Costa Rica Websites GOOD and BAD

Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Costa Rica... it's all I hear- "I want to live in Costa Rica." "My wife and I want to retire to Costa Rica." "I want to start a business in Costa Rica." "I want to bring my family down to Costa Rica. Like I said, Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Costa Rica... blah, blah, blah.

Okay, so you've decided living in Costa Rica could be an option. But where to start the research when there's SOooooooooo many Costa Rican websites to choose from. And if you don't know the difference between 'solid' Costa Rica info and 'sketchy' Costa Rica info, it can be veRY daunting to say the least.

I'm here to help. Take a few minutes and watch the video and trust me, it's worth the 6-minutes because you also need to know what websites to AVOID.


The Real Costa Rica and ARCR.net are not the only good websites, they're just a good start. And actually, ARCR has good info but they're totally out to rope you into their services (expensive I might add). Here's a few others that might help. And just so you know, I have NO monetary motivation... and more likely than not, this post will be a surprise to All the websites I mention.

Living Life In Costa Rica blog.Lot's of lists. Great INFO for people looking for the BEST places to find 'things'. She's done a LOT of research so you don't have too. Only thing I don't like, she's a little blatant in seeking donations. But then again, she probably deserves them.

US Expat Costa Rica: This is an 'aggregate' site and a LOT of info shows up on this site from various blogs. He also writes of his own experiences and musings. Good stuff.

Boomers Off Shore Lots of videos and information. Great thing is, the information is based on their own experiences. Solid information.

The Raw Food Family Lot's of videos and INFO about living a more organic and sustainable life in Costa Rica- family, beach style.

A couple blogs I check out:

*A Dull Roar Great info on everyday life and he's a good writer, especially worth checking out if you're thinking about coming to Costa Rica as a family.

De La Pura Vida Costa Rica This blogger writes about her 'observations' and experiences here in Costa Rica. Great writer in my opinion and good inside information.

Of course there's other great websites and blogs pertaining to Costa Rica and if you'd like to mention them, please do so in the comments, I'd appreciate it. This is just my short list.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Our Vacation Rental VIDEO Gets Harsh Feedback

michael alan and D'Angelo (Travel Costa Rica NOW) have a vacation rental property in La Fortuna Costa Rica.
Yup, we now have a vacation rental property in La Fortuna, so we decided to do a preliminary video about it, which is below. We posted it yesterday and received this message on Facebook from a guy we don't know:

"This video is not professional and does not represent either of you or your business. Why would you want to show anyone the mess, refer to it as “this fucking house,” and expect anyone to want to rent anything from you? I would delete it immediately. When you sober up and look at it again, you will agree."

First I want to say, we put ourselves out there with what we do and realize we're going to get the spectrum of feedback, folks who love us, those that don't and everything between. In other words, we're fine with taking the good with the bad- to us it's all GOOD and if we can't take it, we shouldn't be doing it. And really, most of the feedback we receive is extremely positive anyway.

To be honest, this comment irked me a little and I'll tell you why. We have over 240 informative videos and THOUSAND + pages (blogs/website) about traveling and living in Costa Rica. We have maybe 3 videos like this one and I'm thinking if he knew our 'body of work' so to speak, he wouldn't be judging so harshly.

So we have this new vacation rental property that's about 2 months away from being ready to rent. We need furniture, decorations, a little minor repairs and landscaping (we're totally going to LUSH it out the grounds). We started the renovation but wanted to show you the place even though at this point it's basically a mess. We'll be doing 2 more videos as things progress and the quality of the videos will progress as well. But on this particular 'first video' we decided to do it raw. If this video was about the effects of Dengue on a 10-year old in Costa Rica, we would have been 'professional'

but to get friends to help you with your house for FREE, you need a LOT of pizza and beer... and we had it. D'Angelo and myself work very hard- everyday. Really. Everyday. And since we weren't doing a Dengue video, we had a little fun and yes, had a few too many beers. Work hard - Play hard. We deserve it from time to time. I guess what I'm trying to say is, D'Angelo and myself are 'real' people, living a 'real' life in a foreign country and struggling everyday to make it work. We're not trying to be 'slick' but it's true, we have a couple videos that are not very professional. So what? At least we're 'real' and we are honest. We don't have an agenda like most every Costa Rica website on the internet today, but even if we did have an agenda, we'd tell you what it was. And I got news for you, this IS us and we don't expect anything. I'm also sober enough to know I'd rather drink with my friends and be unprofessional from time to time then be who you think I'm suppose to be to make you happy. So the video stays. But really, feel free to stay off our channel and our sites and FaceBook.

Here's our video about our new vacation rental in La Fortuna. BE WARNED- If you don't appreciate beer and unprofessionalism, don't watch, you'll be so disappointed with us.


TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

CNN's VIDEO on Rancho Margot - Worth a L@@K

Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN recently did a story on Juan Sostheim owner of Rancho Margot.
Juan Sostheim (pictured above), is founder and owner of Costa Rica’s first carbon-negative company, a sustainable farm and eco-resort, Rancho Margot. Rancho Margot is about 40 minutes from La Fortuna, Costa Rica. *The above pic of Juan was done by CNN, I hope they don't mind me borrowing it.

I wrote a post back in June about Dr. Sanjay Gupta doing a piece on Rancho Margot and its owner, Juan Sostheim. We coincidentally happened to be doing some video shooting at Rancho Margot the same day Sanjay was there.

Actually, I'm going to quit writing now because the CNN video on Rancho Margot speaks for itself. It's very nicely done and definitely worth 6 minutes of your time, especially if you're into ALL things sustainable. Our video on Rancho Margot is also below but keep in mind, we were actually video-taping a Cooking Class on that day and just decided we would do a quick overview of Rancho Margot. So, next to CNN, ours is pretty weak. Oh well. ENjoY!

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Vamos 4X4 Responds to Pitfalls of Renting a Car in Costa Rica

Renting a car in Costa Rica can be HAZARDOUS to your wallet for a variety of reasons.

And when I say, 'hazardous', I mean it as more the RULE than the EXCEPTION. It's true, many car rental agencies in Costa Rica have become so deceptive, we decided to make a video about, 'Avoiding the Pitfalls of Renting a Car in Costa Rica' because for us, we can't imagine anything worse than debarking the plane, excited about your upcoming adventures in Costa Rica, only to find out when you pick up your rental car that there's literally hundreds of dollars in hidden costs. Talk about a budget BUZZKILL.

Anyway, I think the video came out well, it's informative and if you're planning on experiencing Costa Rica by rental car, you'd be remiss if you didn't watch it. And as LUCK would have it, it's embedded BELOW.

But really, that's not the point of this post. The point is, we actually got a video response to our video by one of the car rental agencies here, Vamos 4X4. *Now, it should be noted, we use Vamos and have even done a video about them before, but we didn't tell them about this video nor did we ask them to respond. They just did and we thought that was pretty COOL. Seriously, how many car rental agencies would take the time to respond, via video no less... obviously just ONE.

Check it out. The first video is ours, 'Avoiding the Pitfalls of Renting a Car in Costa Rica' and then the Vamos response. Seriously, don't miss this if you plan on renting a car while in Costa Rica.



TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Our Friends at Joluva are GUILTY of Being GAY!

The owners of Joluva Guesthouse in Granada Nicaragua were found GUILTY on all charges.

It's TRUE. Our friends, Jan (standing) and Francis (sitting), the owners of Joluva Guesthouse will find out how long they have to sit in a Nicaraguan jail cell eating rotten rice, next Wednesday. Minimum 2 years, maximum 12 years. Are you f***ing kidding me?

Don't know what I'm talking about... the FULL, TRUE story is HERE. Don't feel like reading, basically, my friends were accused of 'sexual exploitation of minors', 'promoting sexual tourism', 'pornography' etc... but take my word, the entire thing was about being successful, gay, foreign business owners in Nicaragua. How dare they promote gay in Nicaragua...and be successful.

I'm going to hold my 'pen' for the time being and not write anything until AFTER Wednesday... but after that, it's GAME ON. I may not be the Huffington Post but I'll attempt to use 'whatever' means to get their story out. Although Jan and Francis are my friends and I would help them regardless, this SO could have been me and D'Angelo and a LOT of other folks I know.. and I just can't leave them hanging. In the meantime, I have some ideas of my own but if anyone else has some ideas as to what we can do, please email me- travelcostaricanow@gmail.com

I'm heartsick, this is SOOooooooooooo sad...... and if you knew them and the TRUTH, you'd know why......... a 3rd World jail cell............. have you seen those movies?

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Exclude REAL Costa Rica by Staying ALL Inclusive in Costa Rica

All inclusive in Costa Rica? Really? Go to 'Sandals' in Florida and SAVE your money.
I really believe if you want to stay ALL inclusive in Costa Rica you're wasting your time coming here, go to Florida or just about anywhere else in the world that does 'all inclusive', because really, they're all pretty much the same.

Coming to Costa Rica and not experiencing Costa Rica is SACRILEGIOUS!
Okay, I'm only half-kidding. Here's our NEW Video on the subject with a few considerations. ENjoY!


TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!

Costa Rica Travel Packages, Itineraries, INFO, Tips

Travel Costa Rica NOW, NOW provides Costa Rica Travel Packages, travel itineraries, tours, transportation, etc. If it pertains to Costa Rica, we can make it happen- legal of course...hehe. *The VIDEO is below.

And just so we're CRYSTAL CLEAR, yes we're gay...but we're about as 'gay' as you are 'straight',,, know what I mean?

AND really, 'gay' only makes up about 10% of the videos and Costa Rica Travel INFO we share, (cruise around our sites, you'll see).- We provide COSTA RICA INFO for Everyone wanting to visit here, regardless- gay, straight, families... whoever.

We don't do travel packages per se because after 50+ emails are exchanged everything ends up a custom package anyway, so we ONLY do CUSTOM packages. If you're interested in having us help you- Go HERE to get started. Trust me, it's easy.


*We oversee all 'Travel Costa Rica NOW' travel planning and are highly involved in the process, BUT we do have help, it would be IMPOSSIBLE for us to personally correspond with everyone and plan their vacation... but again, we run the show so we know what's going on.

I suppose the bottom line is we're hoping you feel you know us through our videos, blogs etc. and trust us. That's it. Hope to see you soon in Costa Rica.

TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!