Departure Tax and Using Large Bills
 

We are a family of four travelling to Costa Rica. Can I pay our departure tax as a lump sum of $104 (i.e. with a hundred dollar bill) or do I need to break it down separately into groups of $26? I'd like to reduce the bulk of my cash wad with a few $100 bills - is there a problem using large bills (for my tour guide tips, driver tips, and departure tax)? Thanks.

Personally I would take nothing higher than 20's, and make sure those are in good shape, no tears. The tour guides/drivers may have problems trying to cash in anything larger than a $20. I have a Visa/debit card and I pay the tax with that.

<b>is there a problem using large bills</b>

Apparently there are a lot of counterfeit $100 bills floating around world-wide so you might run into problems getting them cashed.

In January we ran into this two times, once in Amsterdam where the exchange company at Schiphol airport made us wait 15 minutes (maybe to see if we began to sweat and then made a run for it?) before changing a $100 to Euros, and a second time in Tanzania when a Serengeti official would not accept a $100 for an entrance fee and we had to pay with smaller bills. Dunno if there are similar worries in CR though.

In both cases the head size indicated it was an older bill and these older ones were easy to counterfeit ... I may have this backwards, but I think the big head bills were acceptable and the small head bills were not.

So at least find out which hundreds are suspect and not take those, but I'd also bring 20's and 50's, which didn't seem to give anyone heartburn.

Bill

Oh - you can pay the departure tax with a Visa card? I seem to have run across several posts where travellers were hoarding their last $26 of cash?

We use hundreds to pay our lodging. We have used them in a little grocery store in San Isidro a couple of times. As a rule though, hundred dollar bills are going to be suspect so having smaller bills is better. We pay our visa bill off every month and really dislike the extra charges we get when traveling. We have found many places in CR add the 6% that the bank charges them to your bill. Add to that the charge to convert the money into US on the charge and you probably have a total of 9% just for those two things never mind sales tax and a 10% tip when buying meals.

We have always paid our departure tax in cash. I know we have used a $50 bill. I do suggest that people tuck the money in their passport when I think they might be traveling on a budget so that they don't loose track of having to have it. You do have the option of buying the departure stamp when you get there. There is a desk in the immigration area. If you misplace them you will have to buy them again. Visa is accepted as well.

For tips, tour guides etc, I would definitely have smaller bills.

What is the departure tax? I haven't heard of this, but I've only traveled out of the country once.

Costa Rica lets you pay the departure tax with a credit or debit card, but processes the transaction as a cash advance, and so you have to pay your bank whatever fees are associated with that. It will work out to more than $26 ultimately.

The departure tax is basically an airport tax. Most countries charge them, but the U.S., Canada and Europe, among others, include them in the price of the ticket. In a lot of Latin American countries, you fork over the money at the time of airport departure.

I would highly recommend to not bring anything higher than a $20. Generally, as mentioned previously, there are a lot of counterfit worries and you could have troubles.

As far as departure tax you don't need exactly $26 per person, you could do $104 with twenties and dollars.

Good Luck!

lutherkins, the departure tax, aka, exit fee is what you pay at the airport before you can leave Costa Rica. It is $26 USD pp and can be paid with Visa, US dollars or colones. MC not accepted. We just got back yesterday and paid with $20's and used the rest of our colones for the rest. There were two window booths open and as we arrived early, did not have to wait.

Sorry lutherkins, I just saw that Jeff had already answered your question and much better than I.

As diantha mentions, there are two places in the check-in area to pay your tax. The line where everybody goes is across from the TACA counter. It's almost as if no one knows about the other place, across from the American Airlines counter. I always go there and walk right up, never having to wait. I flew out early yesterday morning and asked the woman there, &quot;Does nobody know about this line?&quot; She laughed and told me that she sometimes goes over to the other place to get people to ease the line there.

Okay, now that I've given this away, you'll ALL be using &quot;my&quot; line. :)

Jeff, that is where we sneak in to pay too! Hope everybody doesn't show up there now.

Isn't it funny how no one ever sees that other line? I think it's cause more people tend to use the one entrance (1st entrance) and automatically assume that's the only line.