Costa Rica or Sri Lanka July 2024

[Tinydancer123]

Hi all , looking for advice. We have travelled extensively pre children . We are not looking to get into it with the children 10 and 13. The selections we have are Sri Lanka or Costa Rica. I have found flights but really looking to see what other families think ? Have you been what did you see /do ? Any recommendations for drivers ?

I've been to both but a while ago now an pre kids. I think scenery and facilities/ activities wise, Costa Rica win it for me. Absolutely beautiful Pacific coast, and activities in the mountains eg cloud forests. It also felt relatively westernised and safe ish.

Sri Lanka I found maybe more culturally interesting, and for wildlife, but a much poorer country which I think might be harder with kids ie their exposure to poverty, safety, illnesses. My experience might have been marred by a very grumpy driver though!

I'd go for Costa rica personally - think a great place to see.

Thank you - I think perhaps July may be the wrong time and we are restricted as I am a teacher:(

I've been to Costa Rica with the children when they were 9 and 10 I think and we all absolutely loved it. They especially loved the wildlife, sloths, raccoons, coati, gecko, monkeys, toucan, the rainforest and the really high ziplines. I would go for there out of those two but tbf to Sri Lanka I've only researched going and not been. We didn't use a driver but went on trips. Think it was Gecko Tours but we were based in Guadalavaca.

Thank you so much - can I asked how you organised it ? Ie which airline / hotels?

Which month ?

Any must see's?

What was approx cost ?

We went in August and it is their winter but for an active holiday it was fine, 6am to 4pm sunny and c27C at peak and then at 4pm heavy rain for an hour or two each day but could plan round that and seeing rain in rainforest was great. Its not a sunbathing type place, beaches are a bit wild with wildlife appearing and sometimes volcanic ash.

Been to both with kids.
Roughly 3 weeks in each.
Used public transport so can't advise on drivers.
Could have stayed longer in both.

Costa Rica aged 13 and 16.
Sri Lanka aged 9, 12 and 15.

You can't go wrong. We loved both.
Both hot and humid (but manageable).
Both have tonnes of wildlife.

Sri Lanka more interesting culturally - food, sites to visit (e.g. Polonnaruwa by bike, climbing sigirya), train journey Kandy to Ella.

More wildlife in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica is much more expensive.
Flights similarish to both.

Fun activities in each.
CR zip lining, surfing, white water rafting, hanging bridges, snorkelling (not great), turtles (tortuguero)
SR mini elephant safari, snorkeling (turtle Island, great), surfing, train journey. There is rafting too.

Toss a coin, do one this summer and the other once you've saved up again! Then add on Borneo 😉

P.s. also a teacher - summer hols was fine for both! Flew right at the start in both cases.
CR - only rained for 2 days out of 3 weeks in the day. Exciting overnight storms.
Cahuita and Samara beaches were great for sunbathing. We started on one coast and ended on the other.

As we want a beach chill aswell as experience perhaps Sri lanka will be better. Thank you

We did a package with TUI and stayed at RUI Guanacaste which the kids loved but was on the lively side. It had rainforest, gecko, monkeys, raccoons, coati all appearing at the hotel and a lovely a la carte restaurant where DS loved you could have steak every day which came on a silver platter and a family of raccoons would appears, Mum, Dad and babies. Trips were Arenal volcano (famous), Buena Vista (kids loved this one especially - water slide through jungle, horse riding in jungle, hot springs, active volcanoes and ziplining and saw monkeys and toucans there), Blue river which was like a botantical gardens, waterfall etc, a visit to carribean side and rainforest with sloths (kids absolutely loved that one) and Diamante (kids loved as 60mph zip line about 300 metres in air). TUI have stopped going in the summer though, there flights were to Liberia rather than San Jose. Monteverde has the hanging bridges. If you google Mumsnet Costa Rica there are masses of threads going through were people have been and some used drivers. I think there maybe turtles on Caribbean side hatching. My DS is asd so he loves the AI and wildlife but both my kids absolutely loved it and DD is 17 now and still talks about it.

Wow you are inspiring me !! Who did you fly with ? We loved Goa and central America pre children. I am swaying towards Sri Lanka but fair play with the public transport.
Could you give me an idea of iterinary in SR please ? Who did you fly with ?Also how did you find the transport? I know in Goa it was mad !!!
Finally what should my budget be approx ising public transport ? We have found flights for 3k

Our hotel had own beach and lots of them do but it was a beach were most people did kayaking or beach volleyball or swimming rather than sunbathing. Also monkeys would come on beach. You can chill as in go swimming and to beach but its not like a Maldives, Caribbean, Mauritius type beach.

Been to both, not with kids.

I would say both are doable with kids. Both have fabulous wildlife (Costa Rica is more birds, turtles, dolphins, tropical fish etc whereas Sri Lanka has some safari type animals such as elephants). Lots of monkeys in both. Costa Rica doesn't have much culture to speak of whereas Sri Lanka has interesting temples and ruins and so on.

The people in Sri Lanka are absolutely lovely. You may find people wanting to take selfies with you in certain places.

If you like spicy food, the food in Sri Lanka is absolutely amazing.

I don't know, putting it into words like this it looks like Sri Lanka is coming out on top but I thought Costa Rica was amazing and we had probably our best holiday there. The national parks and the pony trekking and seeing turtles hatch on the beach.

Costa Rica is probably a bit safer. You'll find it easier to get around if you hire a 4x4 and drive around yourselves, although we took buses to get from the Caribbean side to the Pacific side. In Sri Lanka you can do some travelling around by train (but not all). If you stay in places with great customer ratings you can ask owners of B&Bs to find you a driver to take you wherever you want to go next without too much difficulty.

Costa Rica is much more westernised, and I think more expensive than Sri Lanka because a lot of Americans have second homes there. The hospitals are good though if you have an emergency.

My boss just went to Costa Rica in August with his three kids and had a great time. (He has also travelled with them to Thailand and Brazil.)

Sorry this probably isn't much help but they are both great places for a holiday.

@Tinydancer123
Sri Lanka in summer 2019 was about £1500 in total after flights - 2.5 weeks, 1 adult 3 kids, eating out every meal, guest houses.

Costa Rica summer 2023 was £3000 after flights - 3 weeks, 1 adult 2 kids (age 12+ is adult rates though), lots of self catering, backpackers/guest houses.

Having been to similar places to you pre kids, I found both very laid back and easy. I think Sri Lanka had the edge for me with the culture (and being able to afford to eat out all the time!)
Our summer is the south/west monsoon so go north and east.
We did habarana, nilaveli, arugum bay, ella, kandy.
Flew with Oman air via Muscat. We've used etihad before, both good.
Costa Rica was with United airlines (give yourself more than 2 hours for a connection in the US).
We always end up with a layover to minimise flight costs.

Sri Lanka is amazing and they will be super friendly to the kids. For a driver I'm pretty sure if you contact your hotel for the first night in Colombo ahead they can arrange one, try the Kingsbury. We have access to a driver (personal connections) but I also love the train. Can recommend the Amaya in dambulla. Also stayed down the coast from Colombo in bentota from which you can take a river safari and see crocodiles, monitor lizards, monkeys etc. inland you can do a safari and see leopards if you are lucky, elephants are everywhere, even had them playing on the beach and in the water by our hotel with their keeper (lived at the temple but they aren't tied up).

We loved dining in the family restaurants everywhere, you are sat with Sri Lankan families and food is amazing.

Wow my flights are 3k 😬😬😬😬I need to look around !!!

@Tinydancer123 3k for all of you? That's great if so.
My costs were after flights.
Flights were about 3k for 4 in 2019.

I think our flights were about £650 per person (two adults) for both Costa Rica in 2016 and Sri Lanka in 2017.

God, we took good holidays before kids!

Since having kids we've had a weekend in Belgium.

I think when we went in 2017 it was 6k for 4 of us for flights, transfers, all meals and drinks in restaurant and watersports included. Then excursions were on top. Flight prices have risen to most places a lot since covid. We were due to go to Borneo in 2020 flights out 500 each, not possible 2020 or 2021, 2022 was doing chemo, 2023 did Maldives and Mauritius so moving it to 2024 and flight prices are over 1000 each.

Yes I think I managed to get it for 3k yest I am going to look again today. However thinking I could do one way with different airline to reduce cost 💕

What an interesting thread!! We also cannot decide between Sri Lanka and Costa Rica!! We are hoping to go August 2023 with three kids (19, 17 and 14)... Leaning more towards Sri Lanka for cultural and food reasons!! Have you made your mind @Tinydancer123 ?
Ps: I am also a teacher!

We are going to Sri Lanka this Easter but hoping to go to Costa Rica next year so this thread is perfect!

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I'm also swaying between CR and SR for Easter next year. @Flimpychunk would love to hear how it went!

Will type out a longer answer when we get back but it’s been wonderful! Lots to do, great places to stay at that aren’t prohibitively expensive and fab food.

Current view:

Oh lovely. Look forward to hearing about it!