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 177392 times)

Offline mordechain

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #280 on: January 18, 2016, 10:10:55 PM »
Thanks Frostboot. We've vacuum packed all and will be transporting it in a freezer bag so I think we should be OK.
Let us know what happens!

Offline rileywiles23

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #281 on: January 19, 2016, 09:56:46 AM »

See my report upthread. We ultimately got our POM meals in, but if I ever go again, I would be sure to have some sort of USDA stamp on them and pack them in a legitimate cooler. We had ours packed frozen (and they arrived frozen) in a cardboard box with ice-packs along the perimeter. The whole customs operation at LIR seemed very haphazard and unpredictable.
How can I get a USDA stamp on Pom meals ?
Life is as good as you make it...

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #282 on: January 19, 2016, 10:00:26 AM »
How can I get a USDA stamp on Pom meals ?
I don't think POM will do it, but I suppose you could always try printing your own official-looking stickers, or borrow some labels/old packaging the next time you're at the butcher.

Offline Mtl18

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #283 on: January 19, 2016, 11:39:16 PM »
What about packaged steaks? How would you suggest I pack it? Better to leave in original package or repackage it?

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #284 on: January 20, 2016, 12:13:46 AM »
What about packaged steaks? How would you suggest I pack it? Better to leave in original package or repackage it?
they did not like our home packed ziplock bag meals so that could probably backfire on you. I'd think better bet would be official looking vacuum packed steaks.

Offline oiseli48

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #285 on: January 21, 2016, 09:33:52 AM »
Anyone in papagayo next week interested in a joint order of food from San Jose? They want $230 for delivery

Offline live18

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #286 on: January 21, 2016, 03:26:51 PM »
My husband and I will be in the Papagayo area for the weekend and in Arenal for Tuesday and Wednesday. We would like to visit one more place on Monday and sleep there Monday night. Do you have any recommendations? We were thinking Rincon national park or bijagua/the waterfall but don't know which one is too similar to arenal area or which one is better and which one can't be done in a day...unless there is another place we don't know about?

Please include suggestions for accommodations.

Thanks!

Offline Aaaron

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #287 on: February 03, 2016, 06:33:34 PM »
Has anyone ordered food from the Chabad takeout in San Jose? Or been to the kosher grocery store?

Offline gsquared

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #288 on: February 04, 2016, 12:23:14 PM »
The grocery store is small but has a good take out business. We ordered a few meals from them. Some were better than others.   

Offline beeweegee

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #289 on: February 04, 2016, 02:37:22 PM »
Has anyone ordered food from the Chabad takeout in San Jose? Or been to the kosher grocery store?
Yes, both. What's your question?

Offline Aaaron

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #290 on: February 04, 2016, 03:11:06 PM »
Yes, both. What's your question?

We ordered a bunch of take out meals, but I was primarily wondering what type of food is the store stocked with?  Meat products?  Kosher milk?

Offline E

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #291 on: February 19, 2016, 06:18:39 PM »
Andaz papagayo in room A/C has a occuppancy and door sensor this can easily be shut off by removing JP3 jumper see page 7 of manual.

Google : peco thermostat t170 manual

Offline Suave

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #292 on: February 21, 2016, 04:01:10 PM »
Flying to SJO tonight, planning on spending a month covering several countries in central America, chances are I'll hop over to Nicaragua in the next few days as Costa Rica does not seem that appealing.
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Offline Aaaron

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #293 on: February 22, 2016, 03:23:26 PM »
Flying to SJO tonight, planning on spending a month covering several countries in central America, chances are I'll hop over to Nicaragua in the next few days as Costa Rica does not seem that appealing.

We were talking to some expats down there and they all said CR, Panama, and Belize are all much more interesting than Nicaragua. 

Offline Suave

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #294 on: February 23, 2016, 11:18:43 AM »
I guess it all depends on who you ask, the locals here in Costa Rica (including expats) are telling me to go to Nicaragua. The only activity that interests me here is the corcovado national park (the most biodiverse rainforest in the world according to natgeo). I'm hoping to hop on a bus within the next hour or two
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Offline jshelton

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #295 on: March 01, 2016, 01:35:08 PM »
can you bring those pomegranate premade frozen meals on a plane to costa rica? like as a carry on or in your luggage?

also, does anyone know if the westin all inclusive will provide kosher food with no extra charge, has anyone had any experience with this? I tried asking but they haven't got back to me and its been days.

otherwise thinking of staying at andaz, el mangrove, or jw Marriott (all in Guanacaste - bc flying into Liberia)

thanks as always

Offline eliteflyer

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #296 on: March 01, 2016, 02:35:49 PM »
can you bring those pomegranate premade frozen meals on a plane to costa rica? like as a carry on or in your luggage?
See upthread. We brought them in to LIR successfully, but nearly had them confiscated.

Offline jshelton

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #297 on: March 01, 2016, 04:35:49 PM »
do you or should you rent a car here if staying in the papagayo or Guanacaste area? I would like to do some beach activities and some hiking, sightseeing, and other stuff. haven't looked into the area so much yet just preliminary planning but wondering what people on here do.

thank you

Offline jshelton

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #298 on: March 06, 2016, 02:59:18 PM »
Apparently the Four Seasons Peninsula Papagayo has a full kosher menu (requires 72 hours advance notice)

Food comes from the San Jose Kosher Center and is "Glatt Kosher, Bishul Yisroel, Pas Yisroel under the stricktest standards of uncompromised Kashrus. The Rav Hamachshir is the Mora D'asra of Costa Rica's Orthodox Community, Harav Gershon Miletski"

Prices are fairly cheap at $25 per meal for items like Boneless Spare Ribs, Cowboy Steak etc and include a side dish

Before ya'll jump on me for the Four Seasons being too expensive they have $400 rates in the summer

does anybody know which points I can use to stay here?

Offline MrPrime1

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Re: Costa Rica Master Thread
« Reply #299 on: March 06, 2016, 03:12:00 PM »
does anybody know which points I can use to stay here?
You can actually stay at the andaz papagayo and use their free shuttle to go back and forth to the four Seasons which is about 5-10 min away