9 Things to Consider when Choosing an Area in Costa Rica

woohoo we are live I have not been live in so long as usual with the live I got to wait for some people to pop on here and then we're going to get into the topic so if you're watching the replay I'm going to chat a little bit about nine things that you should be considering when choosing an area to live in Costa Rica so and also I do have a little fun bonus thing for you that I created a long time ago it's down in the description it's a quiz it's a quiz that I created and it'll help you you know you can kind of it considers a lot of these factors that we're going to talk about but in the quiz you know you'll go ahead and take it and then it will you know calculate kind of what's your best area and I do have a fun little um kind of review on that quiz that I saw this morning in my inbox because I did send that out via email again as a reminder to people so we got someone on here so if you're here definitely feel free to say hello you can say hi in the in the box if you're on Facebook Facebook I won't be able to see your name because I'm here on Facebook and YouTube if this is your first time viewing I guess if you're on Facebook and you're looking at this this is my group so welcome to the group all right we got some extra people on here so I appreciate you know the Facebook group has gotten so big uh which is very exciting I'm gonna be more present in the Facebook group you know we're always a little bit busy over here helping people move to Costa Rica but I have been working on a new social media plan and part of that is going to be going live three times times a week so I thought of some great topics to you know bring up with you guys help you guys think about so we're going to jump into them because you know here we are and let's just get into the material so thank you okay we got Ken here Indigo nice to see you thank you for joining so anyone who's watching right now have some of you already moved or are you moving or you thinking about moving maybe if you can comment that would help me also understand kind of where people are at in their process who are you know here on this live stream because today's topic is about nine things to consider when choosing an area so these are things because choosing a wrong area for your move can definitely be kind of detrimental to your experience I did that so when I first moved to Costa Rica I was 30 minutes walking up a hill I did a lot of things wrong when I moved so I do like to use my own experience okay got they're going to they're going to move to manual Antonio around capos that's beautiful area I've also lived there so when I first moved to Costa Rica I was 30 minutes walking up a mountain not a good idea um I had rented a car with some other friends but they kind of took over the car and so I didn't really have access to that I remember the sun was setting and I'm walking up this mountain I thought like a Jaguar was going to come out and eat me I was new to Costa Rica I was like I'm gonna die so I was a little bit dramatic back then this was eight and a half years ago um but even the closest town to me had one little store that just had like a little window and you could ask for a few things that was it so choosing your area wisely I obviously I was there for two weeks and I was like I cannot do this I hopped I rolled my stuff my two suitcases down the mountain hopped on a bus dominical was my closest town and then I have moved in a lot of different areas since then okay we got Mauricio he's from Costa Rica he lives in the US since 1990 planning to go back for retirement but not full-time you know I actually do get a lot of emails from um Costa Ricans who you know ended up moving to the United States at a younger age and then are coming back so that's really cool perfect okay Joe moved to P Coco two years ago so then maybe you can just think of some of these points and let me know if you feel like if that's how you kind of Base your area off of too so number one for choosing an area well lot I'd like to start with climate with people because as you know Costa Rica has a lot of different microclimates so climate I talked to a lot of people who think that they want to live by the beach they're like yep I want to be by the beach I want to sit my P coladas on the beach all day but the reality of it is it's the heat can really get to you like we're in summertime right now our summer season actually I heard some Thunder yesterday and I got really excited and I do think we got a little bit of rain thank goodness but normally we don't have rain during these months and it's getting really hot I have to I do live by the beach I'm 3 minutes I have to have the AC on I would pay a lot of money just to have a nice Cool Spring Breeze come through my window now however you know over this past weekend I had to go up to the Central Valley for an appointment and beautiful weather so you can be in Costa Rica if you've never been before and you're watching this there's so many different climate options there's been times where I am freezing because I'm you know I'm by the beach I you go up to Mont Verde oh my friend AR Rouge it's my best friend from the United States um I've been up to you know Mont Verde I'm bringing my boots I'm bringing my jeans my sweatpants my heavy jackets I'm bringing all that with me so climate's definitely a big thing for you to consider you come and visit if you haven't already and the beach is amazing but are you going to be okay with the heat all the time also a lot of times when people do come on trips you they're out doing stuff at all hours of the day when you're living here on a daily basis like for myself I'll go out in the morning it's a little bit cooler it's more comfortable I'll do some things that I need to do and then you know I work so you have to think about your daily schedule which we'll also talk about a little bit in this live so there goes my one of my dogs I don't know if you can hear my dogs so even with dogs so they go out in the morning they sleep most of the day I work most of the day and then by the time it's more comfortable out around 3: 4 p.m. then I'm out doing things again more outside so think about maybe you do love the beach but also think about your lifestyle and plan your life a little bit more accordingly to it because we also do have our r Seasons so climate very important if you do want a cooler climate you can accomplish that you just need to get a little bit more elevated more of the popular areas that will people have people move if they want to be in a cooler climate would be around s San Jose Central Valley but there is also La Fortuna is a bit cooler not as cool as what I thought it would be Mont Verde um down in the South Pacific there's a town called Santa Cedro de henal up around the mountains around there is nice and cool too or even let's say down in the southern Zone I don't know if you guys can hear my dogs sorry about that um uh down in the southern Zone up the mountains the mountains come very close to the coastline there so though that's actually a perfect area for people who are well I love the beach but I love the mountains where do I go down there you can be 30 minutes up have a cooler climate but just be 30 minutes to the beach versus maybe an hour or more so climate climate that would be what I would say there maybe if you want to put in the comments if there's a particular climate that you like um and someone here Joe said that he moved to P Coco two years ago Joe if you're still on here how you doing up there I imagine it's pretty hot up there as well Guanacaste you know P Coco is up in Guanacaste they get um more I think they got a lot they got hotter than here in the Central Pacific riiff so all right so oh Nicaragua cool oh hi Greg oh fun so Greg does a lot of relocation things over in Nicaragua very cool so if this is the Greg that I was thinking of if it's not then so the next point would be distance to airport so distance to airport that's another thing like when we work with someone the number one thing that I have to do is if someone's undecided on their areas helping them narrow that down so normally I'll ask about climate my next question might be distance to airport some people really don't have a preference so if you don't have a preference on how far you are from an International Airport then okay it is the right gray um then great then I I guess you don't have to worry about that too much we do have two international airports here in Costa Rica there's one outside of San Jose it's not in San Jose City Center it's outside in the province of alua that's the airport code sjo so that's a good airport for getting to the Central Valley the Central Pacific South Pacific you know all those areas even going over to the Caribbean and over there then we have another airport L liia that's up in Guanacaste so if you are living in PTO coco or Tamarindo samur nosara you know that would be your closer um airport I love watching these comments I'm also really ADHD so I got to stop looking at the comments um so close yeah distance to airport and I guess thinking about how often you're going to go in and out so I do have and I've worked with some some people that will need to travel back to their home country for work so for me leaving my house you know here in Costa Rica to entering my family family's home it's 12 hours even if I take a direct flight and the flight's only about four and a half hours from getting there early you know doing all the airport things it's a 12-hour day and it can be kind of exhausting so for me I do like living a little bit closer I'm about an hour and a half from the airport versus other times I have lived four hours from the airport or more so that did make things a little bit more challenging you know you take a long flight you get here and then oh I got this four-hour drive so just think about you and kind of your tolerance for those things also if you're only going back or if you're traveling once or twice a year maybe that distance to airport doesn't really matter too much for you but I would say if you are traveling pretty often that would be something to consider um okay and we got medical care options so Medical Care and I hope you guys are writing this down if anyone's coming in um and also I will I can also put this down in the description but we talked about climate distance to airport medical care options medical care options are going to vary depending on where you are in the country kind of like maybe where you're already moving from more rural areas may have a lot less access access to certain type of Medical Care Facilities so for Costa Rica you know I'll ask people okay how far do you want to be do you have a preference if you want to be in a certain distance driving distance from a private hospital or do you have any medical concerns that you feel you need to be close to a private hospital or a public hospital we we do talk about that as well so if someone usually tells me no I don't really have too many too many medical concerns it would be nice to be within an hour of a publicit hospital then luckily that does kind of give you that does leave you open to a lot of locations for the most part um now if you're going to want to be in a private if you want to be close to a private hospital then most of those are located in and around San Jose there's one up in liia as well and then there's one down in the South Pacific in that one town that I mentioned Santa Cedro de henal so that would be something that if someone does have a preference if they say no I don't want to be more than 30 minutes from a private hospital that's going to narrow your parameters a little bit too but then you still have some different climates that you can you know climates and cost of livings that you can work within that so think about how far you'd want to be oh that's so nice um these comments are sweet if you were my daughter I'd be so proud of you maybe my mom's on here if my mom's on here say hi maybe she's busy um so yeah and I do have people ask me about okay well is the public Hospital okay in this area so I've had mixed use it depends some public hospitals you can have really great experiences at others just may not be as well equipped so for example I do live out outside of the town of Paco we don't have our my closest public Hospital would be there's one in capos and there's one in punteras but we are at a distance here that if something happened which actually did come up with the client once she cut her foot really bad took her to the 24-hour public clinic at like U you know 10:30 at night the guy was honest he said well I'll I'll Stitch it up it's not going to look good so her options were either get an ambulance to the public Hospital which she which I asked him I said is she going to be sitting there all night and he's like yeah she'll be there all night just waiting or we ended up just calling her a taxi and having her get to a a private hospital but there's also private clinics in a lot of the towns and again this would just be something to think about if you're really thinking about an area what Ser what medical services are around because the thing is I know we could all be in good health but we never may expect an accident or emergency to come up I'm probably going to get off topic but you know I've always everywhere I've lived I've always had an emergency kind of plan who am I going to reach out to who's closest to me that has a car if I can't drive you know if something of that sort happens so just making sure you know what your medical options are in the areas that you're choosing even if you don't have any maybe particular concerns at the moment okay so next point is cost of living so the cost of living can really value um you know vary vary here in the country um let's see what it says um which Internet site is good for finding houses for sale currently the site does not seem up to dat um oh gosh that's a whole another Canal worms we can I'll definitely go through questions here at the end for a bit as I have the time um but cost of living so that really does vary all around Costa Rica I will be doing future lives about cost of living and things like that and I actually have uh a PDF that I did make I have two things that I that I can send you guys from this live if you want it you can just comment um I have a PDF where I calculated or I actually went to the store and calculated the cost of certain things and I made the PDF so someone could put in the exchange rate for the US dollar or the Canadian dollar I guess whatever they want to do they could edit that and then you can see the actual cost of certain items so for example Central Valley has a much lower cost of living of course depending on where you are in the Central Valley that's in and outside of the San Jose area so a lot of people like that area because the weather's great it's close to the airport cost of living is good great medical care options so that's why that is an area where we do have a lot of people live now the cost of living is going to be higher if you're going towards the coast because that is the touristy areas that's where people are going on vacations so cost of living is something to take into a factor and I will be doing a whole separate live on that so it would be good I guess to stay tuned I'm GNA try to do these Monday Wednesdays and Fridays at 10: a.m. I just got started a little bit late because I had kind of a surprise phone call um distance to amenities so think about what do you consider amenities so if you like bowling and going to the movies and I don't know doing things like that then you're probably going to need to be more of the Central Valley whereas by the other towns I always it's just personal I would consider what what do you consider amenities I have some people say well I just need to be near you know a decent grocery store and and sometimes I like to get my nails done or um kids extra curric you know those are important so think about what you consider amenities and do the areas that you're looking at in particular you know have those amenities and the town you know obviously there's areas of Costa Rica that could be a good fit and then it's kind of comes down to also choosing a good town that's going to be a good fit for you as well uh Transportation options so there are some areas that I you know you can struggle with if you're not going to have a vehicle they're just very spread out so think about are you going to have a vehicle living in Costa Rica because that does expand a lot of the areas that you can live if not then there's some that could be better know for example the Central Valley does have a good transportation system there's Uber here in the Central Pacific at least in the hako area there is Uber as well it's a lot of the coastal towns are flat so it's good for bicycling or if you want to get an ebike uh the bus system you know works pretty well as well so but then in some other areas it just might be too Ral you know you might have to it might be too long of a walk to a bus and where May maybe you don't want to use the bus so I would just think about the transportation of the general area and if you're going to need to have a vehicle because again I will have some people say oh no I don't mind walking 20 minutes it's okay but again if you factor in the heat you know if you are living on the coast and it's broad daylight you know it's it's it's a long walk and then also taxis can be a little bit expensive in some areas at sometimes and it can really start to add up so thinking about Transportation options in the area that you're choosing like I did not you know when I first moved I was 30 minutes walking up I don't know I just went whenever they my friends told me to go I was like all right I'm coming over there then didn't didn't know anything about it um but it's good I'm still glad I had all those experiences and another one would be Town culture and community so I think we're on number what are we on I guess we're on number seven so we climate distance to airport medical care options cost of living distance to amenities Transportation options and town culture and community so a lot of times I will ask people are like how social are you do you like to see people a lot or do you want a town that's more lively that has more going on or do you want something that's a little bit more quaint laidback I mean I do like to think that there is kind of a Vibe for anyone you know here in Costa Rica so that just so just think about I guess in general what what are you looking for in a town do you want something that's busy that's has more going on more bars restaurants or do you just want something really quiet or maybe like me I like being outside so I live outside of hako which is I guess the most developed Beach town of Costa Rica but I've lived many many places uh I like being outside so I like having my peace and quiet but I do like being close to everything that just makes life a little bit easier because I've lived the other ways before and I've lived out in the middle of nowhere and right now I'm a little spoiled by the conveniences and it's okay to jump around and try different things you know that's what I really do encourage is to jump around and try different areas that are to see really what does feel the best for you you because I do have a little example I'll provide here at the end and I have some resources I have some links that I'm going to put as a banner here that you can go and take the quiz so we'll talk about the quiz that you can take here at the end as well to try to find out for you and then overall accessibility so there's some areas that I would label not as accessible so like the Caribbean because it's a really long drive over there from San Jose you know it could be four or five hours depending on where you're going uh the road goes through National Park the road can have problems as well again it's if we have people who've moved over there we've moved people over there if that's okay with you then perfect um the ncoa peninsula little bit difficult to get to you know that's down by Santa Tesa montazuma um I would kind of label that a little bit is not as accessible either but still people we have people move there so just think about your overall accessibility you know I I personally do I need to be in an area that's just more accessible that I can access quickly in case I need to leave or in case I need to go to a whole another area of the country that's why I did kind of settle in the Central Pacific as well because I can reach so many different areas of the country so Central Val Valley is very accessible Central Pacific you know even areas up in Guanacaste um I didn't find the South Pacific to be too bad either you know it was kind of once you get to the coast it was kind of just straight kind of a longer drive but pretty easy and general and then the last thing that I really want you guys to think about when you are considering an area is what is your day-to-day going to look like again like are you coming and retiring or are you working online are you working remotely and just remember how you know what hobbies do you have I always ask people what hobbies do you have or is there any new interests or things that you want to try it's like I understand when people are moving to Costa Rica they're thinking about a lifestyle change so a lot of times when we're when I'm Consulting with someone I like to understand what is that lifestyle change that they're trying to make so that that area can actually be a good fit for that too and it has all the things so if someone tells me oh yeah like it's really important that I have a great gym I love to go to the gym I need a great gym not every area of Costa Rica has a really great gym so you know if that's a huge daily or mult multi-time a week factor in someone's life then that's something to take into consideration so those were my points so I got climate distance to airport medical care options cost of living distance to amenities Transportation options town culture in community overall accessibility and how would your day-to-day look like there and I want to show you guys a quiz that can help you with this okay John said I love scuba diving where where's the best place to live by well P Coco can be popular for scuba diving um easa a Cano Island down there in the South Pacific so Vita dominical there's some dive shops down there there's Dino there's dive shops up in Coco um May I guess other areas of guanaste too so I want to pull up the areas quiz here and actually let me make this little Banner so you guys could take this for yourself um create a banner HTS sorry bear with me quiz okay okay so this is it so if you want to go to this website lara.com quiz if you're unsure about your area hopefully this can help and I want to read you a really cute email I got this morning from someone who took this quiz a long time ago I'm sure she won't mind if I okay okay here we go so this is what the the page is going to look like so what area of Costa Rica is best for you can subcribe to take the quiz to find out and I got this email that I want to share with you about it I mean it's not a perfect quiz I designed it myself of course you know think about other areas um but I will read this to you funny story so I got this in my email in box this morning before we came to your retreat we took the quiz and it gave us Central Valley but I wasn't convinced because I wanted more Beach experience or so I thought we lived in samur for three months uita for a month and we were miserable then someone suggested the chpo area and we felt like we finally found our place so we moved there for nine months so during that time we found the Eco Village near Sano and traveled back and forth not enjoying the climate in Sano fast forward today so basically fast forward to today now the person is um she wanted to share the quiz was pretty spot-on now they're living in the Central Valley and you know but she didn't know they didn't know until they came and experienced it for themselves so it really does bring in the point that it is really important that you do experience try to experience in for yourself and it's okay to to bop around a bit it's okay to move around I've moved around God knows how many times it's I actually I will be making a video on all the houses I've ever lived in I'm done moving out now obviously I finished building my own houses I'm finished finally um but it's okay to move around that's why scouting trips are important but also why it's important to come and check out different areas if you can if you're not 100% sure so I hope that this has been helpful for you guys in the description there is the link to the quiz in the description so if you're on YouTube you can see it in the description below if you are on Facebook here you can see it in the description below if you want to go take the quiz like I said it's not a perfect thing um if you did want my access to my to the other thing that I noted to you which was um sorry it was the the sheet where I went to the store I okay here we go I went to a grocery store here in hako MOS per menos I jott it down you know I took photos of all the different items and I made a spreadsheet I think I'll need to go into adjust the the exchange rate for today on it but if you're curious and again this is in the Central Pacific a Beach town where things are more expensive but I did go to the store and I just kind of made a spreadsheet of the different costs of certain items so if you do want access to that then you can go to this link ler.com items and you should be able to get access to it and You' probably need to make an make your own copy of it it's probably going to force you to make a copy of the of the sheet and then you could just check out some of the cost of things just for market research a lot of you who are you know moving to Costa Rica maybe not this moment you're kind of in market research phase but we will talk more about budgeting I have the that scheduled on our on our live schedule which'll be fun so I'm going to be more present here in the group you know in the Facebook group I appreciate all of you you know who have been subscribing on YouTube I have some new videos that are going to be coming out um life's just got busy I was finishing an ecourse which you can also find down in the description trying to make some more affordable things for people to who are also moving because I know a lot of times people are moving they're on a budget and yeah so just want to thank you guys for being here and if if you know you're just getting familiar with me then nice to meet you and if you've been following along for a while just know that I really appreciate I appreciate that a lot so you come a long way since we've started so okay well I hope you all have a great day and I will see you on Wednesday I have my calendar marked for Wednesday 10: a.m. I will be back here to talk about sorry what are we going to talk about um one of the topics is going to be about financing because I see so much misinformation about financing out now and around so we're going to do that so Wednesday yeah Wednesday is financing so we're going to talk about on Wednesday financing getting financing via a bank here in Costa Rica which is great which now so hopefully that'll be helpful because I've just seen so much misinformation I see too many people telling people no you can't do it but you can so we'll talk about that through a bank a bank an actual bank not someone else who's you know not a private lender through an actual bank here in Costa Rica so stay tuned for Wednesday and I will see you then

Channel: Sarah Elena

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Id: jO_ZrYK29Qg

Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 20 2024