Traveling in Costa Rica: Crime and Safety
We could not have had a better full time guide for our family. (Serendipity guide) Juan Carlos was kind, fun loving, very knowledgeable about all aspects of Costa Rica -- the people, the land, politics. He was thoughtful, reflective and flexible. He made our time here extremely enjoyable. He engaged everyone in our family and bought joy to them. You can tell he sincerely loves his job and his country.
Equally important he was very competent in everything we did. And he was very safety conscious at all times -- this was very important to me. He was fun but very serious about the most important instructions and safety checks. I do not think we could have had a better guide.
—Peter N., Waxhaw, NC, July, 2007
Crime
Yes, we have lots of "petty" theft -- things stolen from parked cars, things stolen by pickpockets in markets. That's the bad news. The good news, however, is we have almost no violent crime in Costa Rica (except related to drug trafficking, but even this is still less frequent, and less violent, than in Detroit or Dallas or San Francisco, so please get it into perspective). When you hear about crime in Costa Rica in America's press, stop for a minute to remember that the rarity of the act is exactly what makes it newsworthy to the American public. Another piece of good news: Costa Rica really doesn't suffer from the vandalism we see in American cities -- no profane graffiti, no smashed out windows of abandoned buildings, no spray-painted monuments.
Safety
How safe are you in your car, or hotel, or bar or restaurant? Using the same standards for selecting where you'd drive, eat, drink, or sleep in Costa Rica as at home will assure the same level of safety you'd have in the USA, if not better. Without our expertise, there's a higher chance of you making errors about hotel selection, etc. because you aren't familiar with the "territory" (some really beautiful web site hotels are, in fact, in the middle of high crime or red light districts where "getting rolled" is pretty common...) but since we live here, we really know which areas to avoid. Serendipity Adventures chooses hotels and activites in areas with low population density, which tends to avoid the areas where you are more likely to encounter violent crime.
