Costa Rica is small Central American country with friendly people, English media, ex-pats and well-developed infrastructure that makes this a perfect location to begin your travels. If you haven’t done much travel in recent years, Costa Rica is an easy way to start. It has a diversity of locations to visit like volcanoes, beaches and rain forests.

You can always count on Ticos, local people, who are very helpful and are always willing to assist lost tourist. To get an ex-pat point of view on local and national issues, you can find English newspapers online and in newsstands.

There’s a lot to see in Costa Rica, thanks to the diverse environment which offers cloud forests in the mountains, coastal beaches with white sand, jungles to see the wildlife, orchid gardens galore as well as coffee and banana plantations.

Not everything in Costa Rica is easy. Here are some of the challenges you are likely to encounter, and what you can do to handle them:

*If you want to experience the true Tico culture, you can learn a little bit of Spanish, since the majority of people only speaks the local language: Spanish.

*Taking taxis and public buses, which are fairly cheap, might be a good idea, especially in San Jose, since there is no building numbering system. The street signs are a pretty rare occurrence too.

*Of course, the currency is different but not that hard to learn. You can handle it by dealing mostly with bills and just the larger coins until you get used to all of the different denominations.

An added bonus is that isn’t far from the US and Canada and many airlines offer dozens of flights weekly. Costa Rica is an easy start to travel outside your home country.

Marina K. Villatoro, the Travel Experta, has been living in Central America – Costa Rica and Guatemala for the past decade. Traveling with her family to all parts of Costa Rica and Guatemala, she now loves organizing vacations for people and offers first hand experience. Contact her for advice and to plan your perfect trip!