大咖福利影院

TerrynViv wrote:

Whoever told you that health care is about $300 a year is WAY off.聽 The lowest I have heard is around $50 per month and I know a couple that left Costa Rica because their fee was to be $650 per month.

The $650 /mo was a Rentista residency, not Pensionado, though, right?

tamerlanesunny wrote:

Hi聽 聽my name is Sunny , my soon to be husband聽 is Storm , we currently live in Fort Lauderdale and am tired of the traffic and traffic and crime and聽 lack of manners, some of you know聽 what I'm talking about.

this is a big step and we want to get information and hope to communicate with people willing to help us get there.
The questions are聽 simply, health care, social activities and聽 crime levels聽 best areas to live in, preferably in an active adult community and聽 cost of聽 living, where do you shop, what is best to ship a vehicle from states or buy there ?

Wr are active, friendly caring people, he is former law enforcement, I in the medical field聽 Hope to hear from you

Most areas are fairly low on crime, no more than in most USA locations though there are a couple "hot spots" for crime you may have heard about. However I suspect some crimes of a violent nature (there very few of these actually) are drug or criminal-activity related... For the most part Costa Rica is as safe as most USA locations.

San Jose has a fair amount of crime but most outlying areas have much less crime. The main crime is property theft, not armed robbery or murder etc..

Buying a vehicle vs buying a used one here - depends on how much money you have to spend, in part and how much hassle you're willing to go through to import one here.

My research led me to decide to buy here but we only had about $8k to spend on a car. If you have more and have a car that will work for you here (i.e. 4wd if you are going to drive much off the main highways on back roads), then you may want to import it. But personally it sounds like a lot of hassle to me and ABOUT the same price as buying here by the time you pay import duty, shipping, etc. Cars cost way more here than in the USA. Example: a nice city driving Honda 2007 with low mileage in the USA will cost about the same as a 2000 4x4 here in Costa Rica with high mileage.

If you have a lot of $ I'd suggest buying a new car here but that's going to cost a minimum of $15k or so... (this is an estimate, I've not investigated prices recently on new cars). But a new car here is going to cost a LOT. Car insurance is not cheap in Costa Rica, either, about the same as I paid in the U.S. but U.S. had better coverage including a rental car if you need it - which will cost an arm and a leg here if you get that coverage.

As for cost of living it totally depends on where you live and how you live.

We're a couple, living on $1300 a month and doing okay with that. Can't travel much or go out to eat much but we buy what we want to eat, have a car with insurance, have internet and drink a couple beers a day and buy stuff we need including SOME luxuries. Our electricity runs around $12/month, internet is $35/mo, gasoline runs about $60 every 10 days or so, food is maybe $200-300 a month of our budget because we like to eat well including some organic veges and fruits.

But we pay no rent so if you are going to pay rent add another $600-1000/month to the monthlyh budget figure.

WHERE depends on many many factors so you'll have to tell us if you want beach, mountains, city, country, or etc. , hot, cold, cool, warm, less rain, more rain, etc...

kohlerias wrote:

$12 a month for electricity is very low, 聽 but when choosing to live at the beach or just to use AC anywhere in the country, it may bring your monthly bill up to $200, $300 or more. Electricity is not usually included in long term rentals.

Yes, we have all LED lighting, and only run the computer, and refri daily. Wash clothes once a week, no dryer.
No fans (as of yet) and certainly no a.c..
This is the advantage of living in the mountains as opposed to the beach. At night it gets COOL here; we sleep with blankets! Last night wifey asked for an extra blanket! During the day we stay outside most of the time but even inside it's not THAT hot except for a couple hours. Sweating a little is good for you! LOL.

One thing about AC a builder told me: most builders here do NOT insulate the houses well and so a.c. escapes outside. If you build a home in Costa Rica and plan to use a.c. put extra attention on INSULATION and closing up all gaps where the cool air will escape.

kohlerias wrote:

Tamerlanesunny or anyone interested in Nosara or other areas of Guanacaste, check out this for more information. Lots of interesting articles.

Kohlerias,

Thanks for this post. I hadn't heard of this newspaper before.聽 (...and why if it's on the web do we still call them news"papers?"聽 馃ぃ)

- Expat Dave