Central America · Available now
Costa Rica
Alone
Shared shuttles link Costa Rica's lodges, so a trip without a rental car works well. Build a loop around Arenal's volcano country, Monteverde's cloud forest and a stretch of coast.
$6.99 ebook
Ebook · Updated Q4 2026
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Where you might stay
- BudgetThe Hideaway Hotelon the Carrillo road west of town
- Area to considerSanta Elenainns close to restaurants and reserve entrances
SAMPLE
Why Costa Rica
That is the practical case for the country. Costa Rica was not designed with a solo traveler in mind. Its infrastructure simply happens to suit one: short distances, shared transport, guides whose job is to slow a group down rather than march it forward, and lodges built to feed and orient a guest rather than merely house her. The shared shuttle puts you briefly among a handful of other travelers, several of them usually on their own, with no expectation that you socialize beyond a hello. Guided walks run in groups of six to twelve where a woman alone is another paying guest rather than a curiosity. Ordinary caution still applies here as anywhere. (See The Solo Woman’s Costa Rica.)
A free excerpt from Costa Rica Alone.
PRACTICAL SAMPLE
Eating Alone
Costa Rica makes solo dining unusually easy, largely because its most characteristic meal is built around a format that has no view about who is eating it. The soda (see The Pleasures of the Table) serves the casado at a modest price, and eating one at a counter or a small table is simply how a large share of the country has lunch. A woman on her own at a soda counter is not a scene anyone is watching. You will not be steered to a table by the kitchen door or treated as a scheduling problem, because the whole business model assumes a mix of regulars on their own and travelers passing through.
The more upscale restaurants in the main bases are equally used to it. So are the lodges that run a single communal dining room, common in the cloud forest and around the volcano, where seating a lone guest at a shared table is standard practice rather than an accommodation made for her. Where a restaurant does have private tables, arriving at the edges of the service window rather than at the peak of it tends to produce a better table and a slower pace. The Pleasures of the Table goes into what to order.
A free excerpt from Costa Rica Alone.
Inside this book
- Costa Rica Awaits
- A Country Shaped by History
- Planning Your Escape
- The Solo Woman’s Costa Rica
- The Bases
- Days in Costa Rica
View the chapter contents
- Costa Rica Awaits
- A Country Shaped by History
- Planning Your Escape
- The Solo Woman’s Costa Rica
- The Bases
- Days in Costa Rica
- Further Afield
- Art, Culture & Creativity
- The Pleasures of the Table
- Evening & After Dark
- Retail Therapy
- Spanish, Small Talk and Courtesy
- Practical Matters
BUY THE GUIDE
Costa Rica Alone
Shared shuttles link Costa Rica's lodges, so a trip without a rental car works well. Build a loop around Arenal's volcano country, Monteverde's cloud forest and a stretch of coast.
$6.99 ebook
Ebook · Updated Q4 2026
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The kit's day plans run from “Arenal: Hanging Bridges and Hot Springs” to “Monteverde: A Cloud-Forest Morning”.
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No. The guide stands on its own. The kit is a separate, optional pack of decisions, day plans and a booking list. Read the free 3-page sample to see whether it suits the way you plan.