Hi there,

My fiance and I are starting to plan our honeymoon to Costa Rica in April/May 2007. We'll be staying in the Quepos/MA area. I started looking at flights from Boston to San Jose and it looks like the earliest we can get there is 10:30 a.m. and the last SANSA flight to Quepos is 1:30.

Would this be a reasonable amount of time to get through customs and to our SANSA flight?

Absolutely

Unless you're flight is delayed by several hours, yes. I've found CR customs & immigrations to be one of the quickest. Sansa is just a short 2-3 minute walk away. Have fun!

Wrap a baby doll up in a blanket--it'll get you to the front of the line! JUST KIDDING! Actually, it probably would work. . . .

You'll have plenty of time. . .

Hi, Tully!

You should have time to even go grab some cold Imperials!

off topic....Hi Jill!!

Thank you!

Now I just have to pray our flight makes it there in time -- I suppose being an early morning flight will help.

I would think so. You should be able to relax regarding the connecting flight. And have an Imperial, as per Tully's suggestion! If everything goes on schedule, you'll have about an hour to spare. Heck, in that time, you can hire a taxi to take you 3 minutes or less to a nearby bar, enjoy a beer while he waits, and get back over there in plenty of time. The taxi ride will probably cost you about $5 total! It beats sitting in the Sansa terminal from 11:30-1:00!

By the way, congratulations!

If you arrive early, you don't want to spend more than an hour waiting in the Sansa terminal. It's not the most comfortable place to wait.

There is a very nice tico restaurant across from the airport. If you don't have much luggage you can easily walk there. Cross the road in front of the airport (be careful!), walk through a little park (very little) and across from that is a place with very good food. They don't open until 11:00 if I remember correctly but that would work out perfectly for you. On the other hand, maybe some food just before a small flight would be a bad idea LOL. You can always just tank up on Imperials-or in my case dark Bavarias to make the flight easier. They have a full bar if you need something stronger.

I don't mean to be the voice of doom on your post. But if your flight from Boston is delayed you could easily miss your flight if the security lines are slow. It happened to us. Have a backup plan like the name of a hotel to stay at near the airport in case you have to change your flight to the next morning. Sansa was nice enough to book us on a morning flight after missing ours and they didn't charge us. But we didn't know where to stay and all of the drivers at the airport were harassing us and following us around. We finally spoke with someone who worked at the SJO airport taxi stand and he gave us a hotel suggestion. It was scary and overwhelming for our first trip. So just have a backup plan in case you miss it.

Excellent advice. It would have been uncomfortable for us, as well, our first time in the country. If that should happen to you, have a taxi take you to Hotel Villa Bonita. Humberto Brenes, the owner, is so kind and helpful. He will either have a room for you at his B&B (inexpensive) or will make arrangements for you to stay somewhere else. In case of such a disastrous arrival (!), it will be comforting to you to immediately be in the presence of a smiling face and helpful hand!

Thanks so much for all your advice. I'm sure we'll have a backup plan just in case, but I'm hoping that nabbing the first flights out of Boston and then Miami will help our chances.

I'm also sure I'll have tons more questions as we really start planning. But from reading this forum it looks like there are some experts here!