San José

Sample itinerary 2.

San Jose, Costa Rica.

Why choose Costa Rica? Costa Rica may appeal to travelers who want a smaller, calmer medical trip.

San Jose has private hospitals, international patient services, and English-speaking staff at many major facilities.

Hospital Cima San Jose reports that it has erred the Joint Commission International Gold Seal six times.

It also reports Pathway to Excellence certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

A Costa Rican longevity clinic publicly lists specialized geriatric consultation, 65,000 Costa Rican colonies, sleep apnea study, 150,000 Costa Rican colonies, physical and cognitive stimulation programs, about $200 to $300.

Day 1.

So

let's start where we started, in San Jose.

We stayed in a hotel in the capital and we hadn't even properly started the holiday before the birds began appearing.

Daniel, you went out with your camera around the pool area and started finding things straight away.

I suppose it's the same when people come to our country and love our robins.

They're common to us, but not to visitors.

And then we headed out from San Jose to La Paz Waterfall Gardens.

And it was there that we started seeing some incredibly exotic birds, amazing things like the hummingbird and toucans and some of the species we'd been excitedly hoping to see.

And I work very closely with architects.

You've got to think about how, you know, from the first moment they arrive, you know, what's the parking situation? Is it easy? I mean, are there people there to help you? Where do you go? it's like the amount of times that i've been to a hotel or somewhere and you don't even know where the reception is i literally stayed at sorry a hilton like in san jose the other day like that uh yeah the small things like that um i can't believe how many places get things wrong so It's every single touch point, you know, and then it's like, okay, how do you get into your room? Is it easy? Or, you know, sometimes people have difficulties with their card and it doesn't work.

And all these micro points of friction add to the whole brand experience.

So it has to be thought about as one.

Micah is a little younger than me.

Mark owns an outdoor store in San Jose.

So we're all like just this tight knit group.

I lived on Mark's property and we go out and we're like, we got three days of tarpon fish for me to try and get some sort of jump out of a fish that's unique.

Basically, it's, well, there's two major airports you can fly into.

It's Liberia, which tends to be more towards the all-inclusive end of the destinations, and then a lot go into San Jose as well to experience some hotels with hotels.

all-inclusive, but also to explore the natural areas like the volcanic areas, like the Arenal Volcano and the Fortuna and the waterfalls and the wildlife and everything.

So it's certainly a diverse country for everybody to enjoy.

Yes.

Absolutely, yeah.

Yeah, there's direct flights through Liberia and San Jose.

With all the major airlines, WestJet, Transat, and Air Canada.

And I think there's so much value, too, in, like, in showing, like, little mom-and-pop restaurants and, like, those kinds of things that aren't always found on TripAdvisor, you know? Like, it's not going to tell you, like, okay, what's the best restaurant to stop at when, like, when you're driving from...

Belize City to Plasencia you know or from San Jose to Arnold you can't quite like look at those things and know looking on TripAdvisor and like we have our providers our drivers that drive these routes every single day who like know the hours, they know what's open, they know what's not open.

And so it's really useful having the on the ground knowledge and like insight, you know, that TripAdvisor just doesn't have.

I think a lot of reviews on TripAdvisor are also one sided, right? These it's people that have been to the country once or twice.

And it's just really nice to be witness to that.

When people are coming to visit Costa Rica, they're probably thinking of flying into San Jose.

Is that the best place to base a trip out of, or do you have other suggestions?

It can be.

It's the most popular place.

I think the biggest downside to San Jose is the customs line can take a while, several hours.

And there's no real bypassing that, but you're in it, like, especially if you land anytime between like 9am to like seven, like the whole day, basically outside of off hours, you're in for a two to three hour minimum wait just to get past customs.

There are other airport alternatives, but I do think that San Jose is going to be where you're going to find your biggest hub and maybe the most flights that are coming in and out.

They might not come out perfectly aligned on everything.

Every case might not align with the desires of the court in San Jose, but still, they're basically both committed to rule of law type of ideas.

And what we're seeing now is something quite different and something that's very insidious because it looks like law and it looks like courts, but in fact, doesn't have the content of it.

And that's, I think, a very dangerous place.