Top 3 Packing Essentials for Costa Rica
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Costa Rica is an amazingly beautiful and breathtaking place! Due to its many ecosystems, there are so many weather variations, even in this smallish country. Hence the need for a variety of clothing items and gear during your stay! Traveling Tribu has you covered!
Rain, Rain and oh yes….Rain
We have been to Costa Rica twice…once in the dry (less rainy) season and once in the rainy season. One thing is for sure, a waterproof rain coat is absolutely essential! This is the one I wore literally every day! It worked great and kept me dry. (Remember that dry is relative in CR 😉)
Putting my Columbia Rain Jacket to good use while Ziplining in the Rainforest
Another essential due to all the rain is quick dry clothing. Babes loves this brand and has several shorts and shirts by them. We did some adventure tours like zip lining and jungle hikes and we got drenched by heavy rain. Anything that we were wearing that was not quick dry literally never dried out the rest of our trip! Costa Rica is so humid even if you hang your clothes they will take forever to dry if they are NOT quick dry. Definitely go with the wicking, quick dry clothes!
Shoes
Ok, y’all …this topic is tough! So the first time we went to CR I took Birkenstocks like these. I thought they would go with the whole earthy, hippy vibe that is Costa Rica. They did look good 👍! I also took a pair of Keen sandals like these. They were an essential for Costa Rica. I wore them when we hiked in the jungle. Since it rained so heavily, you are going to get wet. These sandals allow the water to come in and go out and they dried out really quickly once we got back to the hotel. My poor daughter wore socks and hiking shoes and they never recovered from our jungle hike! Plus she felt really uncomfortable with heavy wet socks and shoes. Babes had a pair of Columbia water shoes like these and he loved them. They did dry out quickly as well!
Trying on my new Keens Sandals…they didn’t look this great AFTER Costa Rica!!!
On our last trip to CR I took Brooks Running shoes like these. They did get very wet, but nothing beats how comfortable they are…especially when walking a lot! For example, we did a sloth 🦥 and coffee tour and walked all afternoon. We also walked down (and back up again) 500 steps to get to La fortuna Waterfall! The Brooks have awesome support and my feet never hurt! Yay 😁
Bottom Line
So in our opinion, top 3 packing essentials for Costa Rica would be:
Rain coat
Wicking quick dry clothing
Keen (or similar) hiking sandals or comfortable walking shoes like Brooks (but know they WILL get wet!)
We hope these packing essentials give you some guidance in what to pack for amazing Costa Rica! We just may see you there!
Happy Travels!
So grateful for all the rain gear and quick dry clothes!!!
