How much will your Costa Rica trip cost?

Included

• Lodging: your nightly rate × rooms × nights.
• Food: per person per day, from crowd-sourced restaurant prices for the whole country (1,306 entries from 99 contributors, updated Oct 2, 2026). The low end counts meals for your nights; the high end adds one more day for arrival and departure. Tourist towns can run higher than the country figures.
• Rental car: your daily quote for as many days as nights, up to one extra day, mandatory third-party liability at USD 13 to 18 a day if your quote leaves it out, fuel for the transfer drives (8.1 to 13.8 L per 100 km, small SUV to midsize 4x4, at ₡719 to ₡764 a litre), and Ruta 27 tolls. Colones are converted at ₡457.03 per dollar.
• Shuttles: one transfer between each pair of stops, at the lowest to highest price we found from sellers. Private transfers use one company's published price list per vehicle, plus 13% tax, including price changes it announced for travel from December 15, 2026.
• Parks: foreign adult fees, tax included: Arenal Volcano National Park USD 16.95, La Fortuna Waterfall USD 20; Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, self-guided trail USD 29, Monteverde Preserve guided night walk USD 49; Manuel Antonio National Park USD 18.08.
• Savings: what is left of the high and low estimate plus airfare after what you have saved, split over the full weeks (and two-week paydays) until you leave. With only a month chosen, we count from the 1st of that month.

Not estimated

• Lodging rates: we have not sampled enough current hotel prices to publish a range, so you enter your own quote.
• The rental car base rate: enter the daily quote you get. We add mandatory third-party liability if your quote leaves it out.
• Public bus fares: not verified yet. Enter your own total if you plan to ride buses.
• Taxis, hotel pickups and tour transport at each stop.
• Tours beyond the park and preserve fees listed, hot springs, hanging bridges, tips, drinks, travel insurance, phone plans and souvenirs.
• Parking: many hotels include it, but some lots charge. Add it under other costs if your hotels charge.

For context

In 2025, visitors from the United States who flew into SJO stayed 9.0 nights on average and reported average spending of about USD 1,543 per person (Costa Rica Tourism Board airport survey). The survey does not say whether that includes airfare, and it is an average across every kind of trip, so use it only as a sense check.