Cash - ATMs etc
 

We'll be in CR for 2 weeks & don't want to take alot of cash but see that many places offer cash discounts. Tours are expensive ($40-70). What's the best approach? We'll be spending 1 week in Montezuma. Reading some posts about theft issues, I don't want to carry a lot of cash. Thoughts & advice?

We paid for all of our tours with credit cards, and for restaurants we mostly used cash. Also used credit cards for hotels - one hotel preferred a check. Theft from cars is pretty common; never leave anything of value in your car when you park it.

Have enough to cover yourself for a few days and know where you plan to hit the next ATM. Remember they don't fill/maintain their ATM's like you may be used to so it is good to know where you could also locate a bank, especially if you are coming up to a weekend or a holiday.

Tours will easily run more than $40-$70 but you shouldn't have any trouble using a debit card. Larger restaurants/stores will take plastic but smaller ones won't always be set up for it. When tours offer a discount for cash, it is usually only $5 from what we've experienced.

Small bills are nice for tips and making change.

Have fun!

When we travel I like to go light on cash and rely on ATMs. Found out the last time in CR that wasn't such a good strategy,and ended up having to borrow cash (luckily I had a check) from someone else. The two ATMs in Liberia were out of service or had no cash, and the lines in the banks were out of this world since it was a Friday. And the rest of our vacation were in very out of the way places without banks or ATMs. So I'd take more cash than normal (I'm not talking thousands, just enough to get through a fair amount of your vacation in case an ATM is hard to find) and wear your money belt!

Make sure that either your ATM or credit card will work with Costa Rican banks. I've found that most ATMS will accept cards on the PLUS and Cirrus networks

Also, call your credit card company before you leave to let them know you'll be traveling to another country; sometimes it raises a red flag for them if they're not expecting it.

And request a non-800 telephone number in case you need to call them from Costa RIca.

Keith

Unless you are really unconforatble carrying cash, it is my opinion that CR is one of the places where carrying USD is actually cheaper. Most tours/ hotels quote/ charge in USD. You might as well save conversion fees and ATM trips if you pay USD for the hotels and tours which would form the bulk of your costs anyway.