An oft-discussed topic among tourists and expats visiting Costa Rica is how little they can get for their hard-earned dollars here. This is a sentiment shared by the local population as well, who somehow make do with a lot less than their fellow North American and European complainants. An incredibly detailed report by blogger Tricia Lyman reveals that a comfortable expat life in Costa Rica can be cheaper than in Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and even Nicaragua -as long as you don’t live in Tamarindo Beach.

As previously reported by the Costa Rica Star, the cost of living in Guanacaste is among the highest in the country. This can be mostly observed in the beach towns that make up Costa Rica’s Gold Coast, where celebrities such as Mel Gibson have built mansions and billionaires such as AOL’s former CEO Steve Case are building lavish resorts. This is where we find Tamarindo Beach, a beach community that is often referred to as “Tamagringo” due to its high number of expat residents.

It was in Tamarindo Beach where blogger Tricia Lyman and her husband found themselves shelling out more money for living expenses than they did in Tilaran and Grecia. Not only was Tamarindo Beach the most expensive in Costa Rica, it was also the most expensive in comparison to:

• Boquete, Pedasi and Gorgora in Panama
• Bahia and Salinas in Ecuador
• Puerto Vallarta in Mexico
• Granada and San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua

The sheer amount of detailed bookkeeping and budgeting kept by the Lymans in their travels is nothing short of amazing. You can see all of it in a single blog post, but the following figures illustrate a bit of their experience in Costa Rica on a monthly basis:

	Tamarindo	Grecia	Tilaran
Rent	$1,150.00	$650.00	$500.00
Groceries	$242.00	$292.00	$226.00
Meals	$385.00	$246.00	$451.00
Drinks	$206.00	$206.00	$14.00
Bus and Taxi	$18.00	$97.00	$75.00

 

On Tricia Lyman’s blog you can read statements that explain why certain expenses may have been more incidental than others in all the Latin American countries they have been living in over the last few months. Their final monthly tallies from Central America revealed that Tilaran, also in the province of Guanacaste but closer to the province of Alajuela and far from the Gold Coast, is the most reasonable place they have visited -even cheaper than Nicaragua!

Costa Rica

• Tilaran $1,431
• Grecia $1,700
• Tamarindo $2,256

Panama

• Boquete $1,730
• Pedasi $1,733
• Gorgora $2,016

Nicaragua

• San Juan $1,775
• Granada $1,813

That Tamarindo Beach is an expensive place is nothing new. A cursory search of other blogs that have touched on this subject reveals as much; here are but a couple of examples:

• Tamarindo is a popular and resort beach town located in the Guancaste district in Costa Rica. The area is filled with lots of tour operators, resorts, and surf shops. Tamarindo is famous for its surfing and wide breaks. However, the area is more expensive than other parts of the country because of all the resorts […] – Nomadic Matt, a travel writer who got his start in Costa Rica.
• Tamarindo is indeed highly commercialized, expensive and more of a party town. – Eleanor, a Lonely Planet forum member.

For the Lymans, Tamarindo Beach was even more expensive than Puerto Vallarta in Mexico as well as Bahia and Salinas in Ecuador. It was in this South American nation where they found the cheapest dental cleaning at $7, but the most expensive grocery bills. The Lymans also found Nicaragua affordable but too noisy and ramshackle for the cost. You can find even more interesting tidbits of expat life in Latin America on their blog, which features engaging travel writing and great photography.