oneicebox

Is there ATM machines outside san jose area? or should we travel with travellers cheques?
We would like to download digital pictures as we travel through the country. does anyone know if there's internet cafe around? How popular is dsl connections in costa rica?

costaricaguide

ATMs are relatively common throughout the country and your best bet for acceptance is a combination of VISA/Plus debit or bankcard (if you withdraw from a credit card you can get hit with pretty high fees)

Internet cafes are ubiquitous in tourist areas (many hotels also have service) but I wouldn't count on downloading a lot of full resolution images as the connections are relatively slow. High speed DSL and cable connections are spotty around the capitol and not available elsewhere. Back up to cds and download once you get home.

shillmac

Yes, you can find many ATM's in Costa Rica. They are in most towns of size in the central valley and a few beach towns as well--the more heavily traveled places such as Tamarindo and Flamingo. We usually have no problem getting colones with ATM's, but occasionally a transaction is cancelled without our understanding why. Traveler's cheques are best for the sole purpose of paying hotels, in my opinion. Other than that, I think they are something of a headache.

You should have no problem downloading digital photos. There are internet cafes everywhere and a few of them (more lately) use DSL. We haven't done this because we have plenty of cards for photo storage, but I've talked with others who download frequently.

shillmac

Ray, We recently used the internet in Tamarindo and Golfito, and the connections were immediate. I assumed they were DSL. Also in San Joaquin in Heredia, there are 2 internet cafes. One has DSL, the other doesn't. I think there have been recent improvements in this regard.

By the way, wasn't it you who mentioned to me a few months ago how much you liked the San Vito area? We were there this summer, and loved it. Particularly we were impressed with the Wilson Botanical Gardens, but we were delighted with our room at the Hotel Rino for only $20 per night, with TV and air conditioning! Breakfast and tax was included. What a deal!

costaricaguide

shillmac,
Yes, the San Vito area is one of my favorite touristically undiscovered areas of Costa Rica. Besides the garden, wetlands, and Talamancas there's some of the best Italian food outside Rome and NYC ;-) Your report in mid-July brought back fond memories. Thanks.

On the topic of downloading, I agree that DSL has started to become more available recently (if you belived racsa and ICE you'd think it was in every home in Costa Rica) but I still wouldn't suggest counting on being able to download all your photos. Newer cameras may hold a Gigabyte or more of data and that takes quite a while even with DSL. I personally use the same strategy as shillmac and carry tons of flash memory so I'm never forced to dump any. I also backup to dvd, cd, laptop, portable usb2 hard-drive, or ftp them onto my internet server when I get a chance. Digital is great but I've seen one too many post like "my little nephew somehow managed to erase the pictures on my camera, is there any way to recover them...?"