“Hi Rich and Susan!, or, Hola,! Buenas Tardes:

You made a really good decision to take George’s tour. You will get a lot of information, some suggestions, no bullshit and George will answer ANY QUESTION. He still has the “Minnesota Nice” in him and it shows.




You did spot a trend, but before I get into it, let me answer your questions: We loved the area and the experience, starting with staying at the Melrost, which is pretty typical Tico, laid back, not fancy but nice and it is a good mindset to get into. This is part of your experience in CR and a good way to start. The staff will bend over backwards to help you out, shuttle you around to restaurants, etc., but you make up your own mind.




We liked it for what it was and will stay there again without hesitation. The experience with George is priceless; his job is to give you reasons NOT to make a bad decision and he does it well. No fluff and no lipstick on a pig, if you get my drift.

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We did the CV tour with Jorge’, then went to Lake Arenal for a few days (5) motored on to Manuel Antonio and stayed there a few more days, then came back to the CV area to meet up with some friends we made, stayed a few more days in Atenas and Grecia, then back to Alajuela to stay at the Melrost for our last night and then home.



There goes 2/15-3/3. Our experience was wonderful; we drove all over, stayed in some funky places, ate local food (I dropped 9 in 2 weeks by eating good food) and met people that are friends for life.









Bottom line is we both really liked CR and have plans to return. See below. There were a lot of places we did not get to, but these were planned into tour 2 and we still have them on our agenda. We loved all the areas we visited and our experiences were excellent.




When you are on your own, just use your head and a good GPS like a Garmin with a CR chip (about $60 on Amazon) and you will not have any problems. My Garmin with the chip had gravel roads on it I am pretty sure the local goats don’t know exist…








Oddly enough, and funny you should write today, as today we were to leave for 2 more months in Costa Rica, but we got sidelined by my mother-in-laws health (we were taking her with us) but we are rescheduling now for Jan/Feb, so CR has not seen the last of us, by any measure. I really will miss not being there this summer and Dena and I were going to put in a guest appearance at the July 21 dinner you all will be at, but we will save that for another time!




Those dinners with expats at night are priceless. Ask them what it costs to live there and they will tell you. They have no reason to bs you and they don’t. They have nothing to sell…




Costa of Living Rule of Thumb?

You can live fine on $2,000, very nicely on $3,000 and very, very well on $4,000. The numbers are per month. Either renting or owning it works out the same. Difference being is owning you have an asset and renting you are free to move.




Everyone with any sense will tell you that you need to live in Costa Rica for 6 months before you make any decision as to moving over for good. George will tell you that too, so listen well and don’t fall in lust. It’s very, very easy to do that in Costa Rica, so keep you heads screwed on straight.

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We packed pretty light, there are some good web sites you can google as to what to take, but remember what you take you have to carry along with you and you are in a tropical location.




In the Central Valley it can get cooler at night, so one light jacket like a golf windbreaker and one or two pairs of long pants, comfortable shoes, polos or t shirts and a lot of shorts will get you by. Dress is pretty casual and if you insist on spending time and money in the expensive resorts, you will be missing what the country is all about.









Not that you should not do that, but take my advice, you can go to little America in America, why would you want to do that in Costa Rica? I don’t think there was anything missing in our packing-just common sense, knowing what the weather is likely to be and not overpacking will be all you need to consider. A good weather web is worldweatheronline.




When looking for a specific location, you have to type in, as an example, Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica and you can get beacoup information, historical data, averages, charts, etc. I use this like the weather bible and it really is superb.

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Cash is king and ATMS are the way to go. Just make sure you tell your credit card holders and banks you will be out of the country and you might want to up your daily limit for withdrawls. I did and never needed any great excess, but one never knows. If you rent a car.




AMEX has a great foreign insurance program where they charge you about 40 bucks to cover your additional damage, etc. needs and it’s good for 42 days. This is a boatload cheaper than buying it in-country, though you will still have to get liability and that runs 11-18 a day. Try VAMOS car rental as a first. They are pretty straight and are customer oriented.




Finally, forget what you think you know and just drink in the country. I spent over a year researching CR and my head was filled with all kinds of data, but I decided to forget what I thought I knew and just let the country talk to me, not me talking to the country. Observe and enjoy and let it all in. I’ll bet you don’t frown once in CR and if you do, the locals will wonder what kind of mental baggage you are carrying that makes you so dour.




They are a great people living in a country that has it’s faults, none of them fatal and they work to live, not live to work. BIG difference and you may have to get used to that kind of thinking. Took me about 19 seconds to figure out they are way ahead of 99% of the people in the US.







About the trend thing: of 11 people on our tour with George, 9 are coming back. I put Dena and I on the split time list for a while as I think we will be in the US some and CR until her mother is ready for assisted living, then our plan is in CR about 9 months and the US 3 out of each year. We have a fairly new grandkid (3) and without him, we would be on the 9/3 plan right now. We cannot think of any compelling reasons NOT to come back.




Honestly, I miss CR dearly but know that I will be back soon, so that’s how I stay calm when I think about it. So much beauty, people so humble and helpful and our long term health would be so much better, but we have to do what we have to do to help Dena’s mom get healthy, so she can experience CR and with her allergies and asthma under control, I am dead certain her health will improve 100% and she will probably want to stay in CR once she gets there.




If you have allergies, expect them to go away in about 24 hours in CR. You will be fine until you return home. That’s a teaser line and with that I will sign off.

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Too much information, I know, but I feel compelled to tell it like it is. Email me after your trip, which I hope is at least two weeks and share your thoughts with me. Give it a week or so after you get back to let it all settle in.




Best of luck to you, listen to George and the expats, have some fun, eat local, drink the water (anywhere) and learn some Spanish. Google coffee break Spanish for some excellent, short lessons that you can work through on your computer at your own pace.









The teacher is Irish, of all things, but he gets the job done and you will enjoy these lessons a lot. We do them once or twice a day in our free time and it does not take all that long to get to the point where at the very worst, you won’t embarrass yourselves…………and if you at least try with the locals, they respect the fact you are trying and will go a long, long way to help you out.” Pura Vida!” Gary Amoth




This letter was written in response to people interested in taking George Lundquist’s Costa Rica retirement Tour. George is the founder of Costa Rica Retire on Social Security. If you are thinking of retiring in Costa Rica, you might want to consider the retirement tour that George offers, his goal is to share his experiences here with you to save you time and money!

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