Ri Gaskin asked 7 years ago
Hi you two, very informative blog! My small family, myself, my husband and my 6yo son moved from NYC to Costa Rica. Currently we are staying in a BnB in Liberia for a few days and then moving to another BnB in Villareal for four months which will hopefully give us time to explore the country and figure out whether here is where we wish to settle or not. In the meantime we are looking to enjoy the best of CR , i know your site gives some great info but Im overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do and where to start. Since we are staying here pretty long term without any income (as of yet)?we need budget friendly options as well as family friendly, what do you suggest we do? Also how did you two deal with having a young child in tow? Did you use child care services? Did you ever have any couple time or has it been mostly family oriented time together? Also what did you guys do about income? How did you make all of this work? So far we love it here but I want to feel more like a citizen and less like a tourist soon. How do you get around without a car? I heard renting is very expensive and Im a little petrified of the statistics and really shady roads. We would love to rent/buy a Vespa or something similar do you know anything about that? Thank you in advance for responding and for helping to point us in the right direction!
Jenn and Matt Staff answered 7 years ago
Hi Ri,
Hope you and your family are settling in. It’s definitely a struggle to adapt here and figure everything out. We went without a car for about a month but lived in Manuel Antonio close to the bus route. At first we got around by bus and travelled a little that way. Soon though, we decided that it was taking all day to do simple errands and we moved farther from a bus route so really needed wheels. Check out our old posts like our 1 month, 6 months updates, etc to see how we were doing early on. That was all before our son came along, I imagine it would have been a lot different if he was with us at the beginning of our journey. To answer your question, we do use child care now to allow us to work during the week. Our little one also likes to learn and play with others, so it’s a win win. But we still spend most of our time together though. For your other question, it took us years but we now make a living from our website. Hope this info helps and you guys find a way to make it all work. Location can make all the difference so if that area doesn’t fit, you might have to try a couple of other places (even different neighborhoods) before you find what is right. Welcome to the adventure 🙂