Do you really need to get to the airport 3 hours before the flight back to the US? We have never heard of needing to arrive 3 hours early at any airport before - even London Heathrow gets you through in 2 hours. What takes so long?

Sorry to complain, but this just doesn't seem a good way to end our trip

Thank you for your help.

Yes, you'd better plan on that--or close to it. We at least try to be there 2.5 hours ahead. There have been numerous posts about this in the past, and the answer is always the same. You can never predict how long it will take; depends entirely on how busy the airport is at any given time. Weekdays tend to be not so bad, particularly in the early afternoon (at least that has been our experience). I would expect mornings to be a little worse. We try to avoid mornings, just because we hate the early rushing.

On the bright side, there are some nice gift shops to while away the extra hour or so that you MIGHT end up with! It really isn't so unpleasant, and shouldn't be a bad ending to your trip.

As for London Heathrow, I've not flown out of there, but our daughter missed a flight about 3 years ago when she arrived 2 hours before the flight and was told she needed to be there 4 hours ahead of flight time. This was just after 9-11, so perhaps they've relaxed the time factor a bit. . .

Part of the problem is that you actually have 3 major lines to go through. 1) to obtain your exit voucher 2) to check-in and 3) to go through security. Weekends get very crowded because most airlines have generally the same departure times (or at least feels that way). Also depending on your airline, they might weigh your individual pieces of luggage and if you are over on one - you see people rearranging their clothes between their luggage pieces at the ticket counter (which obviously slows down the lines).

Luckily the have x-ray machines now and don't require the hand searching of each piece.

I agree with shillmac, I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the gift shops were and the prices were very reasonable.

Give yourself 2.5 hours. You don't want to end your trip by missing your plane (well spending an extra day in CR may not be that bad after all )

Yeah, I would give it 3 hours to be on the safe side. I've been ready to go within 45 minutes of arriving, but you can never tell.

I flew out about 10 days ago. The line for security alone took about an hour. People in that line were lined up all the way out the door and down the street outside. I've been hearing that this is happening a lot these days. Check-in at the airline counter before that took another 45 minutes. It just can be a very slow-moving airport. You're taking a big chance by not getting there when they tell you, and yet there have been times I've breezed through it all in 15 minutes. There is never any way to predict.

I agree- more than 2 hrs is best. We were able to get by with 2 hrs recently with my wife's elite status. They also were hand checking luggage after going through the xray machines.

On the other hand entry upon arrival was very quick this time.

To save a little time you can pay for your departure tax at the beginning of your trip when you arrive at the airport. There's a booth right before
you go through immigration where you can prepay your departure tax. Even doing this I would still suggest arriving 2 1/2-3 hours early.

I think the line to pay the departure tax when you leave moves the quickest of the three lines. There may be a lot of people, but it's a fast transaction and goes quickly. I've thought about paying the tax upon arrival but never do because so often the lines at passport control are horrendous. It always seems to me to be the best use of my time to get in that line and not dawdle with some other task. There is just never any way to predict what you'll run into. "Capricious" is a good way to describe that airport.

I guess we were lucky because I found San Jose airport to be more efficient then most U.S. airports! You can also pre-purchase your departure tax at many hotels - we were able to do this at the Aurola Holiday Inn - no lines and minimum hassle! We did leave midday on a weekday so that could be why we did not encounter very long lines. I was impressed by the fact that they had a separate line for families with kids under 18. Costa Rica is definitely very family friendly. Security was curteous and quick as was the checking of departure tax and check-in. Still, even with all that smoothness - I still felt we needed to be there 3 hours earlier. This is partly because we wanted to fit in lunch - we had 8 hours of travel ahead of us with no meals on the planes. I had expected to find some time to shop in the airport gift shops and had barely 20 minutes to do my final bit of shopping. They did start loading early (1 hour before departure) so this obviously factors into why you need to be there so early.

> I was impressed by the fact
> that they had a separate line
> for families with kids under 18.
> Costa Rica is definitely very
> family friendly.

That separate line for families with kids isn't quite what you think. They are doing a check (one out of many checks in the exit process) to ensure that minors are leaving the country with proper authorization and with the proper adults. If something looks suspicious, that is one place in the process where a problem would be caught. I just did an article on this aspect of the airport procedures in Costa Rica.

But one of the end results is a nice convenience for families traveling with children.

I just returned home from Costa Rica and I was traveling with my 15 year old neice..We do not have the same last name or look like we are even from the same family. No one (leaving the US or returning from Costa Rica)checked our papers or even asked about us traveling together.. anyone could have been with her. We were told to bring proper documents from her parents that were notorized but as I said no one even checked.. so much for security here or there...

That's interesting....when I enter Canada from the U.S. with my kids and my husband is not with us they are extremely particular. The first time I went through by myself I was unaware of having a notarized letter and immigration threatened to send us back! Another time I forgot my letter, they hassled me a bit but ultimately let me go through. I'm really surprised that they didn't check more thoroughly with your niece!

I went through there last Wednesday for a 7:30am flight. I arrived at 5:30 and got through all 3 lines in about an hour.