Anyone been to Panama and Costa Rica?

[Roseshavethorns]

Has anyone been to Panama and Costa Rica? It looks amazing.
We are thinking of going in April 2027. Any advice or tips?

We’ve been to Costa Rica and it was incredible. V expensive though, so we stayed in quite basic accommodation. The highlights of Costa Rica are quite spread out across the country so a lot of time is spent travelling. Monteverde was my favourite place.

Thank you .
I'm starting from zero knowledge so any recommendations are welcome.

Have you watched the current series of Celebrity Race Across The World?

I've been to Panama. What areas were you thinking of going to?

Costa Rica looks wonderful

Dd backpacked round there she found CR extremely expensive and preferred Panama and Guatemala.

Costa Rica is my favourite place on earth.

I’m going there for my first time on a cruise next March.

Yes this. I haven't watched the latest episode, but last week they raced through Costa Rica and finished just over the border in Panama. Presumably the latest episode is spent in Panama. Costa Rica has been high on my wishlist for ages, but not yet visited.

I will definitely watch race across the world thank you.
Is Costa Rica ridiculously expensive day to day? It seems to be the first thing everyone says. It's too far in advance to get actual prices or bookings but I did think that the hotels looked quite expensive. Do you think it has become over commercialised?
I'll have a look at Guatemala. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm not sure yet other than I know we will fly into Panama City.
I'm starting from zero knowledge but I will try to decide what are the "must do" things are for us and plan where to go from there. The problem is that there are so many things that look absolutely amazing.
What would you recommend?

I went to Costa Rica earlier this year, it’s amazing.

I agree with pp, we spent a lot of time travelling to get between the places we wanted to see, so factor that in.

i don’t agree that it was particularly expensive day to day - ie buying food, snacks etc. it is the same sort of prices as the UK or America (Florida, New York etc) I think perhaps people are comparing it to other central and South American countries that may be noticeably cheaper than the UK.