phone card or cell rental?
 

Does anyone know if it's possible to obtain a prepaid phone card that works for international calls from a pay phone (to US), or if it's possible to rent a cell phone? We'll be travelling 3 weeks all over CR in January, and need to keep in touch with the people watching our pets. We've had difficulty finding international phones before. Thanks!

Both are available. The prepaid phone cards are most economical of the two options. There are two commonly found types. Some people prefer one over the other for ease of use. I wasn't challenged by either one. They're simple to use.

A rental cellular phone is commonly found at the car rental agencies. Kind of expensive if you're planning on moderate to high usage. At first, when we arrived, I wanted to rent a cellular phone. Then, I realized that if the USA can't get cell phones to work properly, how could I expect CR to do this any better?

Locals? What's the real story on cell phones? I'm still curious after returning home.

Thank you--I had the same concern about the cell. Where did you get the phone cards?

We use AT&T--you can add minutes via credit card if you run out. You will get about 1/5 of the time it says on the card. For example, a 500 minute card will give you about 100 minutes. I think it tends to run about 50 cents per. No bad, actually.

I've had trouble this past year using the AT&T from pay phones. Year before that, it was a breeze. I don't know why the difference. But most hotels have phones in the room and you can use them in your room. Hotels without phones in the room have generally been very gracious to allow me to use office phones with my card.

In Costa Rica you can buy a 199 card. This is what the locals use to make calls when out and about or if they don't have a phone at home. For 3000 colones (about $7.00) you can use it to call anywhere in the country (very helpful for us because we travel there frequently, perhaps less necessary for others). You can use that card for about 12 minutes of call time to the U.S. Only the 3000 colones card (they come in smaller amounts as well). I've never used one for this purpose, but have had it explained to me and it is do-able. AT&T is easier, I think.

I never have wanted to mess with a cell phone. We've always been able to make our necessary contacts with one of the 2 cards I mentioned.

My husband was able to buy international cards at Wal-Mart here in the states, and also bought one from the grocery store in Nosara. They are easy to find, and easy to use!

Thanks to all for the info, it sounds like the prepaid cards are the way to go. Most of the places we stay have no phone except in their offices. It will be much easier to stop at pay phones enroute.
We'll post our trip report on return Feb 2nd in case anyone is interested. We'll be staying at El Toucanet lodge, Esquinas Rainforest lodge, Bosque del Rio Tigre and La Amistad lodge.

Enjoy to the fullest! We'd all like to hear about your adventures in your trip report!

And if you get the pay phone deal figured out, PLEASE let me know! I just can't understand how I used my AT&T cards so easily until this year, then absolutely no luck anywhere, anytime, any pay phone! No one down there seems to know either.

Hi Shillmac,
That was our problem last year too.
Absolutely no luck with the AT and T card after trying numerous pay phones.
The fine print on the cards we've seen here in MA says they're usable in countries that accept them, but they don't list them. Very annoying!
We'll be sure to post our card experiences along with our trip report!
Sueb2

Maybe ICE in Costa Rica has changed in some respect. In 2003, I was there for 5 weeks and used my AT&T's in pay phones all over the country--every day. Weird. I wouldn't have minded so much if I could have found someone who could explain it to me. I even thought about going by the ICE office in San Jose this year, but it never was convenient to do so. I really NEED for those to work. Fortunately, as stated earlier, most of the time people in hotel front desk jobs have allowed me to use their phones. I just hate to ask sometimes. Thanks for the confirmation. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong or different.

I'm a terrible person to give info on things where cost is an issue. I say go with convenience as long as its not outrageous! We had cell phones from the rental company, although we weren't calling the US. We had several vehicles so main reason was to stay in contact with each other and other local calls...so only local service the price was $5.00/day included 5 minutes, which was enough for what we needed...over 5 minutes I think something like .30. You could get phones that offered international service to call the US, those were I think $15.00/day...this is from memory just a few months ago, I could be wrong...ok I'm getting old :)