Uvita Costa Rica- T0P 10 Pros and Cons

hey there and welcome to Costa Rica story and  today we're going to talk about the pros and cons   of living in Uvita Costa  Rica and surrounding areas I'm going to give you 10 reasons to love  uvita followed by 10 reasons why Uvita  may not be right for you and we're going  to start with the positives first the number one probe of living in ovita  Costa Rica is it's a it's a friendly town   with a good sense of community and it's  more than willing to welcome a gringo here   so if you have some Tico friends and get  involved in the community it really will   enrich your life there's a lot of community events  and seasonal events that will help you integrate   into the community if you participate  so the opportunities are there   you're close to many beaches and attractions  here within a short driving distance and of   course you've got parque National Marino Ballena  which includes several beaches from Uvita beach and   the whale sale all the way up to Playa pinuelas  there's five different entrances so there's a   lot of beaches within the park and there's also  you've got with a short drive like a five minute   drive from my house is Playa Hermosa maybe 10 15  minutes to the South you've got a play of antanas   so you've got that going for you there's a  lot of waterfalls around and you can your   short drive to San Ysidro there's some a lot of  attractions over that way a lot of things to do   and right here in town like here for example I see  monkeys quite often and hear them even more often   there's some scarlet macaws here the other day  even close to town you'll see a lot of Wildlife   so in short Uvita is a good starting base  for a lot of Adventures so if you're coming   on vacation it's great and if you're  coming here to live even better so San Jose airport is not terribly far from here  if there's not much traffic you can do it in three   and a half hours it's more common for it to be  a four or five hour drive and during the rainy   season you really don't know but it's a paved road  all the way to San Jose from ovita so thinking   more about this this one it it depends on your  perspective because it could be a pro or it could   be gone to me three and a half hours on a good day  to get the airport isn't really too bad no snow no cold no icy roads no scraping your car  off before you have to go to work typically the   weather here is in the low 80s Fahrenheit most of  the time it's during the dry season it gets maybe   10 degrees warmer that's why I'm it's the morning  right now and I it is a dry season it it's March   so the morning time is the time to  get things done here during this time   of year Well actually during any time  of year the morning is the best   number five you can do your outdoor sports  all year long here whether it's swimming   cycling kayaking paddle boarding you can do  that all year here. back when when I lived in   Upstate New York I couldn't do that and there's  other sports like running and things like that   that are more comfortable to do you know in  the in the nice weather as opposed to running   on a frozen Road or something made it here if  you're going to do an outdoor activity it you   tend to want to do it early in the morning  before the sun gets up too much   that's the main inhibitor would be the sun in  the rainy season it gets a little rainy you   have to work your your workouts around that but  overall you can do your your outdoor activities   all year round here so that's a huge plus to  be able to do your your outdoor activities all   year and not have that gap of winter where you  can't go outside and do these things [Music]   because uvita is a big tourist town it's  a town that relies on tourism many people   here speak English which can be a good or a  bad thing it's a good thing if you're coming   here and you're wanting to communicate but if  you're living here it can give you an excuse it   can make you lazy and not work as hard on your  Espanola so it's a double-edged sword [Music]   there's relatively good Transportation here  I mean we don't have subways or anything like   that but there's regular bus routes that go  through quite quite regularly and there's a   lot of taxis that can take you around we don't  have Uber here in uvita but I do have a friend   that has taken an Uber from San Ysidro to uvita  problem is you can't get a uber from here back to   San Isidro or wherever and Uvita does have  rental cars readily available here and you   can and while you're here you can rent a scooter  you can rent a bicycle you can even run a an ATV   so as far as Transportation goes  Uvita has got you covered    probably one of the coolest things is there's a  lot of great restaurants here a lot of great cafes   a lot of great small stores with great  service it's a it's a it's a town that   really wants to make the customers  happy I have so many friends that   have restaurants and businesses here that  I love to promote them because it helps   them but as you a viewer it helps you find  these great places and by the way I do have   playlist of guides to uvita so you might  want to check that out if you want to get   the details of some of these restaurants and  places to go to and things to do here [Music]   there's a wide range of housing options in ovita  whether you're renting or buying there's as you've   probably heard there's microclimates in Costa Rica  so you can live on the beach where it tends to be   a little bit more humid and hot or you can go up  towards the mountains and it gets progressively   cooler the higher you get and there is a wide  price range although the price range is tending   to get on a higher side but that we'll talk about  that in in the cons part of this video ovita is a growing town and with a growing Town  comes business opportunities so for certain skill   sets there's opportunities for you to start  a business and make money here that's not to   say every business that starts here is going  to succeed so your mileage may vary foreign so that was just 10 random pros of living  in uvita now I'm going to throw at you   10 random cons of living in novita things  that you may not like about Uvita so the first negative thing about living in Uvita Costa Rica is it's related to the one of the pros   you live close to Parque Nacional  Marino Ballena with its beautiful beaches   five separate entrances several different  beaches from Punta uvita and Playa uvita all   the way down to Playa pinuelas another  beautiful beach it's a great Beach but   the catch is if you're not a resident here  you've got to pay six dollars plus tax   every time you go to the beach which which  ends up being very close to seven dollars USD   so that's a big hassle I mean that adds up  after a while when I first got here I think   "oh that's not a big deal" but it is having to  pay that does keep me from going to that beach   as much as I would like, and another bad thing  about this is they only accept credit cards   so you have to bring your credit card and  wallet to the beach which is a pain also    If you have a dog, which many people do dogs are  not allowed in Parque Nacional  Marino Ballena    that includes the whale tail it includes  Playa Arco it includes play Pinuelas playa Ballena Colonial ,Playa chaman  there's the whole park dogs are not allowed so   if walking your dog on the beach is part of  your Costa Rica dream maybe living close to   Parque Nacional Marino Ballena and Uvita maybe not be the ideal situation. you're within   close driving distance to Playa Hermosa it's  only five minutes throw the dog in the car and go   or you can go to bantanus you know that's  10 15 minutes throw the dog in the car and  go but so if you want to walk from your house  to the beach to go for a walk with your dog   Uvita and Bahia probably would not be the place  for you. I was recently talking to a woman who   bought property in Bahia and she just realized  that dogs weren't allowed on the beach and uh   she said if I had known that the dogs weren't  allowed on the beach I wouldn't have bought   in that particular area so it pays to do your  homework that's another good reason why renting   is such a good thing to do before you buy that  way you get to know what's going on you know   what's you know how what the rules are etc etc  of course overall it's an advantage to live close   to such a beautiful beach it does have rules for  instance you can't ride your bicycle on the beach   you can't smoke on the beach no plastic on  the beach you can't have single-use plastic   and there's reasons for all the rules so keep  that in mind don't give the people a hard time   if when you're when you're entering and you want  to bring your dog I saw a woman she had a little   dog with her and she she was trying to get in the  entrance and he was like nah you know no dogs are   allowed and she was she argued with him for about  15 minutes about it I think maybe she said her   dog was small and wasn't going to be a problem  but don't give the the guys that work there the   park rangers they don't you know they don't make  the rules they just have to enforce them there's a lot of petty theft in all of Costa Rica  and um that's on the increase you can't leave   anything in your car when you go to the beach and  you can't leave your stuff unattended at the beach   so that's a big hassle but it's not unique to  Costa Rica it's pretty much anywhere you go   in a tourist area where there's a beach  you just don't leave your stuff unattended   so it's not just petty crime in Costa Rica  there's more serious crime is going up   there's you know there's car theft there's home  invasions there's convenience store robberies   and robberies at beaches and things and that  happens all throughout Costa Rica and ubita is   not immune to that either so you need to do  your research talk to people that live here   and or wherever you're moving and it's what  what they're what their take is on on these   things check the local Facebook groups sometimes  they have some information on on crime activity   but it's not perfect it's something if you're  going to move to a place it's something you   really need to do your homework on and I really  and I did a poll recently on my YouTube channel   asking what your biggest concerns were in moving  to Costa Rica and the number one thing was people   were concerned about crime so it's on people's  radar just have to do your homework the utilities can be less than perfect here  lately we've been having a lot of electrical power   outages and that's a big hassle sometimes it'll  be a short period sometimes it'll be a long period   and I'm not sure if it's due to the Growing  Pains of all the new houses being built and   coming onto the Grid or or what the deal is but  the electricity going on and off is a bit of a   hassle you have to have a another uninterruptible  power supply a UPS to protect your equipment here   it's um you need to be proactive with that  so chances are the Wi-Fi is also not going   to be as robust as you used to from your home  country it's something that you've got to get   used to it's something that gives me quite  a lot of frustration due to the nature of   my work with the YouTube and some of my  other projects I've got going on so Oviedo Costa Rica because of its  Seasons the dry season and the rainy season   present you with two separate worlds during  the rainy season you'll experience heavy rain   downpours and road closures due to flooding road  closures due to landslides and it just seems like   the rain will never end and then one day it  just stops raining and we have the dry season   and the dry season it's great at first because  you can get out and do things but then things   start to dry out the roads get really dusty and  the sun is super duper intense and it just tends   to get more intense all the way through through  March and into April and April seems to be where   we start to get a little bit more rain again  but the extremes are are tough to get used to   I prefer the rainy season if I was going to have  one season it would be the rainy season   the humidity can be really intense here   and that's during the dry season and and  the rainy season it's just always humid   It's a Jungle so it's going to be humid and you  have to take a special care of your electronics   I have a case that I keep Electronics in with  silica gel and it's an airtight case and that's   where I keep my stuff for storage because you  can get mold on camera equipment on lenses and   things and all kinds of electronics are  adversely affected by humidity there's no easy Amazon online  type ordering here you can do it   but it's going to cost you more money it's  going to take you a lot of time and you may   get your stuff late you may not get your stuff  at all if you have if you're used to ordering   from Amazon at the drop of a hat that doesn't  really happen here that doesn't happen    during tour season it gets really congested  here from traffic to the restaurants and you   get a whole new Vibe you've got different people  coming in here in the vibe of the Town changes a   little bit and you know it's great for business  it's a it's a necessary part of the economy here   so I don't like the tourist season I don't like  when it gets crowded like that but you do meet   some interesting people sometimes so that's that's  a good side and it does bring in some business so   just know if you come here in the off season  and you think you're going to move here make   sure you're here during the busy season so you can  see what it's like during that time period foreign we do have some resident homeless  people that do Panhandle and you may   encounter them at the grocery store  or different places in town your favorite food may not be available here at  the supermarket and if your food is here it may be   very expensive so it pays to go with a local brand  if you for instance if you're a Jif peanut butter   consumer you're going to pay a lot for  just peanut butter here so I would go   with a there's a local cheaper brand  that you can get used to eating so   yeah you're the things that you love may cost you  a lot of money if it's an imported thing and it's   getting increasingly expensive for things  to be imported so keep that in mind living in ovita is expensive and due to the  fact that it's a supply and demand thing a   lot of people want to come here to live a  lot of people want to come here on vacation   so the cost of housing is expensive the cost of  rentals is expensive the cost of food is expensive   so you're paying your what do you call the tourist  tax for for living in a in a beautiful place like   this a paradise tax maybe you can call it but  if you're living in a Vita it's going to cost   you a lot more money than maybe you think  so do your research come here on vacation   just to see what the prices of things are well  that's all I've got for this episode of Costa   Rica story make sure you like if you liked it  subscribe if you want to but most importantly   share this video and this Channel with a friend  Costa Rica story Costa ricastory.com hasta luego [Music] yeah oh

Channel: Costa Rica Story

Views: 7,362

Keywords: costa Rica story, Costa Rica, move to Costa Rica, Costa Rica website, Digital Nomad, Costa Rica Blog, Travel vlog, move to South America, costa rica lifestyle, cost rica life, Costa Rica Vacation, Costa Rica tours, Costa Rica activities, Things to do in Costa Rica, Costa Rica Emersion, Costa Rica Tours, Live in Costa Rica, Costa Rica Information, Costa Rica Guide, Travel Costa Rica, Costa Rica Travel, top 10, should I move to costa rica, Living in Uvita Costa Rica

Id: BXOzrnwCRp4

Length: 18min 38sec (1118 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023