto Escondido (working in the EU timezone in the Americas wasn’t something I was a fan of 🙂).

As we did our research, we quickly grew fond of the idea of going there. My ex-colleague had already been living there for a few months and gave us helpful tips about where to go and where not to.

Websites and blogs often mentioned the lack of coworking places and low internet speeds and it was something that made me a bit anxious. Anyone who has had an important video call where their connection failed knows the feeling 😄. Luckily, I was proven wrong. Although we did pick our accommodations pretty carefully and looked at the reviews mentioning fast wifi. Overall we really enjoyed Costa Rica and had 0 regrets about going there.

Long waiting time for immigration

Where to Stay in Costa Rica - Our Itinerary

During our time in Costa Rica, we stayed in several different places. Here's a breakdown of our itinerary:

Montezuma - This was our first stop in Costa Rica. It's a small town with beautiful beaches and a laid-back vibe. We stayed at a hotel called Aves Hotel Montezuma, which was a bit outside of the center. But this wasn’t a big issue as the upside was that the hotel was surrounded by lush greenery with a super large and beautiful garden. It also had a breathtaking sunset view over the jungle and sea, accompanied by the soothing sounds of birds chirping.

Yoga with a rainforest view in Aves Hotel Montezuma!

On our first night there, we randomly discovered that our neighbors in the hotel were also Estonian! Something that doesn’t happen too often on our travels 🙂.

During our stay in Montezuma, we visited the beach nearby and were super lucky to witness baby turtles exiting their nest and waddling towards the sea. It was by complete luck that we stumbled upon it. Soon lots of people gathered to witness this magnificent event.

We also had a couple of hikes while we were there. A short hike in the Montezuma waterfall which wasn’t anything special and a long hike in Reserva Natural Cabo Blanco.

Santa Teresa - Next, we headed to Santa Teresa, which is known for its surf scene. Our initial experience wasn’t that great due to the location of our accommodation. We stayed in Vista Naranja, which was around 1.5 km away from the center.

The first part of the road to the center was quite steep since the accommodation was situated on the edge of a hill. After the quite steep hike downhill we had to walk 5 minutes in a dusty and busy road which was the worst part of the journey since there was no sidewalk and our faces were filled with dust every time.

Normally we would rent a scooter or a car but prices for rentals were really high so it didn’t make much sense for us. Most of the time we took a cab by texting some local WhatsApp taxi drivers. The interesting thing was that there were no official taxi companies in Santa Teresa, at least we didn’t notice one!

The accommodation itself was pretty decent although expensive. We paid around 90 USD per night. The view was amazing since it was pretty high up and we saw the sea from afar with the jungle in the middle. We could very often hear howler monkeys doing their usual howling sounds in the jungle. The wifi was great in the accommodation which was a plus. The negative side was that there was no kitchen so we had to eat out for all the meals.

Our First Earthquake Experience

While staying in Vista Naranja (it’s a wooden house built on the edge of a hill) we experienced our first relatively strong earthquake. It was definitely a scary moment, especially considering that we felt as the house was going to crash down the hill any moment. My first instinct was to get out of the house asap, which we did. Luckily the earthquake didn’t damage the house as it wasn’t that strong after all.

Sunset view from the pool of Vista Naranja

The beaches and the surf were great but the location wasn’t. So we decided to move closer to the center for the next week. Again, we had to pay around 100 USD a night but this time the accommodation itself was very underwhelming. This was also the place where a scorpion fell into our Airbnb room from the ceiling 😀.

Overall, Santa Teresa was a cool place to stay next to amazing beaches and sunsets with great waves for beginner surfers. However, the accommodation prices were too high compared to the value in our opinion.

Monteverde - Monteverde is a cloud forest reserve with incredible hiking trails and wildlife. The name itself already speaks about what to expect with its name meaning “green mountain in Spanish.

We visited the Cloud Forest Reserve, which boasts over 26,000 acres of protected land there. Everyone says it’s a must-visit place but honestly, we didn’t find the experience anything that special considering the 30 USD per person price tag especially considering the hanging bridges were closed. Instead, we recommend doing the zipline + canopy tour, which was a cool experience with many pretty views. We did the one offered by Selvatura and can fully recommend it. The 1km long Superman Zipline at the end was one of the coolest things we have done.

One of many hanging bridges in Monteverde from our Selvatura canopy+zipline tour

Price-wise we were pleasantly surprised to find much cheaper prices there compared to Santa Teresa and Montezuma.

La Fortuna - La Fortuna is home to the Arenal volcano and hot springs. While Monteverde is a very small and hilly town with a very small center, La Fortuna is a bit bigger and completely flat.

We passed the Arenal volcano while taking a water taxi on our way from Montezuma to La Fortuna.

In La Fortuna, we did quite many different activities. Firstly, we visited the Bogarin trail where we hoped to spot our first Sloth. We bought a ticket with the guide and we are grateful that we did as the guides were super skilled in spotting them. In total, we spotted three different sloths.

The trail wasn’t all about sloths either. We also noticed a sleeping owl, a poison dart frog, and a Toucan! Near the entrance, they also had a feeding spot where we saw so many different types of birds and even a capybara!

After that, we had a very relaxing visit to the thermal pools of Tabacon which we would recommend doing as well.

Near La Fortuna, there was also a cool swimming spot with a small waterfall where you could use a rope to swing yourself to the water and drop from a couple of meters. The spot is called El Salto and you can find it on Google Maps. We also did white water rafting.

Puerto Viejo - Our final stop was Puerto Viejo, which is located on the Caribbean coast. Known for its laid-back vibe and beautiful beaches.

We stayed at an Airbnb where we had 1 room and a kitchen in the outdoor area. We really liked the place where we stayed. It was a 15-minute walk out of town but this meant it was super quiet and much closer to nature. While we worked on our computers from the patio we saw many toucans and sloths in the forest next to us. We even noticed a sloth poop (yes, that’s quite special to see since they only do it once a week)!

There’s a lot of natural beauty and amazing beaches around Puerto Viejo. The Cahuita National Park is a short drive away, offering hiking trails through the rainforest and snorkeling opportunities in the coral reefs.

National Parks of Costa Rica

One of the things that makes Costa Rica so special is its abundance of wildlife. There are numerous awesome national parks and you must visit at least one of them. Here’s a good list of parks to visit. We visited The Cahuita National Park near Puerto Viejo which was beautiful and well worth the trip.

Transport and Getting Around in Costa Rica

We found that the easiest way to get around Costa Rica was by shuttle buses. The buses are comfortable and affordable, and they run frequently between the major towns. We also rented a car for a few days to explore some more remote areas. The company we used the most was called Caribe Shuttle.

Best things to do in Costa Rica

There are so many incredible things to do in Costa Rica. Here are some that we did and recommend you to do as well:

Hiking in Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve
Soaking in one of many hot springs near the Arenal Volcano
Surfing in Santa Teresa or in Playa Cocles (if staying near Puerto Viejo)

Visiting the amazing beaches and watching the sunset from the beach. Our favourite beaches were Playa Santa Teresa (a huge beach with amazing sunset views every evening) and Playa Chiquita (very beautiful beach. We saw a sloth in the trees and lots of monkeys. Some of the monkeys even managed to poo on our beach towel from the top of the tree)

White water rafting - We did rafting with a company called Arenal Rafting Company while we were staying in La Fortuna. It was lots of fun!

Ziplining and Canopy Tour - Normally people do these in Monteverde or La Fortuna. We opted for one in La Fortuna which had a super long Superman Zipline and a very nice Canopy walk.
Horseback riding in the rainforest and in the sea. We did it near Puerto Viejo and it was an amazing experience to swim with the horses. It didn’t require prior horse riding skills either.

Internet in Costa Rica

I was a bit cautious about coming to Costa Rica because I read everywhere online that in Santa Teresa the internet was supposed to be very poor and not suitable for video calls. I was pleasantly surprised however once we arrived. We had great speeds in pretty much all of our accommodations across Costa Rica. We did pick our places pretty carefully by looking at the score of the Internet in Booking or by checking reviews of the Airbnb listings. Overall, you shouldn’t worry too much about finding a good internet connection unless you choose some more secluded destinations where the infrastructure isn’t that great.

Wrapping it up

We really enjoyed our trip in Costa Rica and would definitely recommend you to visit it if you get the chance.

That’s it! If you have any questions or want our opinion on anything, let us know in the comments!