Topic Wiki

List of TR's:
Fan Of Dan, BrooklynCPA, momo Part 1, momo Part 2, lechaim2life, eliteflyer, Pbaruch, Rcarentals (Guanacaste)

Bringing food/meat through the airports:
  • San Jose Airport SJO - customs are known to be ruthless here with meat. There are many stories in the forums and online of people having all their meats or kosher travel meals seized at customs.
  • Liberia LIR - Recent experiences were that LIR customs didn't check anyone at all.
The general advice which is the only method that seems to consistently work, is bringing in specifically USDA certified products. For example most hotdogs will have an actual USDA certification printed on the hotdog packet. Some companies like Teva, Agri in various supermarkets and most manufacturers have the USDA certification and approval number printed on the label. This is rarely the case for supermarkets who repackage and butcher things themselves and do not have a USDA-certified processing room.
There have been reports of stickers like the USDA organic stickers regularly used to label meats in supermarkets working as well if they look like THIS
In the most ideal world, your food has a clear description of: The product, the nutrition, and a USDA label on the manufacturer packaging.

In a worst case, food can be airshipped to anywhere for a fee - for example from one of the SJO kosher suppliers to Liberia for example the JW Marriott for around $400.

Kosher Food/ Restaurants:
  • SKCR/Super Kosher has takeout under the local Chabad rabbi.
  • The Israeli restaurant in Jaco may not be acceptable for many.  It is my understanding that while they get some meat/chicken from Chabad, they have no hashgacha.
  • Supermarket Automercado has pas yisroel bagels in the freezer per the Chabad rabbi in tamarindo - may or may not be tamarindo specific.
  • Walmart is 6 minutes from Liberia airport, and has tons of American, kosher products and snacks.

Synagogue:

Things to Do:

West side/Liberia

Hotels:
The JW Marriott Guanacaste has amazing suites. If you book there, it's worth speaking to the reservations department before or after to see if you can negotiate an upgrade for a small fee. They offered off the base room, an upgrade of $175 a night for a suite, or $200 for a suite with ocean view, and plunge pool.

Getting Around:
A 4 Wheel drive here is mandatory. Not just because the humidity and rain create muddy and slippery roads, but mainly because the potholes here, are really huge and bad, and your car needs clearance to drive... The roads in costa rica are absolutely terribly maintained. they are completely manageable with a SUV - but expect a ton of bumps and thousands of potholes - almost the entire country is made up of 2 lane roads including highways. All overtaking is done in the direction of opposing traffic. cars here are seriously used and abused - so when you pick up your car.. it's worth going for one with as low mileage as possible.


Notes:

ALL CAR COMPANIES CHARGE MANDATORY LIABILITY INSURANCE. This seems to be one of the biggest complaints from tourists who don't know and consider this a tourist trap - like Israel.
CDW here often REQUIRES the letter - more than Israel.. so have that prepared.


Author Topic: Costa Rica Master Thread  (Read 177450 times)

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #200 on: July 01, 2015, 08:58:48 PM »
Thanx good to know! Is it better to not label anything or just label everything as potatoes or something? ;)

This particular agent looked at each item and asked us what each unlabeled item (like bagels that we wrapped ourselves) was. I think having labels in Hebrew or labels that don't indicate the ingredients would have been best.

Also, he had no interest at all in seeing a letter from a rabbi.

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #201 on: July 01, 2015, 09:00:41 PM »
This particular agent looked at each item and asked us what each unlabeled item (like bagels that we wrapped ourselves) was. I think having labels in Hebrew or labels that don't indicate the ingredients would have been best.

Also, he had no interest at all in seeing a letter from a rabbi.
Lol. I would've figured as much

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #202 on: July 01, 2015, 09:11:14 PM »
This particular agent looked at each item and asked us what each unlabeled item (like bagels that we wrapped ourselves) was. I think having labels in Hebrew or labels that don't indicate the ingredients would have been best.

Also, he had no interest at all in seeing a letter from a rabbi.
What are examples of some of the things that went through without a problem? I'll label my food accordingly ;)

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #203 on: July 02, 2015, 07:33:47 AM »
What are examples of some of the things that went through without a problem? I'll label my food accordingly ;)

Poppers, kasha, onion potatoes, BBQ nuggets, lamb meatballs, boneless ribs. Anything that wasn't obviously chicken. All of our bird-based deli meats were taken but he left our beef jerky.

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #204 on: July 02, 2015, 08:13:12 AM »
Poppers, kasha, onion potatoes, BBQ nuggets, lamb meatballs, boneless ribs. Anything that wasn't obviously chicken. All of our bird-based deli meats were taken but he left our beef jerky.
Ty

Offline KF

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #205 on: July 03, 2015, 02:43:56 PM »
How did you heat up the food at the Andaz? Do they provide microwaves?

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #206 on: July 03, 2015, 04:17:01 PM »
How did you heat up the food at the Andaz? Do they provide microwaves?

We have a griddle and lots of aluminum foil.

Offline KF

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #207 on: July 04, 2015, 11:57:36 PM »
Did you bring griddle with you or buy there?

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #208 on: July 05, 2015, 12:15:20 AM »
Did you bring griddle with you or buy there?

We bought a bunch of these on sale a few years ago.

Offline Cw3323

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #209 on: July 05, 2015, 02:14:21 AM »

How did you heat up the food at the Andaz? Do they provide microwaves?
I emailed and called them and they provided me with a microwave and another fridge, a few ddf's also had the same experience.

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #210 on: July 16, 2015, 02:01:58 PM »
Is it a bad idea to go to costa rica in the summer, due to all the rain, and monsoon issues ?
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline beeweegee

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #211 on: July 16, 2015, 02:07:47 PM »
Is it a bad idea to go to costa rica in the summer, due to all the rain, and monsoon issues ?
Hit or miss. I went in the summer and had a great time. It rained most days for a very short time, and the rest of the day was clear. Definitely YMMV.

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #212 on: July 16, 2015, 05:41:58 PM »
Is it a bad idea to go to costa rica in the summer, due to all the rain, and monsoon issues ?

We just went. The only rain we saw was on a volcano.

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #213 on: July 16, 2015, 05:48:10 PM »
Is it a bad idea to go to costa rica in the summer, due to all the rain, and monsoon issues ?
I'm going in 3 weeks. From what I understand it only rains for abt one hr a day and not every single day

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #214 on: July 16, 2015, 06:57:28 PM »

We just went. The only rain we saw was on a volcano.
Where did you stay ? Did you go with kids ?
I'm going in 3 weeks. From what I understand it only rains for abt one hr a day and not every single day
Where you planning on staying ? Are you going with any kids ?
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #215 on: July 16, 2015, 07:00:47 PM »
Where did you stay? Did you go with kids? 

Andaz Papagayo. We went alone.

Offline Jm1248

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #216 on: July 16, 2015, 07:22:21 PM »
Where did you stay ? Did you go with kids ?  Where you planning on staying ? Are you going with any kids ?
No kids. Staying in hotel in Monteverde for 2 nights, a gorgeous Villa with completely private pool in Manuel Antonio for 3 nights (only $140 a night!), & shabos in marriott in San jose

Offline CS1

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #217 on: July 16, 2015, 07:46:03 PM »
Poppers, kasha, onion potatoes, BBQ nuggets, lamb meatballs, boneless ribs. Anything that wasn't obviously chicken. All of our bird-based deli meats were taken but he left our beef jerky.

nice -- good to know. Did your suite also have a microwave?
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Offline kangarruu

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #218 on: July 16, 2015, 08:10:25 PM »
nice -- good to know. Did your suite also have a microwave?

Nope. They also said all of their extra refrigerators were in use.

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #219 on: July 16, 2015, 08:18:02 PM »
Nope. They also said all of their extra refrigerators were in use.

oh... They stored your food for you in their hotel fridges?
(In St. Thomas we brought tons of styrofoam plates and Saran Wrap, kashered the microwave and ate pre-cooked meals... ) Will try those griddles. They look good.
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