Vacation to Mexico, Costa Rica, or both for two weeks?

[mozar]

My dad wants to move to Central America when he retires. He has been to a bunch of other countries so far. Places he is interested in visiting are the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico and San Jose, Costa Rica. We are not all-inclusive resort people.
We have loose plans to meet with expats in Merida. We were thinking of doing a homeaway stay (like woofing) and stay on a compound for a few days in Costa Rica because my dad might want to build his own compound somewhere.

Should we try to do this in one trip? Fly into Merida and fly out of San Jose? Vice versa? We live in the North East USA.

[clarkfan1979]

One week in each country seems reasonable. However, this question is very much tailored to personal preference. I went to Costa Rica for 18 days in 2003, as a college graduate trip with 2 buddies. We did 7-8 days on each coast and 2-3 days in San Jose.

I've never been to Europe. Some of my friends go for a week and hit like 3-5 countries as part of a tour. I would rather stay home. When I go, it's going to be at least one week per country and more likely two weeks per country.

[PoutineLover]

I spent three weeks on the Yucatan peninsula and one week in Costa Rica and while in Mexico I felt like I had enough time to see a lot and enjoy the trip, Costa Rica felt too short. I spent half the week on each coast, and I should have picked just one, and stayed longer if I wanted to see everything, since I missed some areas that I was really interested in. If you only have 1-2 weeks, I'd say pick one place, if you want to do both, try for a month. But also, I hope you mean after covid, please don't travel during a pandemic.
I'm not an all inclusive resort person either, I booked airbnbs and rented a car in Costa Rica and took public transit in Mexico. Plan for driving to take a bit longer than you expect due to the road and traffic conditions.
One thing, San Jose is not necessarily a great retirement destination, depending on what your dad is looking for. Admittedly I didn't spend much time there but the real beauty of Costa Rica is the nature and animals, SJ was busy and crowded and a nightmare to drive in.

[uniwelder]

I don't have anything to contribute in regard the question about your upcoming vacation, but did want to say this---

My wife is from Mexico and lived in Merida for three years during grad school.  Its been her dream to move back there for retirement---- the slow pace of life, warm (hot) weather, beach, ceviche, trova music, multitude of cheap theater/cultural events--- world class opera and orchestras for $5 tickets, cheap living overall.  She used to practice speaking with people at the english language library and swears Merida is about the safest city in Mexico.

Make sure to visit Dzibulchaltun (15 minute drive, halfway between Merida and Progresso beach) and take a dip in the cenote on your way up to the beach.  Its a nice archeological site, not crowded (we've usually run across only a few other people) unless you happen to go on a free visit day, with the only above ground cenote my wife knows of in the yucatan.

[jrhampt]

I have spent about 4 months in Costa Rica over 2 visits (a month primarily in San Jose and a summer spent primarily in Monteverde).  It does make the most sense to fly into San Jose, but as others have said, I wouldn't stay there.  A few days in Costa Rica is not really enough to see anything because you have to get out of San Jose to see any of the cloud forests, black sand beaches, volcanoes, hot springs, Manuel Antonio National Park etc., and once you get out of San Jose, the roads are so bad that it takes longer than you would think to get anywhere.

[uniwelder]

Reading through again, I'm curious about your dad's situation.  Does he speak spanish?  Is he interested in living among the people whose country he will retire to?  You say you're not 'all inclusive resort' type people, but you plan on going to a compound and that he wants to build one of his one.  Sounds pretty bizarre.

[mozar]

once you get out of San Jose, the roads are so bad that it takes longer than you would think to get anywhere.

Oh wow.

Reading through again, I'm curious about your dad's situation.  Does he speak spanish?  Is he interested in living among the people whose country he will retire to?  You say you're not 'all inclusive resort' type people, but you plan on going to a compound and that he wants to build one of his one.  Sounds pretty bizarre.

I could go on all day about how bizarre my dad is. He does not speak Spanish. He hasn't made an effort to learn it. It has occurred to him that it might be a good idea. So there is that. My dad's goals in retirement are to have servants, and to save money for my little sister to inherit.
He originally wanted to move to SE Asia and I nixed that because I didn't see how I would be able to quickly get to him in an emergency.

My goals right now are to keep the lines of communication open and gently guide him away from his crazier ideas (a compound is not one of them!).

[uniwelder]

I could go on all day about how bizarre my dad is. He does not speak Spanish. He hasn't made an effort to learn it. It has occurred to him that it might be a good idea. So there is that. My dad's goals in retirement are to have servants...

I can't wait for the boomer generation to fully dwindle away.  Gives the rest of us a bad reputation.  Please steer him away from Merida--- I don't want to have to worry about running into the likes of him.

Its not that uncommon to hear of stories about people like your dad.  In Mexico, they usually reside around Lake Chapala or San Miguel de Allende, where there are plenty of other foreigners and enough locals that speak english to cater to them.  A lot of them come back to the US a few years later when they become homesick and the novelty wears off.

edited to add--- has your dad been to Belize?  Its english speaking...

[mozar]

I hope he does get tired of it and moves back.

Not only has he been to Belize, but every time he brings it up (which is often) he has to say "can you be-lize it?"

[jrhampt]

Regarding Costa Rican roads...it's been 15 years since I've been back, but when I lived in Monteverde, to get up the mountain was an ordeal because the "roads" were not paved.  They weren't really wide enough for two cars to pass each other in places, either, so if you ran into traffic going the other way, someone would usually have to pull over.  There's also a heavy rainy season, so that made the unpaved road situation worse.  And god forbid you had a medical emergency and had to get down the mountain in a hurry to go to the hospital.

I just did a bit of googling and it sounds like they finally paved the road up to Monteverde in 2019, so maybe getting around is easier than it used to be.  I'd research road conditions ahead of time, though.

[PoutineLover]

I'm from Quebec and our roads are widely known to be shitty and full of potholes, so for me Costa Rica wasn't really much worse. There are lots of large potholes, lots of roads that are just one lane in either direction or slightly less, and if you get stuck behind a slow moving truck on an uphill, you just have to wait for a passing lane. It definitely requires patience but if you budget for 1.5-2x the driving time compared to the google maps directions, you'll be fine.

[jrhampt]

I'm from Quebec and our roads are widely known to be shitty and full of potholes, so for me Costa Rica wasn't really much worse. There are lots of large potholes, lots of roads that are just one lane in either direction or slightly less, and if you get stuck behind a slow moving truck on an uphill, you just have to wait for a passing lane. It definitely requires patience but if you budget for 1.5-2x the driving time compared to the google maps directions, you'll be fine.

Sounds like based on the situation you're describing that road conditions have improved since my time there.  In my day, most of the roads connecting Arenal and Monteverde were unpaved.  The farther away you got from San Jose, the less likely you were to be on a paved road.  If they're paved now but just crappy, that's a whole different ballgame.

[PoutineLover]

I'm from Quebec and our roads are widely known to be shitty and full of potholes, so for me Costa Rica wasn't really much worse. There are lots of large potholes, lots of roads that are just one lane in either direction or slightly less, and if you get stuck behind a slow moving truck on an uphill, you just have to wait for a passing lane. It definitely requires patience but if you budget for 1.5-2x the driving time compared to the google maps directions, you'll be fine.

Sounds like based on the situation you're describing that road conditions have improved since my time there.  In my day, most of the roads connecting Arenal and Monteverde were unpaved.  The farther away you got from San Jose, the less likely you were to be on a paved road.  If they're paved now but just crappy, that's a whole different ballgame.

It's quite possible they've improved a lot, the roads were better than I was expecting based on everything I had heard before going. But we also might have been in different areas, I drove from San Jose down to Manuel Antonio on the west coast, and then back through and over to Puerto Viejo the other way. The highways were all paved but the little roads in the towns weren't always. I had a small SUV, wouldn't have wanted to do it in a low car. My friend went up to Monteverde the year before, she said the driving was pretty intense up there.

[Fomerly known as something]

Was in Costa Rica last year, the roads are decent for the most part even those that aren’t paved.  And your Dad is why Costa Rica 20 years ago when I studied there in college was better than Costa Rica now, too many dumb American so the Ticos now tend to treat all Americans like they are dumb. 

[Adventine]

once you get out of San Jose, the roads are so bad that it takes longer than you would think to get anywhere.

Oh wow.

Reading through again, I'm curious about your dad's situation.  Does he speak spanish?  Is he interested in living among the people whose country he will retire to?  You say you're not 'all inclusive resort' type people, but you plan on going to a compound and that he wants to build one of his one.  Sounds pretty bizarre.

I could go on all day about how bizarre my dad is. He does not speak Spanish. He hasn't made an effort to learn it. It has occurred to him that it might be a good idea. So there is that. My dad's goals in retirement are to have servants, and to save money for my little sister to inherit.
He originally wanted to move to SE Asia and I nixed that because I didn't see how I would be able to quickly get to him in an emergency.

My goals right now are to keep the lines of communication open and gently guide him away from his crazier ideas (a compound is not one of them!).

It's great that you're looking out for your dad. While you're visiting those countries, apart from trying out the experience of living there, do look into the laws regarding foreign ownership of real estate and how easily an expat can move funds in/out of the country.

As you mention your dad originally wanted to move to Southeast Asia, I'll give you specific examples of potential problems: in the Philippines, a foreigner cannot purchase or own land, except for condominiums. Many expats get around this by putting the land and building in their Filipina spouse's name. Foreigners can also have trouble opening local bank accounts because of FATCA regulations. Banks can and do refuse to open accounts for them. I have heard of similar problems from people in Thailand.

As for Costa Rica, Mexico and other countries closer to the US, I am not familiar with the laws. But doing some research may help you dissuade your dad from doing anything too crazy.