Are you planning in spend sometime working and living in Tamarindo? This is the post for you! Keep reading and you’ll find out how we managed to keep the costs low during our long-term stay of 3 months in this expensive beach town. Read our post on Living in Tamarindo! From accomodation to shopping costs everything is equally essential for living on a low budget! Remember, Costa Rica will blow away your normal backpacker budget and you’ll have to start thinking again as if you were in your hometown.
Accomodation
Normally, the price for a two-people apartment (usually very simple) in the center of Tamarindo will be quoted at around minimum 450$ ranging up to 1000$ easily. If you’re lucky though, you might end up spending less by arranging some deals with hostels or campings settling at 300$ per couple per month.
Another option for a long-term cheap accomodation option is to find a place in Villareal; this small town is located around 7km away from Tamarindo (on the road to Liberia) and can be reached by taxi with just a couple of dollars. Here the monthly rent for an apartment is consistently lower than Tamarindo, in fact expect to pay 200-300$/month maximum.
Food & Shopping
Similarly, your shopping could end up taking up more than your rent if you don’t carefully set yourself a monthly budget (and daily budget) for groceries. During our time there, we decided that our daily budget for buying basic stuff at the supermarket, including some “gifts” such as beer, sweets etc…, was to be no more than ₡6’000/day (12$/day). If you really wanna save up to the last cent head to the supermarket called SuperCompro for the most competitive prices !
On hindsight, I think this budget is spot on for those wanting to save, not party much but still have a couple of nights out for dinner or partying per month. At 12$/day, means that in a month a couple would spend 360$ just on food.
Excursions
Lastly, if you come here to just save up money to keep travelling, you’ll have to forget “exploring” Costa Rica and leave for another time. Just moving around, sleeping and eating outside in the other touristy areas of the country will literally kill your savings even if you’re planning just a weekend away! Think about the future!
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