Thinking Travel

Here are five tips culled from my recent 10-day work-and-vacation trip to Costa Rica:

1. Bring Sturdy Shoes. If you plan to hike through the rainforest or over lava rocks to a volcano make sure to wear shoes with soles thick enough that you won’t feel every little pebble with every step you take. Don’t bring cute black-and-red plaid “sneakers” with traction so minimal that you slip while climbing lava rocks and cut your hand open.
2. Do the Canopy Tour. Best. Thing. Ever. If you’re in Costa Rica and there’s a zipline canopy tour, sign up immediately. Enough said.
3. Rainforests are Humid: Bring Lots of Shirts. Doing laundry at your hotel will be expensive because you’ll have to pay for each shirt, sock, and pair of undies you hand over to their laundry services. And the new t-shirt you fork over could come back a tad smaller and more raggedy than when you originally forked it over. So either spend an afternoon hunting down a laundromat (hint: there’s one in La Fortuna) or bring extra t-shirts you don’t mind sweating in.
4. Stop at a Soda. A “soda” is a Costa Rican fast food restaurant. They’re easy to
   find because there’s one in every town, village or string of 3 houses. They’re considered fast food because sodas can dish out a “casado” of beans, rice, meat, plantains, and some type of salad quicker than you can say “Let’s stop at a soda for a casado.”
5. Don’t Tip. Don’t tip extra, that is. Here’s what I learned:
   1. Restaurants: A 10% tip is generally included in the bill so there’s no need to add anything additional, unless you want to.
   2. Taxis: In San Jose it’s not expected that riders will leave a tip. But feel free to round up when paying.
   3. Tours: I don’t know what the guidelines are but there are tip jars everywhere. We tipped each of our fantastically knowledgeable nature guides and the shuttle driver who picked us up from the hotel, gave us bottles of water, and answered our many questions — in English and Spanish — on the 3-hour ride to Volcan Arenal.

One last tip.

If you find yourself packing at 11pm the night before your 7am flight and you own two pairs of the same sandals — but one pair is a raggedy 3 years old and the other nearly brand new — make sure the two sandals you grab are the same age.

I speak from experience.

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