We Moved to Costa Rica Without Ever Visiting — Here’s the Whole Story

Moving to Costa Rica was not some carefully researched, perfectly executed plan for us (although, it should have been). It was actually a slightly reckless, incredibly stressful, life-changing leap. However, nearly a decade later, I can say with complete confidence it was the best thing we ever did.

I also want to be real with you though, because if you’re thinking about making this move, you really need the full picture with both the good and the bad.

So here is our story.

Six Weeks’ Notice and a Country We’d Never Visited

Thomas and I were living in Hamburg, Germany when he got a job offer in San José, Costa Rica. We had been looking to move for awhile, and our mindset was that it was more important for him to find a job first. I was teaching business English at the time, which was something I figured I could find a job in no matter where we lived.

Thomas was more specialized as a teacher, so he started applying to German schools internationally.

The school that hired him wanted him to start in six weeks.

Yes, six weeks!

We had never visited Costa Rica or any Central or South American country for that matter. Thomas didn’t speak any Spanish and I hadn’t spoken any Spanish since my high school Spanish class days.

And yet, somehow, I was completely on board almost immediately. Thomas was the hesitant one (which was the right instinct) but I convinced him we should go for it.

What followed was a chaotic six weeks. We sold all our furniture, ended our lease, quit our jobs, threw a goodbye party, had my dad visiting for two weeks, had a friend who had just moved to Hamburg sleeping on our couch for a week and tried to plan an international move to a country we knew almost nothing about. It was a bit crazy haha.

We boarded that flight in a total daze. I remember breathing an actual sigh of relief when we took off, which is a strange feeling when you’re flying toward the unknown. But we had tied up everything behind us, and there was something almost peaceful about that.

Landing in Costa Rica for the First Time

When we landed in San Jose, it was the middle of January and we had just come from grey, cold Hamburg. One of Thomas’s colleagues picked us up at the airport and we immediately got down to business. She helped us set up cell phone plans and we started the process of setting up a bank account.

I remember immediately being thrown off by the level of security. Just to get into the bank a security guard with a gun searched our bags. Truthfully, it scared me. After only beiung in teh country for about two hours I thought, “what have I gotten us into?”

We had nowhere to live yet so we started in a hotel. After a few days, one of Thomas’s colleagues was generous enough to have us move into her house while we continued to look for a place.

During that time, something happened that completely caught us off guard: everyone wanted to help us. People we had known for less than two weeks were going out of their way to help us find a home, navigate things we didn’t understand, invite us into their lives.

Coming from Germany, where people are perfectly kind but also very private, this was genuinely disorienting at first. We didn’t know how to accept it. But we learned quickly: in Costa Rica, it’s all about who you know, and people will show up for you in a way that’s hard to describe until you experience it.

After a few weeks we found a small apartment which ended up being the perfect starting point for us. The building had four apartments with a nice courtyard where we would all hang out. We quickly met our new neighbors and all started spending time together. It was great!

What We Weren’t Prepared For

This country tests your patience in ways you cannot anticipate.

There are no addresses in Costa Rica. Locations are given by landmarks (“100 meters south of the old mango tree”), getting internet set up took weeks and involved a technician stopping traffic to hang cables on our house, the residency process took years and involved lost paperwork that nobody told us about, and going to the bank for a new card took two hours standing at a counter.

We had come from Germany, where bureaucracy is also a nightmare, but an efficient nightmare. In Costa Rica, the pace is completely different. Things move slowly, often circuitously. I learned that the only way through is to take a deep breath and lean into it.

Why Our Move Was Actually Harder Than It Needed to Be

Here’s something I wish someone had told us: take an extended trip first.

We of course didn’t really have that option. We just moved. And while it worked out for us, it was stressful in ways that were avoidable.

If you are moving with kids, a pet, or thinking of buying a place, definitely plan to spend at least a month here. Rent a car, explore different regions, figure out where feels like home before you commit.

If you need a rental car for an extended stay, fill in our contact form here and we can help you get a great deal. We’ve been here long enough to know who to work with.

And please, don’t skip travel insurance. We learned this one the hard way too. For shorter extended trips, Heymondo is excellent. If you’re thinking longer term, SafetyWing has coverage specifically designed for people living in a place for over a month at a time.

How We Actually Built a Life Here

After the first year, we moved into a nice home with a yard. It was the perfect place to live for us. We also made some genuinely great friends and started to feel like Costa Rica was actually ours.

One of the unexpected perks of living in San José was the location. It sits right in the middle of the country, which means on any given weekend we could be on the Pacific coast, the Caribbean coast, or deep in the mountains within a couple of hours. Thomas was teaching at the time, so he had generous vacation time, and we took full advantage of it. We were traveling almost every weekend.

The catch was that we were on a pretty tight budget. And back then, there wasn’t much online to help us. Travel content about Costa Rica was almost entirely split between backpacker blogs and luxury resort guides. There wasn’t much that showed you how to actually explore this country in a real, accessible way. I’m talking, the national parks, the wildlife, the incredible local businesses, etc.

So I started Costa Rica Vibes to fill that gap. I wanted to show that the most amazing parts of this country are accessible to regular people on regular budgets. And I wanted to shine a light on local businesses, because there are so many incredible ones that deserve more attention than they get.

That’s how Costa Rica Vibes was born. And we absolutely love what it’s become.

The adjustment definitely wasn’t instant, and there are still things I miss a lot.

The one that gets me most is a sense of freedom and security I had living in Europe. Being able to walk around a city alone at night without a second thought was a luxury that I would never do here. I don’t feel unsafe in Costa Rica, and we’ve never been robbed or had any serious incidents. But that particular freedom is something I’ve had to let go of.

Still, we’ve built a life here that I genuinely love.

Our New Project: Cheap Homes Costa Rica

One thing that comes up constantly when people ask us about moving here is property. Costa Rica real estate can be an incredible value and there are far more affordable options than most people realize.

We recently launched Cheap Homes Costa Rica, where we share properties for sale across all regions of the country, all under $300k. I’m talking homes and small businesses updated daily.

If you’re thinking about buying property here and want to know what’s actually available at realistic price points:

• Follow us on Instagram @cheaphomes.cr : New listings posted every day
• Subscribe to the Cheap Homes CR Substack: Weekly curated properties, neighborhood breakdowns, honest intel on what’s affordable and where the international community is strong

Where to Go From Here

If our story has you thinking seriously about making the move, here’s where to dig deeper:

• Costa Rica Residency and Visas: What You Actually Need to Know — the legal pathways, explained clearly
• Where to Live in Costa Rica: The Honest Breakdown by Region — because Costa Rica is wildly diverse and the right region for you depends on your lifestyle