Well Organized and Very Informative Tour

My retirement plans include living in a Latin American country.   Since Costa Rica is on my list, I took Christopher Howard’s Combination Tour in August 2014.  The tour included a tour of the South Pacific beaches, Central Pacific beaches and Central Valley and a two day seminar presented by ARCR.

The tour was very well organized.   When I arrived at the airport in San Jose, I was met almost immediately by someone who guided me to my shuttle bus to the hotel.  The tour bus driver, Santiago, was excellent.  He maneuvered the bus in some very difficult situations.  He went to the extra trouble of putting everyone’s luggage on top of the bus so that we would be more comfortable.

The hotels and restaurants were very well chosen to present a good cross section of living in Costa Rica.  Service was very good at the hotels and restaurants.  There was always a good menu choice at the restaurants.

Along the way, Chris showed us selected properties. There were some beach properties, houses in subdivisions, houses in very remote locations and houses in the Central Valley.  We were able to tour the properties and in several cases talk with the owners who are expats.

We had a chance to visit several grocery stores and even a Walmart.  It was good to compare prices and to see how expensive the imported goods are.

During the tour, many questions were asked.  Chris provided answers based on his experience and knowledge.  During the trip, Chris provided a running commentary as we traveled on the tour.  During the trip, we were provided a short Spanish course with diploma.

One of the benefits of the tour was getting to meet other people considering retirement in Costa Rica.  Each of us made new friends.  It will be interesting to see where each of these new friends chooses to live in retirement.

The seminar was very informative.  It was almost an information overload after two days.  It made me think of many aspects of living in a foreign country that I had never considered.

I recommend the Combination Tour for anyone considering retiring in Costa Rica.

For anyone considering living in a Latin American country, I recommend Christopher Howard’s book, The New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica.  This book is a very good resource.  It provides a lot of information about Costa Rica and other Latin American countries.

John Rasbury, 
johnlyr1@yahoo.com