I traveled to Costa Rica during the pandemic - here’s how it was

I traveled to Costa Rica during the pandemic and I felt safe.

I am by nature neither a particularly adventurous person nor a risk taker. So friends and family were somewhat surprised when I announced my intention to travel to Costa Rica in the midst of a global pandemic and to take advantage of the country’s adventure vibe and go canyoning for the first time. In my last blog post I outlined my thought process as to why I decided to travel and how I was planning my trip. This post will cover the actual trip. On this trip I was a hosted guest of the hotel properties and my travel throughout Costa Rica was facilitated by Memorable Costa Rica, a company specializing in Costa Rica vacations.

Costa Rica is a popular tourism destination in Central America for those who love adventure, nature, wildlife and tropical beaches. The country received 3.1 million visitors in 2019 with just around half coming from the United States. Unfortunately this year many visitors have decided to postpone their travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. I decided to travel to Costa Rica to see what it feels like to travel internationally. I prepared for COVID travel by taking a pre-travel COVID test, purchasing travel insurance that included coverage for COVID related medical expenses and traveling with a bag of supplies that included disposable surgical masks, cloth masks with N95 filters, Clorox and Purel wipes and several bottles of hand sanitizer. At the end of my 8 day trip I was incredibly impressed by the tourism sector’s commitment to health and safety, the country’s unspoiled nature and the diversity of the visitor experience.

Flight Experience - Delta

I chose Delta for my air travel. Delta’s commitment to health and safety - Delta CareStandard - and a number of miles sitting idly in my account were the primary reasons for choosing this carrier for my travel. My flights to Liberia Costa Rica, via Atlanta went smoothly. By and large Delta delivered on its promise of a clean and safe flight environment. Modified boarding and deplaning processes and a stripped down in-flight service program are designed to keep passengers spaced and crew interaction to a minimum. Passengers were handed Purel wipes upon boarding and middle seats were mostly kept empty except for couples and family groups traveling together. First Class and Comfort Plus tended to have fewer empty seats as more seats were occupied by couples traveling together and passengers who had been upgraded. I actually gave up a First Class upgrade because all but 2 seats in the cabin were occupied. Individually pre-packaged “snack bags” containing water and snacks were handed out by flight attendants during the flight. No beverage/food carts.

Passengers must be masked during flights with Delta and for the most part passengers complied and wore masks consistently except when eating or drinking. Mask compliance ranged from passengers wearing full face shields and N95 masks to others wearing bandanas or buffs pulled over their nose and mouth. Many wore cloth or disposable masks. My personal experience was that mask compliance was much better in Main Cabin/Comfort Plus than in First Class where passengers tended to keep masks off once they ate and drank and flight attendants opted not to correct them. On two of my flights the flight crew made an onboard announcement reminding passengers to keep their masks on. While it sounds onerous to wear a mask for hours on end it really wasn’t that bad.

COVID-19 Health and Safety - Costa Rica

From a COVID point of view I actually felt safer traveling in Costa Rica than I did in my home state of Minnesota. Minnesota’s positivity rate as I headed out of the country hovered around 12% compared to 8% in Costa Rica. Costa Rica had 20.9 new cases per 100,000 people, significantly trailing the United States at 63.6. The 232 patients in the Costa Rican ICUs in the first week of December represented 65% of Costa Rica’s total ICU capacity. At the same time there were fewer than 100 open ICU beds available across Minnesota - 25 availabile in the Twin Cities meaning metro ICUs were at 96% capacity.

In Costa Rica we saw numerous sanitization protocols in place everywhere we traveled. Before entering any van our temperatures were taken, our hands were sanitized, our shoes sprayed with disinfectant and the driver and we wore masks the entire journey. We also opted to have our windows open when possible. Signs everywhere reminded people to wear masks, wash their hands and socially distance. In Costa Rica there is no politicization of mask wearing. It is a matter of national health and safety and compliance is high.

Portable hand washing stations were ubiquitous at the entry to the airports, stores, restaurants, hotels and even the national parks.

Upon arrival at our hotels a similar version of the same protocol occurred. In hotel rooms remotes were cleaned and shrink wrapped, rooms were kept empty for 24-48 hours between guests and we were always asked if we wanted daily housekeeping services. If you didn’t wish to have housekeeping services you simply placed a sign (or dreamcatcher) on your door. Hotels had a wide variety of health and safety measures in place throughout their properties including sanitary stations at the entrances, electrostatic sprayers for spraying luggage and common areas and digital QR codes to access hotel information and restaurant menus. Gyms required reservations and limited the number of people working out. Equipment was cleaned between users.

None of these measures detracted in any way from the beauty and comfort of our stay at our hotels which included Tabacon in La Fortuna, Hotel Presidente in San Jose, Los Altos Resort in Manuel Antonio and Nantipa in Santa Teresa. We saw similar protocols in place in other hotels we visited for site inspections.

In terms of touring, all of our touring and transfers were organized on a private basis, so we didn’t mix our travel pod. We enjoyed private tours that included canyoning, visits to national parks and a lazy day or two at the beach. We found that despite the decreased number of tourists, most tourism activities at the resorts and in the local communities such as zip lining, surf lessons, national park tours etc… were still being offered albeit with minor modifications to ensure guests’ health and safety.

When eating at restaurants we opted to eat “off hours” with an early breakfast and either a late lunch in the afternoon or an early dinner in the evening. We also didn’t linger over our meals. We ate primarily at restaurants that were either outside or covered with open air ventilation to the outside. Tables in all restaurants were well spaced. Restaurants made some modifications to their dining including the elimination of most self-serve buffet options. At Tabacon, where a buffet style breakfast was still being served, guests needed to make reservations to avoid crowding the restaurant and items were displayed in individual portion servings. Hot items such as eggs, waffles etc… were served to guests by masked and gloved restaurant staff.

So was it worth it?

For me, in a word. Totally. Of course it depends entirely on your own personal risk assessment. After months of no travel, it was an amazing trip, worth the time and effort. I felt safe traveling throughout the country (with the possible exception of downtown San Jose - due to the sheer number of people) and happily took full advantage of the opportunity to experience Costa Rica’s jewel tourism destinations without the crowds. Nonetheless I can’t give the full-throated endorsement to travel I would like. The CDC is still recommending that people avoid unnecessary travel, especially during the upcoming holiday season. The current CDC guidance for travel to Costa Rica is a Level 4 - Very High Level of COVID-19 in Costa Rica; avoid travel. However for those individuals for whom travel IS on the table, Costa Rica’s tourism providers are working very hard to earn your trust and ensure your safety in order to welcome you back to the land of Pura Vida.