Costa Rica has a great tourist industry. They are welcoming and friendly and in most cases they are honest and genuine. But human nature being what it is, sometimes we end up getting less than we bargained for. The following are just a few tips on what to look out for before you pay out of pocket.

In most cities these days, when the local cops aren’t busy they park in a discreet spot and scrutinize drivers to see if they can catch them in an infraction. One person I read about got stopped for speeding and the cops told him that it was an expensive ticket. The cop told them that for $100 he would look the other way. Later he was told that he could have settled the ticket at any Bank of Costa Rica.

This is a great example of why you should take the bus and taxi whenever possible. You may think you are free with your own vehicle but you won’t be very free if you are stuck in a hole on a dirt road in a foreign country. Just figure into your budget, taxi and bus fare. Always hide extra cab fare on you somewhere just in case of emergency.

Another trap is that using travel agent doesn’t always pay off. You could end up paying as much as $50 a night more on your lodging because of the travel agent’s cut. Go ahead and book your own rooms and make payment arrangements. Also try to find out the distance from your hotel to your destination. Why pay a cab to drive half a mile when you can walk it, unless it’s raining of course.

This next thing isn’t necessarily a tourist trap but you should know about this ahead of time. In the Monteverde Cloud Forest there are the attractions of the Sky Bridge and Canopy tours. A sky bridge is a bridge made over the tops of the trees. Canopy Tours are like ski lifts, the canopied car moving on a cable from tree to tree. The idea being, that you are able to see a great variety of wildlife from this vantage point. I hope you don’t have vertigo.

You are walking off into a bridge into the trees and the clouds, or your are taking the Canopy ride through the clouds but your purpose in doing this is to be able to see the wonderful wildlife. You will see nothing unless the clouds clear. It does cost you money to get across the bridge and to ride the Canopies but why pay the money if you can’t see anything. Better to wait until you have a clear day.

The next one is really important. Look before you sit when using the restroom in remote locations. One lady said that someone had stolen the toilet seat and she had no place to sit. To make matters worse there was no toilet paper. So my advice to you is to always go to the restroom in a store or restaurant if you have the chance before going into on tours and always, always take some toilet paper.

If saving money while you vacation is your concern then don’t worry, it can be done without sacrificing your comfort and good time. You should know that the off season is referred to as the Green Season and this last September to December. The Christmas season would be the time that they come out of the Green Season. I don’t know if this means their rainy and hurricane season has ended but Christmas is a time when some families decide to go on vacation.

The first consideration is trying to get a good deal with the airlines to get you into Costa Rica. There are 2 airports, Liberia airport and San Jose International Airport. Liberia is located on the coast and San Jose International is inland outside of San Jose. If you purchase your plane ticket scheduled during the green season you can save up to $150 per person on airfare. It is possible to fly standby as well.

The 2 main airlines into Costa Rica from the U.S. are Continental and Delta. Another possibility for saving money on airfare has just surfaced. Costa Rica has given the official okay for 3 other airlines to land on their airstrips. One of them is an American airline and it is the economy company of Frontier Airlines. I don’t know if rates are available yet but you might want to check with them. If you are going to Costa Rica during the Green Season you are a person that likes rain. It might just be worth the extra money to go during the High Season when it is dry and sunny.

The most affordable lodging I have found is the Bed & Breakfast trade. One way of searching is to go to Pamela Lanier’s Bed & Breakfast website www.lanierbb.com. When I navigated her website and put Costa Rica in her search window I pulled up nothing. So I clicked on the map that is to the side of the search window and I got Latin America. Click near Central America and you have a list of Costa Rican cities that you can search for a B&B from.

As an example I clicked on a B&B in Monteverde. I found La Colina, which is located in the Cloud forest and surrounded by the local Quaker community. The rates run from $38 - $40 per night and they have quite a few amenities. This facility also offers showers and baths to campers, although I am not sure I would want to camp in the jungle. Give me 4 walls please.

The most inexpensive lodging I found was the Kalexma. This B&B is owned by a woman that is an English teacher. She first started this rooming house to offer lodging to her students. She believes in immersion as a way of learning the language and offers low cost rooms as bridge to that end. These rates are as low as $15 per night. This is a bare bones arrangement and you have a bed and a bathroom. The site can be found at www.Kelexma.com.

Villa Mango located in Nosara, Costa Rica, has the most moderate of prices. A room will cost you approximately $59.00 per night, and $385.00 for a week. This B&B is a 10-minute walk from the beach. The Villa Decary has rates that run about $85 a night and it is located about 10 miles from the Arenal volcano. The hotel sits on the shore of Lake Arenal with a view of the lake from you window.

If you are a woman traveling on your own I would check our Bed & Breakfast rooming, as it is easier to meet people in this type of environment. A good travel resource for women is journeywoman.com. This site gives great info for the single woman traveler.

My final advice is on eating. The water is good in Costa Rica, you don’t have the problems that the Mexicans do with Montezuma’s Revenge. There are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to eat that are very cheap to buy. Also there are many Mom & Pop restaurants that cost much less than the big fancy restaurants. My advice is to pick a meal a day to eat big, then, keep on hand snacks for the rest of the day. You don’t want to go home heavier than you arrived do you?

Music in Costa Rica is music to dance to. From Salsa to Chamber music there is something for everyone. Live bands play at different clubs all over the country. Salsa, Jazz, Rock, Tango, Tex-Mex, and Calypso are all on the venue at different nightspots in Costa Rica.

If you are staying in and around San Jose the best nightlife is found at El Pueblo in Escazu. Here you can find restaurants, nightclubs and shops. Club Twister is one club that is very popular playing contemporary and Latin music. Another is El Tobagan and while they are open only on the weekend they are always packed.

Somewhere in El Pueblo the Tango Bar is located. It has a couple of older gals that serve drinks and perform sentimental ballads. If you are lucky an Argentine visitor will be able to translate the lyrics. Occasionally you will have the treat of seeing a good tango performed.

Costa Ricans love to dance and they are so good that it is scary. Not too much cha cha, but there is plenty of cumbia, merengue, lambada, and salsa. If you get a chance before you go to Costa Rica try to get in some salsa lessons. It is the most fun you can have and it sure makes you know that you are alive. There is dancing at night in any number of clubs all over Costa Rica but most of the better hotels have music at night.

If you speak a small amount of Spanish and you are looking for local happenings then you can try to read the local papers the Tico Time and La Nacíon. These should help you find local movie times and info on concerts and festivals.

Every year in February and March there is the Monteverde Art Festival, which has local musicians and visiting guest musicians. The venues for the music change from year to year depending on what festival planners have in mind so check the local newspaper or simply ask around. The local Ticos will be more than happy to give you any info they have on where the next performance is.

Costa Rica is predominantly Catholic so most of their holidays follow the usual Catholic holidays such as Christmas and Easter but one holiday that stands out is the celebration of the Black Christ Esquipulas. This festival originates in Guatemala but is celebrated all over Costa Rica. There is large population of Guatemalan immigrants so this may have something to do with the celebration.

The Teatro National was built over a hundred years ago an in that time Costa Ricans have developed there own national theater company. Additionally Costa Rica has their own Symphony and Ticos love classical music almost as much as Salsa.

For those of you that like a different kind of nightlife there are also a few nature and wildlife tours. In the Mountverde Cloud Forest there are night tours that show you the beauty of wildlife that only shows itself at night.