Cheap safe countries: Costa Rica

When I first started traveling decades ago at the advisement of a friend who was an avid backpacker, I was, like many people, rather concerned with how safe these destinations are. I had seen movies about people getting robbed or kidnapped and took at lot of this too much to heart. When I arrived in Asia, which is where my first adventures took place, I was kind of alarmed at how wrong my fears had been. The countries that I visited were exceptionally safe and I still stand by the statement especially today when I say that I think that most countries of the world are dramatically safer than my home country of the United States.

I find it quite ironic that the US State Department has a website dedicated to how safe it is to travel to other countries while at the same time being rather dedicated to not recognizing that it is USA that is likely one of the most dangerous countries to travel in.

I'll save that statistical observation for another day though: The point of all of this is to point out that there are many countries that are extremely safe, even when you consider the fact that they are extremely inexpensive by comparison to travel in.

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The first time I traveled to Costa Rica was quite some time ago and the main reason why I went there was because I had recently been introduced to surfing and had at that point done it is Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, and Mexico.

Some of those were tough, some of them were what I considered too easy. I had heard that Costa Rica has locations for all skill levels and plenty of options so I headed that direction specifically for that reason. Even though I was a rather "seasoned" traveler at that point, I still had a sort of fear of central America, and was apprehensive and probably a bit too protective of my surroundings while I was visiting.

Vigilance is important when traveling on the cheap, for sure. A fool and his money are easily parted I think the statement goes, and this is true anywhere in the world. However, the entire time I spent in Costa Rica was a good experience and my fears of being tricked or robbed around many corners was completely unwarranted and I stand by that statement to this day.

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one of the main things you get concerned about when surfing is that no matter what you are doing, you are going to need to leave some of your gear on the beach unless you are staying at a surf resort, which in Costa Rica just like the rest of all the places I have been that fall into this category, means that you will be over-paying for a not so nice establishment if you go this route. So for me and other budget conscious travelers, this meant a walk or even a motorbike ride to the beach with some stuff with me.

I didn't have a friend or buddy to surf with so when I left my phone, my towel, a bit of money, and my shoes on the beach, I halfway expected for someone to come up to them while I was in the water and just make off with them. If you think about it this is the perfect time for a criminal to get away with such a crime but yet, it didn't happen.

I would later find out at a cafe that the beach has a sort of unofficial policy where the local business owners will harshly punish any person that ever does this. They will shout at the potential criminal, take pictures of them, follow them, and help the police find them if they do something like this even if you are not a customer of their establishment. Why? Well because if a place starts to become known as being dangerous, their potential customer base is going to drop by a lot. To me that makes sense and it is pretty great.

However, Costa Rica isn't just safe at these places that are interested in protecting their bottom line, but I never really encountered any times at all in the multiple trips I have taken to that country, where I thought that I was being scammed or thought that I was in a potentially dangerous situation.

I found the people to be very friendly and there was only a couple of times where I thought that someone was trying to rip me off and this was from taxi drivers. Let me tell you as someone with many years of experience: Taxi drivers are trying to rip people off all over the world and it is not at all rare, even in wonderful law-abiding USA. however, this was extremely rare in Costa Rica and I only encountered it a handful of times and with some patience and also the willingness to walk away, I avoided all of those potential traps as well.

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This doesn't mean that you can just act like a dolt and leave cash lying around all over the place and leave your doors unlocked. There is still a certain amount of sensible caution that must be taken in this, and every other country that I have ever been to. But for the most part Costa Rica is a country where you do not need to be on your guard at all times.

I have returned to this country many times and will likely travel back there again later this year just because it is nearby and visas are easy as can be as well.

For someone traveling on the cheap, it is very easy to get quite good accommodation and eat well as well as have some drinks at night for under $50 a day total. Try pulling that off in Florida!

Central American countries are truly wonderful places to visit because of the tremendous values that can be discovered there and I think a lot of people stay away from these countries because they have the rather untrue idea that they are dangerous places. How this rumor got started in anyone's guess but I think that a big part of the reason is because of movies and television shows that kind of paint these countries in a negative light.

Don't allow those thoughts to take hold in your mind. Costa Rica and many other countries in the world are actually much safer than your home countries in Europe or North America and you missing out on some really wonderful experiences if you are avoiding them.