Traveling to Costa Rica Post Pandemic
Pre-pandemic, I traveled extensively both domestically and internationally including, on average, about an international trip per month. I have to admit that in addition to the travel itself, I loved the perks that came with the status levels I earned. After 15 months of only very limited domestic travel, I couldn’t wait to fly to Costa Rica. But, at least for now, travel has changed quite a bit — and many organizations in the industry appear to be using the pandemic as an excuse for poor execution if not service.
Costa Rica is a wonderful country where tourism is the number one industry. Despite recent high levels of Covid-19 cases, Americans can fly there without requiring proof of either a negative Covid-19 test or of vaccination. My wife and I drove down to SFO from our home in Lake Tahoe where we rendezvoused with two friends flying in from Phoenix. We all four took a six-hour direct United flight to Liberia International in Costa Rica where we spent a couple of weeks driving down the pacific coast.
While Costa Rica is considered a third-world country, we had far more of a third-world experience San Francisco. My wife and I stayed at the Hilton Embassy Suites by the airport. The heat didn’t work (and I had to go down to the lobby at 2:00 am to get extra blankets), the fitness center was closed, the parking security gate was broken (if you’re a frequent visitor to San Francisco you know this can really be a problem; I’ve personally had cars broken into three times in the city or near the airport), and there was no shuttle to SFO (despite advertising to the contrary).
Worst of all, the hotel didn’t have its wonderful buffet breakfast. They did have wrapped muffins, but since they stopped “serving” at 9:00 am on Saturday morning, we never were able to partake.
Our friends stayed at the Saint Francis in the heart of San Francisco’s mission district. They said the area was like a ghost town, that no restaurants in the hotel were open, the front entry door was barred, Saint Francis was understaffed, and one staff member behind a large plexiglass barrier meanly told my friend to, “Pull up your mask”, which had slipped slightly below his nose as he was reaching for his wallet.
Our experience at SFO, other than prepackaged snacks available at the one open United Club, was fine. The same thing holds true for the flight. While spartan by pre-pandemic standards, the United personnel were unfailingly polite and worked hard to ensure a good customer experience under the circumstances.
We landed in Costa Rica at 8:00 pm Saturday night. I was disappointed to learn that despite reserving a Hertz rental car months in advance and receiving two reminder emails, the Hertz facility had actually closed at 6:00 pm. It turned out that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway as Hertz informed me when I called the local facility early the next morning that they were out of SUVs (the rental price had just about quintupled since I booked our “Toyota RAV4/Kia Sportage or similar”).
While a little more expensive than our booked rental price, we had a fantastic experience using Miranda Private Shuttles and Tours to get around. I highly recommend them. I also have to put a plug in for both the JW Marriott Guanacaste and the Los Suenos Marriott Ocean and Golf Resort. While not many restaurants were open and you have to reserve workouts at the fitness center, the facilities were beautiful and the service outstanding.
Not too many Costa Ricans have yet been vaccinated against Covid-19, and given our inability to speak Spanish, we were not able to adequately explain our immunity. Nevertheless, most places we visited were pretty relaxed about masking requirements for tourists. I was asked a total of five times to put a mask on, but the requests were always polite. In the lovely beach town, Nosara, tourist masking is for all intents and purposes, optional.
Getting back home was easy. We took the required Covid-19 test at a clinic near our last hotel in Los Suenos and got our negative results emailed back to us that night. Miranda Tours stopped on the way to the airport to show us a crocodile hang-out. We arrived at our layover in Houston an hour early.
When my wife and I had dinner with our friends at Ruby’s at IAH before going our separate ways, they told us they had somehow misplaced their passports after getting through customs. This was a good reminder that even as things hopefully increasingly return to pre-pandemic normal, that travel will always include its challenges.
