hi again, wondering how much cash i should bring for a week in Costa Rica? (keeping in mind what some posts have said about safety and lack of atm's..).
I was thinking $50 in colons, and maybe $150 in USD and hope to use cr.cards/find atm's for the rest? thank u!

Tou don't need to get colones before you get to CR, really. You'l get them in change when you pay with USD. I think I took $100 USD or so, got the rest from atm's which I had no problem with.

You don't need to get colones before you get to CR, really. You'l get them in change when you pay with USD. I think I took $100 USD or so, got the rest from atm's which I had no problem with

jessy 123, there really is no need to take any colones. We have always taken cash and travelers checks. Sometimes there is a charge to use a credit card. We have never attempted the ATM's due to the many people that have posted their unreliability.

As for how much, I WISH we could get by only taking $150. I hope my husband never reads this!

I guess we were lucky , we used the ATMs a lot with no problem , we brought some travellers cheques , and some U.S. cash . Faith

Faithie and Tully, what type of ATM cards do you have? Were they VISA or Mastercard, and were they PLUS or Cirrus? I am thinking of opening a new checking acct. to get a VISA w/ PLUS, because I have a Mastercard w? Cirrus and heard they were less realiable. I would love to hear about your experiences.

I used an atm that is visa/plus. Used it all over the world and so far no problems, knock on wood! From what I've read, people have the least problems with the visa/plus.

The only time we problems with our Visa/Cirrus card was over New Year's - by Monday morning none of the machines had any cash! One thing that was a big help was getting a Visa Debit card. That allowed to get cash from any bank when the ATMs were out of commission. It was a $5 fee / transaction, regardless of amount, but was worth it for additional access.

One more item - although many businesses say they take credit cards, there is a reluctance to actually do so. 'The machine is broken', 'We're out of credit card slips', 'I forgot to bring the machine in today' are some of the excuses we heard. There's also the 6% surcharge on credit transactions that dfarmer mentioned (this is almost always stated upfront, though).

-Jeff

A couple of things. You don't need colons. Every merchant/vendor takes dollars. They'll convert colons to dollars for you but they don't always give you the bank rate... Our goal was not to get any colons because, if you're stuck with them at the end of the trip, you won't be able to exchange them for dollars except at a bank which is usually a very time consuming place to be. (We did get some colons but were able to use them up.) We paid for everything by credit card where we could and dollars where we couldn't. You'll need a lot of small US bills ($1s, $5s and $10s) becuz in those situations where credit cards aren't accepted, you'll want to pay the exact amount or else you'll get colons in change. Cab drivers, some grocery stores, and some restaurants do not accept credit cards. Also, if you take a tour, there will be fees for the place you're going, the tranportation to get you there, and/or the guide who explains everything (tours are the only way to be sure you see all there is to see in CR that's unique). Some of those fees cannot be put on a credit card. Nor can the tip for the guide.

Some ATM machines, if they work at all, do not give cash, only colons. My ATM card and VISA card did not work at the only bank in Tamarindo (only place I tried) and when I ran out of cash I spent 2 hours in a bank line there which I was told was not unusual. I made a $125 advance on my credit card and did receive dollars. We had taken $300 cash for 8 days and ran out in large part becuz the Sky Trek people claimed their credit card machine was down which set us back an unexpected $80 cash (which was better than being sent away as some unfortunate folks were who didn't have the cash). Also, when you leave the country, there is an exit fee of $26 or $27 per person which gets paid at the airport and can't be paid by credit card. We didn't find crime to be an issue. Just be careful as you would anywhere carrying a decent sum of cash.

Upon further reflection, we had to use a significant amount of our dollars on two private transports (San Jose to Arenal and Monteverde to Tamarindo; we didn't want to drive ourselves). If you're renting a car, that should cut down on your dollar needs.

dave

Thanks for the great info. One other question: will restaurants, tours,etc. take larger denominations, like 50's 100's were there won't be much change back? (hope that makes sense)

From what I've read, it's hard to get rid of anything over 20's, and the 20's need to be relativly new/crisp at that. I didn't use 50's or higher so can't give you first hand info. Although it is easy to use USD in CR, I do find it respectful to use their currency as much as possible and you will almost always get it in change.

We much prefer to use colones. It makes the transactions easier, at least to us! We do exactly what you have proposed. We take an ATM card (Visa Plus for sure), a credit card, and about $200 cash. That's it. Just enough to get us started, then we pick up colones at the ATM's and go from there. We've never had trouble getting rid of colones at the end of a trip--you can use them to buy your departure tax. Frequently, we'll bring anywhere from $10 to $50 home with us, stash it, and take it back the next time. If we ever come to the point where there isn't a next time, then my husband knows to bury it with me--heaven has to be a lot like Costa Rica!

You may want to consider taking some extra cash in the form of travellers checks, just in case.

We found that ATMs worked for us in most places (La Fortuna, Sarapiqui, Liberia, Monteverde). There were options to get both dollars and colones, which is quite rare when we travel in a foreign country. As we went down south, I only found Banco Nacional (in Palmar sur and Puerto Jimenez). That bank had only colones as the option, and it kept telling me "Transaction Cancelled" each time I tried a withdrawal. Luckily I had traveller's checks that I could use in a couple of places that did not take credit cards.

I found that quite a few of the smaller hotels do not take credit cards. They generally prefer cash to traveller's checks, since it takes them about 30 to 60 days to get their money.

Another interesting thing I ran into: Visa was the preferred credit card. I was unable to use my mastercard on atleast 3 occasions, one of them being the airport where I wanted to use it to pay the airport tax.

As was mentioned VISA PLUS is the way to go. The ATM's prefer these. There are places that don't like to accept travelers checks because there is a bank fee for them to cash them. Some places also charge you the 6% bank fee to use a credit card. A combination is the best way because you can run into just about anything.

One thing that was not mentioned is how much you are going to have to pay for once you get there. Are your hotels already taken care of? What types of transportation? How many meals a day are you going to have to buy? Tours? All of these can affect the amount.

Thanks for all the help everyone. What denomination did you have your travelers' checks in?

Since this question comes up again, I thought these answers, although varied, are needed again.