Backpacking Costa Rica: The Country I Knew Almost Immediately Wasn’t for Me

Costa Rica was the second country of my three-week Central America trip and officially country 52 out of 197.

We had just left Bocas del Toro in Panama and were making our way north with basically no fixed plan other than eventually reaching Mexico. Costa Rica was supposed to be another stop along the way, and Puerto Viejo sounded like the obvious place to start because everyone kept talking about how cool it was.

Unfortunately, Costa Rica and I did not exactly fall in love.

I barely spent any time there, so I know it might sound unfair to say it became one of my least favorite countries in Central America. But after traveling for this long, I also know myself well enough to know when a place is simply not for me, and with Costa Rica it happened almost immediately.

This is what backpacking Costa Rica looked like for us: hitchhiking to the border, arriving with no accommodation booked, accidentally choosing what was basically my personal nightmare of a jungle hostel, crying over snakes and spiders, fixing my emotional crisis with pizza, and leaving the country almost as quickly as we entered it.

Leaving Bocas del Toro for Costa Rica

We left Bocas del Toro in the afternoon and took the boat back to Almirante. Bad weather had already delayed us, so we were lucky it cleared just enough for us to finally leave the island and continue toward Costa Rica.

The boat ride was absolutely not fun. I was holding onto my friend for dear life because every time the boat slammed into the waves I was convinced it was about to break in half, while he sat there completely calm. At this point he was probably starting to regret inviting me on a three-week trip after somehow ending up with a girl scared of everything while he appeared to be scared of absolutely nothing.

Once we finally reached Almirante, we still had to figure out how the hell we were getting to the Costa Rica border.

My First Time Hitchhiking

We started walking along the main road away from the boat port while different vans stopped and offered to take us. My friend asked how much they wanted, decided apparently we were still fully committed to budget backpacker bootcamp, and announced that we should hitchhike instead.

This was apparently completely normal to him. I had never hitchhiked in my life and was genuinely confused about how the entire process even worked. Apparently you just stand beside the road, put your thumb up, talk to random people and eventually get into someone’s car. Great.

We turned down a few vans asking for money until two local guys eventually stopped. We originally asked whether they could just take us to the next town, but they kept insisting they were happy to drive us all the way to the Costa Rica border, which was around 40 kilometers away.

Considering this was my first hitchhiking experience, my brain obviously spent the drive creating every worst-case scenario imaginable while I wondered whether getting into a stranger’s car for 40 kilometers had been an incredibly stupid life decision. It wasn’t. They were simply two genuinely nice local guys who wanted to help us, and they drove us all the way to the border.

→ Book your transfer to Puerto Viejo if you want to travel in comfort instead of improvising!

Crossing From Panama Into Costa Rica

The actual border crossing was surprisingly easy. We left Panama, got stamped into Costa Rica, and suddenly I was standing in country number 52.

Then came the same problem we kept having throughout this trip: we had entered another country and still had absolutely no idea what we were doing there. We had no accommodation booked, no proper itinerary, and were basically deciding everything as we went.

Eventually we decided to head to Puerto Viejo, a beach town people kept describing as one of the coolest places in Costa Rica. If only that had been true for me.

We found a local bus near the border and made our way there.

Arriving in Puerto Viejo With No Accommodation

Obviously, when we arrived in Puerto Viejo, we still had nowhere to sleep. My friend found what he described as a hostel by the beach, and that sounded pretty perfect to me.

Then we reached the gate.

We walked through the entrance and started following a path that seemed to be taking us deeper and deeper into the Costa Rican jungle. I could already feel myself starting to panic because this was very clearly not the version of “beach hostel” I had created in my head.

When we finally reached the hostel, my fears were confirmed. The common area was completely outside, with tables and chairs sitting on sand, which sounds cute until you remember that you are basically sitting in the middle of nature and nature is exactly where all the creatures I do not want anywhere near me live.

The actual beach was somewhere down another path through the jungle. The bathrooms were outside too, which meant that in my mind every insect, spider, snake and unidentified Costa Rican creature could simply walk into the bathroom whenever it wanted.

The jungle noises alone were enough for me. I did not need to know what was actually making them, and I was already trying very hard not to cry.

→ Find Accommodation in Puerto Viejo that isn’t as traumatizing as mine

The Hostel That Became My Personal Nightmare

At reception, my friend wanted to stay in the shared dorm and I wanted a private room. The annoying part was that once we divided the private room between us, we would have paid around the same each anyway, so in my mind there was absolutely no reason to share with strangers when we could have had our own room for basically the same money.

We stayed in the dorm.

Then I saw that the room was not completely closed off from the outside, and all I could think about was how easily insects could get inside during the night. My panic level immediately went to approximately 1,000.

I was desperately trying not to be dramatic because we had only just started this trip, but this was genuinely one of my worst nightmares. I hate bugs, I hate insects, and I do not particularly enjoy sleeping in the middle of nature because as far as I am concerned, that is the animals’ house and I am more than happy to let them keep it while I sleep somewhere else.

Costa Rica also happens to be exactly the kind of country where everything seems bigger, stranger and potentially capable of biting you.

My friend, meanwhile, was completely fine. He went to the beach while I sat there trying to work out how I was supposed to survive the next few hours without having a full mental breakdown.

Then He Came Back Talking About Snakes and Spiders

My friend eventually came back from the beach laughing and casually told me he had seen a snake on the way there. Then he told me to be careful with the spiders because he had already been bitten by one.

That was it. I started crying.

I genuinely tried not to, but there was no stopping it anymore. Budget backpacker bootcamp was one thing. Sleeping in a jungle hostel surrounded by insects, spiders and snakes was another level entirely, and he knew that because I had always told him my absolute limit was bugs and insects.

So there we were, sitting together while I cried and tried to calm myself down, feeling anxious, scared and completely uncomfortable, while he attempted to make me laugh about how ridiculous the entire situation was.

Eventually I told him I needed to get out of there. And I needed food.

Preferably junk food.

Apparently Pizza Fixes Everything

There are moments when I am stressed where I do not want an inspirational walk, meditation or a healthy meal. I want junk food.

It did not take long for us to find enormous slices of pizza, which was exactly what I needed. I immediately calmed down enough that my friend looked at me and basically said, “So pizza is all it takes?”

Yes. Apparently it was.

Unfortunately, pizza could only save me temporarily because eventually we had to go back to the hostel and actually sleep there.

Running Through the Jungle in the Dark

By the time we returned, the path through the jungle was completely dark, which left me with two options. I could turn on the flashlight on my phone and potentially see whatever insects, spiders, snakes or other creatures were around me, or I could run through the darkness and simply hope I did not step on anything.

Obviously I chose running through the dark.

In my mind, not knowing was better. I practically sprinted back to the hostel while praying I would not step on a snake.

That night I barely slept. My friend slept like we were staying in some five-star resort while I stared at the time and counted down the minutes until morning, hoping I could leave without encountering anything that would make me abandon the entire trip and run directly back to Portugal.

Leaving Puerto Viejo as Fast as Possible

Very early the next morning, we packed our bags, and the relief I felt when we finally left that hostel was ridiculous. It genuinely felt like someone had removed a giant rock from my chest.

At that point, if this was what Costa Rica was going to be like for me, then Costa Rica was clearly not my country. It was also already feeling expensive compared with the kind of budget trip we were doing, and after the entire jungle hostel situation neither of us seemed particularly interested in forcing me through several more days of Costa Rican wildlife exposure just so we could say we had stayed longer.

We found somewhere cheap for breakfast and decided to continue toward San José.

Puerto Viejo to San José

San José was never actually the destination. We were simply trying to work our way north toward Nicaragua, but the distances meant we had to pass through the capital.

We took the bus from Puerto Viejo to San José and eventually arrived at the bus station, where my first impression of the area was not particularly reassuring. It felt sketchy.

We started asking about buses toward Nicaragua and discovered that some left from another station, while the next useful option from where we were would not leave until 5am the following morning. So now we were stuck in San José overnight.

At least finding food was easy because by this point our Central America diet had already developed a very clear pattern: some combination of meat, rice and beans. If we were not eating that, we were probably cooking eggs and sausages somewhere.

→ Book your bus from Puerto Viejo to San Jose

Sleeping at a Bus Station Hotel

Because our bus was leaving so early, we wanted to stay as close to the station as possible. I asked local people about the surrounding area, and they told us it was not somewhere they would recommend wandering around, especially at night, because we were close to some more problematic parts of the city.

And one thing I have learned while traveling is that if locals in Central America tell you an area is not safe, you listen.

Accommodation around the station was not particularly cheap either, but at that point our priorities were simple: stay close, stay somewhere secure, sleep for a few hours and get on the 5am bus.

Then someone told us there was accommodation literally inside the bus station.

It was behind a secured gate and meant we would not need to walk around the area in the middle of the night, so even though it was not the cheapest option, we took it.

The room was basically a cubicle. Nothing fancy, nothing memorable and definitely not somewhere I would choose for an actual vacation, but it had a bed, we were inside a secured area, and we only needed somewhere to sleep before leaving early the next morning.

That was enough.

Was Backpacking Costa Rica Really That Bad?

Costa Rica became one of my least favorite countries in Central America, together with Belize, and yes, I know how unfair that probably sounds considering how little time I actually spent there.

We arrived from Panama, stayed one night in Puerto Viejo, crossed the country to San José the next day and were already preparing to leave for Nicaragua the following morning. I barely saw Costa Rica.

But I also know myself.

Sometimes I can tell almost immediately whether somewhere feels right for me, and Costa Rica simply did not. The jungle environment was basically everything that makes me uncomfortable: bugs, insects, snakes, outdoor bathrooms and sleeping somewhere that felt far too connected to nature for my liking.

Then there was the fact that the country already felt expensive compared with the kind of backpacking trip we were doing, followed by arriving in San José and immediately being warned by locals not to wander around the area where we had been dropped.

Costa Rica really did not make much effort to convince me.

And the funniest part is that I know this was not simply because I was moving too quickly to form an opinion. The next morning we left for Nicaragua, and within about an hour of entering that country, I already knew I was going to love it.

Sometimes a place just works for you.

Costa Rica didn’t work for me.

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