(Study Abroad) Travel Advice

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1. Use buses. They are cheap. It may take a little while to figure out the bus system, but once you figure it out you will save lots of money.

2. If you use a taxi, only hire the red ones. You will see tons of them, and they all have a number on the back. These taxis are official and much less likely to rip you off. Make sure that they turn their meter on so that they can’t try charging you a lucrative sum of money. Don’t tip them; the tip is included in the cost.

3. Travel light and travel cheap. The cheaper you travel the safer you are. You won’t be a mugging target and heavy rain won’t be an issue (as it would be if you were carrying, say, a laptop.)

4. At night, walk around in a group.

5. Save money by not eating at restaurants. I would go to the market in Heredia every Thursday and purchase 5 avocados, some packets of refried beans, and some tortillas. Most of my weekend meals consisted of bean and avocado tacos with a side of cheap fruit, and they were delicious. This saves lots of money.

6. If you want to learn the language and experience the culture more personally, limit the amount that you travel with your study abroad group. Some travel with them is great, of course, because you get to know them very well, but I thoroughly enjoyed branching off on my own.

7. *You don’t have to go home right when your program is finished!* If you don’t want to spend the money for an extra term of study abroad, but you want to live for free in Costa Rica or anywhere else, look into different volunteer programs that you can participate in. Two that I know of that are very popular are WWOOF and Workaway. Here are the links:

http://www.wwoof.net/

http://www.workaway.info/





These programs are amazing because they are true volunteer opportunities that don’t charge you to work there. It is an exchange of labor for food and shelter. I worked on a farm in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica for 5 weeks after my study abroad time ended, and the experience was one of the best of my life. I blogged about my farm experience farther down on this page, so read it if you’re interested.

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Comments

[Kiki]

Thank you!
Thank you for such practical advice! Looking at the US travel warnings can be scary and they made it sound like there are practically NO safe public means of travel in Costa Rica. That's one of my biggest fears about possibly living there for a year.