Is Costa Rica Still Worth Moving To?
I hear it constantly now.
Costa Rica isn’t what it used to be.
It’s gotten dangerous. It’s gotten expensive. The magic is gone.
From YouTube to TikTok. The question is everywhere, and yet the answers seem to be missing from the entire discussion.
Sometimes that comes from people who have watched Costa Rica change. Sometimes it comes from people who have only read the headlines. Sometimes it’s from people who have never set foot in this country.
Either way, the question deserves an honest answer.
Yes, Costa Rica can still be worth it—but not for everyone. It depends on your budget, your expectations, where you choose to live, how willing you are to adapt, and whether you are genuinely drawn to life in Costa Rica or simply trying to escape life somewhere else.
I live in Atenas, a small town in Costa Rica’s Central Valley that proudly calls itself home to el mejor clima del mundo—the best climate in the world. You’ll see the slogan on the back of the local buses.
I’m not going to argue with it. It is absolutely beautiful during the summer and rainy season. I love every single drop of rain and every ray of sunshine.
And I’m not going to tell you Costa Rica is paradise, either.
Costa Rica has problems. Some of them are serious. There are places in this country I won’t go. There are places where I’m considerably more aware of my surroundings. Things have gotten more expensive. Bureaucracy can drive you insane.
None of that changes how much I love living here. And I wouldn’t change my adopted country for anything.
That’s the part I think gets lost. It’s perspective. It’s your ability to adapt. It’s having a mindset that prepares you for moving to another country where English is not the primary language and the culture is bright, beautiful, and full of Pura Vida.
I can gush all day about my love of Costa Rica, her people, culture, music, and abundance…but let’s get into the brass tacks.
Is Costa Rica Safe? A Realistic Look at Crime
Let’s start with the hard part and get it right.
Costa Rica has a real violence problem.
In 2023, the country recorded 906 intentional homicides, the highest annual total in its recorded history. According to Costa Rica’s Violence Observatory, the country recorded 872 intentional homicides in 2025. That was a slight decrease from 2024, but the annual total remained historically high.
It isn’t fixed.
There is also context behind those numbers. Violence is not distributed evenly by geography or circumstance. A large share of homicides is connected to organized crime, drug trafficking, retaliation, or disputes among people already involved in dangerous situations.
That does not make the violence less real.
It does make the story more complicated than a national homicide number.
And that matters if you are researching whether Costa Rica is safe to live in.
I don’t walk around Costa Rica with rose-colored glasses and my head squarely embedded in my ass. There are places here I won’t go. There are neighborhoods where I pay considerably more attention. There are situations I avoid.
I did the same thing in Chicago. As a Chicagoan, I know the tricks, traps, and a million ways one can get into trouble fast when out of water or in a foreign land.
Anyone who has spent significant time in a major city understands this. You learn the terrain. You learn where you are comfortable. You learn where you need to pay attention. You learn that being aware is not the same thing as being afraid.
Common sense and situational awareness can reduce risk. They do not eliminate it.
That is true here. It is true in the United States. It is true anywhere.
What I will not do is allow the existence of dangerous places to define an entire country. In my experience, Costa Rica is one of the friendliest and warmest places I’ve ever been on this earth. But I have had some run-ins that are worth a mention.
The Crime I Have Actually Experienced in Costa Rica
The crime a newcomer is likely to encounter is not necessarily the crime dominating international headlines.
I once had a guy try very hard to sell me real crocodile teeth.
They were not real crocodile teeth.
And he wanted a ridiculous amount of money for them.
I still laugh about that one.
Another experience was not funny.
I invited two people I had just met back to my house. One of them got hold of my phone and tried to pull money out of my PayPal account.
That one was on me.
I left my phone unattended around people I did not know well enough. I created an opportunity that did not need to exist.
I learned from it. I pay attention. I secure my phone and accounts. I do not intentionally put myself in places where trouble is more likely to find me—or where I am more likely to find trouble.
And despite everything I have just written, I personally feel safer living here than I did in the United States.
That is my experience. It does not guarantee yours. It’s just like anywhere…keep your rules simple.
My top 10 Operating Rules When Visiting Costa Rica…or anywhere:
- Be respectful
- Use common courtesy
- Be polite
- Leave entitlement at the gate or port of your home country
- Learn some basic Spanish or local language
- This is NOT your home…it is theirs…act accordingly
- Understand local and national customs, as your homeland customs will NOT be the same
- Dress for the weather, not your ego
- Be humble and accountable for your words and actions
- Know the basic laws of where you are visiting
These are my operating rules, and they have saved me time and again. Now, is Costa Rica expensive? Is it similar or different than the United States, Canada, the UK or Europe? Let’s dig in.
Is Costa Rica Expensive? It Depends on How You Live
Yes, the Costa Rica cost of living has gone up. But whether Costa Rica feels expensive depends heavily on how and where you live.
If you move to Costa Rica and try to recreate exactly the same consumer life you had in the United States or Canada, you may be in for a surprise. Imported products can be expensive. If you insist on buying the same brands you bought back home, remember that many of those products crossed an ocean or several borders to reach the shelf.
But if you buy more locally—farmers markets, neighborhood stores, locally grown food, and locally produced goods—the equation can change considerably.
Housing is equally dependent on location and expectations. A luxury condo near a popular beach town is a very different financial proposition from a home in the Central Valley. Electricity use, imported groceries, private transportation, dining habits, and healthcare choices can also move your monthly budget dramatically.
What I have here in the mountains compared with what the same money would get me in Chicago or its suburbs?
For me, there is no comparison. For example: Chicago rent for a Northside 1,700-square-foot home can range between $3,500 to $4,500 without utilities. The same home in Costa Rica costs around $1,000 to $1,800. Utilities are usually water, electricity, and internet. In my case, I am all in for $1,800.
But that is exactly why broad claims about whether Costa Rica is cheap or expensive are not particularly useful.
Compared with what? Living where? Buying what? And expecting what?
Fit matters. Location matters. Relationships matter. Respect matters.
Before Moving to Costa Rica, Price Out Your Real Life
Do not build a relocation budget around somebody else’s fantasy spreadsheet. Think about the life you will actually live, including:
- Housing in the specific town or region you are considering
- Electricity, internet, water, and air-conditioning use
- Local food versus imported brands
- Vehicle ownership, maintenance, fuel, taxis, or ride services
- Public and private healthcare
- Residency, legal, tax, and professional-service costs
- Trips back home and emergency travel
- Entertainment, restaurants, hobbies, and pet care
Costa Rica can be affordable for some people and unexpectedly expensive for others. The honest answer lives in the details.
Why Living in Costa Rica Requires Adaptability
This may be the most important thing nobody tells you before you move here.
Costa Rica asks something of you.
You are going to encounter bureaucracy. You are going to encounter different concepts of time. Things are not always going to happen when someone said they would. Your Spanish may suck.
Mine certainly has. I am still working on it…every…day.
You are going to discover products you cannot easily find, roads that make no fucking sense, processes that take longer than you think they should, and businesses that do not operate the way you are accustomed to.
Sometimes the answer will be mañana.
And occasionally, mañana will turn out to mean something closer to “not today.”
If your reaction to all of that is constant frustration because Costa Rica does not operate the way your home country did, you are probably going to have a difficult time here.
Because Costa Rica does not owe us an Americanized version of Costa Rica. Costa Rica owes nothing to immigrants and visitors. But, in my opinion, this country goes above and beyond every time. Please…please…please do not make this mistake: Costa Rica dose NOT belong to visitors, expats, or immigrants. She belongs to the People of Costa Rica.
One of the mistakes newcomers make is evaluating this country entirely through the question: What does Costa Rica do for me?
I think that is backwards.
Costa Rica existed before I got here. It has its own culture, history, traditions, problems, rhythms, and priorities.
I chose to move here.
I’m the immigrant.
Adapting is my job. It is NOT the job of Costa Rica or those who have lived here for countless generations to bow or provide service as visitors or new immigrants see fit. That will end your time here faster than anything else. More than money, culture, adaptation, or force majeure.
What the Headlines Miss About Costa Rica
Everybody talks about Costa Rica’s natural beauty.
They should. This country is stunning. Hell, it’s beyond stunning…nature here is what legends and myths are built on.
But one of Costa Rica’s greatest assets is not a beach, volcano, waterfall, or rainforest.
It’s the people.
Honestly, I think they are the best-kept secret in the country.
Here is an ordinary Thursday for me.
I go to the farmers market in Atenas for groceries. By now, I recognize the farmers, vendors, and regulars. They let you taste something. Then they push something else into your hand that you have never seen before. They tell you what it is called in Spanish, how to prepare it, and when it is in season.
I have never once left that market in a bad mood. In fact, I just returned from my weekly visit yesterday, and I always feel full of community, participation, friendship, and a sense of belonging. I have never felt that way leaving a local Jewel or Dominick’s. That is a fact.
That is an ordinary week.
Here is a less ordinary one.
Not long ago, I threw my back out badly. I was essentially down for more than a week.
My WhatsApp did not stop.
My Tico and Tica friends checked on me constantly.
Are you okay?
Do you need anything?
One of my best friends here, Gata, who also drives me around and helps me with more things than I can count, came to my house and walked my dog three times a day for eight straight days because he knew I could not do it.
He never charged me a dime. He never made a speech about it.
He just showed up.
I grew up in the United States. I have friends I have known for forty years. Good guys. Beautiful friends. People I call family
Some of them probably would have told me to walk it off.
Here, people just show up. Not once. Not sometimes. ALL THE TIME. EVERY TIME.
How to Build a Life in Costa Rica
Drive between Atenas and San José long enough, and eventually you will see a car stuck on the side of the road.
And very often, you will see something else.
People helping. Cars on the side of the road. Someone needs help…and to witness and participate in helping just to help is like breathing for me. Here…it’s second nature.
Imagine: someone has stopped to push. Somebody has jumper cables. Somebody is looking under the hood. Then the problem gets solved, everybody waves, and they go on with their day.
Nobody makes a speech about helping their fellow man.
They just fucking help.
I have always been that way myself. I have stopped for strangers. I have helped people when I could. It is something I have believed in for most of my life.
The beautiful thing about Costa Rica is that I do not feel like the odd one out for doing it.
There is something wonderful about finding yourself in a place that practices something you already believed. I’ve been from the Pacific Coast to the Caribbean Coast. It’s like this all over this beautiful nation. I can dig it. If you can to or if you find your heart smiling a little bit right now…this IS COSTA RICA.
You Get Back What You Bring
You would be surprised how often a smile is waiting for you if you are willing to smile first.
- Try your Spanish even when it is terrible.
- Say good morning when you walk into a room.
- Treat the woman at the bank, the person fixing your gate, the taxi driver, the farmer selling vegetables, and the person cleaning the floor with the same dignity you would want someone to show you.
- Be curious.
- Ask questions.
- Learn Pura Vida – there is an entire episode lying in wait
- Laugh at yourself.
Costa Rica tends to open up when you do. Not a little. The embrace is warm, familiar, comforting, and inviting.
People teach you things. They invite you places. They correct your Spanish. They introduce you to their families.
Eventually, if you are lucky, you stop feeling like you are observing Costa Rica from the outside. And if you are really really lucky, you are no longer considered a ‘gringo’ but considered a Tico or Tica. That is the highest honor and compliment I have ever had here, and I take true delight every time I am referred to as such.
You start participating in it. You begin to learn Pura Vida and begin to live in a much more relaxed and less stressful life. And it’s worth everything…to me. And to some…like me…it may save your life.
But come here with entitlement—expecting everything to work the way it did back home and becoming angry whenever it does not—and you can have a very different experience.
People will probably still be polite.
But polite is not the same thing as being invited in.
You could live here for years surrounded by Costa Rican culture without ever really becoming part of it.
That is not necessarily Costa Rica rejecting you.
Sometimes it is Costa Rica responding to what it has been shown.
Adapting is the newcomer’s job, not the country’s.
The Real Drawbacks of Living in Costa Rica
I am not selling sunshine and roses.
Costa Rica has real problems. Crime is real. The cost of living has changed. Infrastructure can frustrate you. Bureaucracy can test the patience of a fucking saint. The rainy season will occasionally destroy your plans.
There are parts of the country where I would not casually wander around, particularly at the wrong time of night. Healthcare access, roads, internet reliability, water availability, and basic services can vary considerably by location. Residency and banking can feel confusing. Imported goods may cost more than you expect. Learning Spanish is not optional if you want a deeper, more independent life here.
And Costa Rica has changed in ways that some longtime residents genuinely mourn.
Those things can all be true.
So can everything beautiful I have written here.
That is the mistake I think people make when talking about countries.
We want a verdict.
Safe or dangerous. Cheap or expensive. Good or bad. Paradise or disaster.
Real places do not work that way.
I have been to all of the lower 48 states and across southern Canada, from Sault Ste. Marie to Quebec City. I have been to Jamaica, Barbados, St. Lucia, and Panama, as well as Egypt, Turkey, and a handful of Greek islands. I have traveled more than some, but not by much by others measure.
I have never been anywhere quite like Costa Rica.
I do not love Costa Rica because I think it is perfect.
I love Costa Rica because I know it isn’t—and I have found a life here that fits me anyway.
So, Is Costa Rica Still Worth It?
I think that is the wrong question.
The better question is:
Is Costa Rica worth it for you?
And there is another question that can tell you an awful lot about your answer:
If everything I am worried about back home got better next year, would I still want to build a life in Costa Rica?
Think about that one for a while.
If the answer is yes—if it is the people, the pace, the land, the culture, and the way life works here that keep pulling you toward Costa Rica—then you are moving toward something.
If the answer is no, pay attention.
You may simply be moving away from something.
Who Is Most Likely to Thrive Here?
Costa Rica may be a strong fit if you:
- Value climate, nature, community, and a slower pace more than convenience
- Can handle uncertainty without treating every delay as a personal insult
- Are willing to learn Spanish and participate in local culture
- Have a realistic, location-specific budget
- Accept that safety varies by place, time, and behavior
- Want a different life rather than a tropical copy of the life you already have
It may be a poor fit if you need predictable systems, instant service, familiar products, perfect infrastructure, or an English-only environment to feel comfortable.
Costa Rica can give you a different life.
It cannot fix the life you are trying to escape.
And the things I love about Costa Rica may be the exact things that drive someone else absolutely fucking crazy.
The slower pace I appreciate may frustrate you. The cultural differences I find fascinating may exhaust you. The mountain life I love may feel isolated to someone else.
That is okay.
Fit is not a measure of your worth. It is a measure of whether this place and the life you want actually line up.
That is why, at Costa Rica Life Report, Not Yet and Not Advised are successful outcomes too.
We are not trying to convince you to move to Costa Rica.
We are trying to help you understand Costa Rica well enough to decide whether you should.
Because finding out before you commit is not failure.
It’s the whole fucking point.
Adaptability is Everything
One thing I knew intuitively is that adaptability is one of the most important traits any person can have or learn. In my travels and life experience as a Generation Xer, learning as you go and changing to the situation can often save your life. Costa Rica will love you, treat you with kindness, smile, and provide you all of life’s surprises in both the best and worst ways.
It is no different than living in your country of origin. What’s really different here?
- The culture is unique and full of flavor and tradition.
- Kindness and respect lead, and hate and intolerance are hardly a thing here
- It’s not right for everyone, and she will embrace you as long as you embrace her back
- A kiss on the cheek from your neighbor or female friends is one of the best greetings on earth
- Horses are cooler than you think…but dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle
These are a few examples of what makes Costa Rica one of the consistently rated “happiest places on earth”. But it still doesn’t answer the question: is it right for you? Your family? Your partner? Or your retirement plans?
Is Costa Rica Worth It for You?
Costa Rica may be exactly what you are looking for. It may not be. This is exactly the reason I create the Costa Rica Life Report. To answer these questions for YOU. Not as a blanket approach to a complex question. I have created a system, report, and line of inquiry that helps our clients get close and close to the real question: Should I move to Costa Rica?
The Costa Rica Life Report™ is a personalized relocation assessment built around 27 diagnostic factors. It is designed to help you understand whether Costa Rica fits the life you actually want—before you commit your money, your time, and your life to the move.
Get Your Personalized Costa Rica Life Report — $349
Clarity Before You Commit.
This article reflects the author’s personal experience and general publicly available information. Crime patterns, costs, conditions, and individual experiences vary by location and circumstances. Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice; consult an appropriately licensed professional before making consequential relocation decisions.
