A trip like Costa Rica isn’t highly dependent on the gear you take although a few items are important. The most useful Costa Rica gear I took on my trip is listed below.
Travel Guide – Lonely Planet Costa Rica. This book was invaluable in finding the right hostel at each location. Their reviews on activities were spot on for each site. People I met at the hostels confirmed it since they all used the same book.
Backpack – Deuter 65+10 Backpack. I’ve had this backpack for years and love the comfort and weight of the pack. My version is discontinued and the link takes you to the current version. The backpack held up well to the abuse of this type of travel. Using a backpack is the best way to travel through Costa Rica because it enables you to walk places without lugging some suitcase around. You should get the rain cover, especially if you plan on using this for “real” backpacking.
Hiking shoes – Saucony Men’s Peregrine 7 Trail Runner (current version is 10). These shoes are perfect for a variety of day hikes in country. I’ve used them for lots of hikes other than Costa Rica and, unsurprisingly, they served me well on this trip too. It is a good idea to take day hiking shoes if you plan on exploring the trails to waterfalls and around the rain forests. Many of the trails can be muddy and/or rocky.
Phone service – Mint Mobile. I’m really cheap and Mint Mobile offers great service for the lowest price I’ve found, $20/month for 8GB of data. They use T-Mobile as their network and getting service in Costa Rica was OK. Usually when I didn’t have service, neither did other travelers on Verizon or AT&T. Mint offers Wi-Fi calling and Costa Rica has Wi-Fi in most restaurants and at all the hostels I used. Between Wi-Fi calling and FaceTime, there were no issues keeping in touch. The few times I did need data and had service (e.g. on the bus), the Mint international plan worked for me. You should plan on using Wi-Fi calling and make sure that’s available with your plan before leaving.
Snacks – I took a box of Pure Protein Bars and am glad I did! These made great snacks on the longer bus rides and hikes. There are some good snacks at the grocery stores that I ate too. You should take something that you’ve had in the past so you have it when you need it.
[…] A must have was the Lonely Planet Costa Rica (Travel Guide). This was my reference for hostels and things to do. I found it to be extremely useful. Almost all the people I met had the same book in one language or another. Check out the gear I used on the trip. […]