Marilyn

A friend of mine is going along on a high school trip to Costa Rica on rather short notice, leaving Feb 14. Can someone confirm for me that ATM's are readily available in major cities, and do they work on Star or Cirrus systems? Thanks!

CarolM

There are ATMs in San Jose, and some in the more major tourist areas, but not all areas. I recommend NOT relying on finding an ATM; even if you do find one, there is a chance it will be out of order. They work on the Cirrus and PLUS systems, from what I can recall. Take cash, traveler's checks, credit cards.

sandy_b

Even when the ATMs are not working, you can take your card inside the bank and obtain money. When I was there, that's what I had to do about half of the time. It did take longer but it did work OK.<BR><BR>Buen viaje,<BR>Sandy

lprasz

You might also try going to your local Thomas Cook office. You can get Costa Rican money there, and get off the plane with the local currency in your pocket. That's what I do, wherever I travel to.

Iza

We found that ATMs in bigger cities and towns worked just fine: we used them in San Jose and Liberia. You have a better chance of finding one that uses the Visa based system, although we had no trouble finding ones that use the MC based system.<BR>On our first trip to CR we took cash and traveller's checks, but found it really unnecessary. The second time we relied on ATMs and credit cards and it worked really well. The important thing is always to plan a few days ahead so that you can get cash for a few days at a major city and not be stuck in a small town without an ATM.