If you have a basic set of street smarts (don't take drinks from strangers, don't walk alone on the beach after dark, don't talk about how much money you have, etc) you'll do fine in Costa Rica. The fact that the resorts are away from San Jose is a GOOD thing. If there's one place you don't want to be in CR, it's San Jose.
Costa Rica is considerably safer than cities like Miami, Baltimore or Las Vegas and resorts tend to be gated off from the rest of the world. Limon is the only place I would try to avoid if you don't know your way around. My only advice about driving is to avoid driving at night, the rural highways have axle breaking potholes that are hard to see at night and there are often people and animals on the dark roads so it is easy to have an accident if you are not used to driving conditions. My wife and I always rent a car. That said, if you are staying in a resort it might be a lot cheaper to take taxis than to rent a car. The rental rates you see on Expedia etc. are misleading because Costa Rica has a mandatory $25 insurance that you cannot opt out of like you can in other parts of the world.
Well, fyi the president of the country is a female called Laura Chinchilla.
Its pretty equal. If someone is gonna do u harm it doesn't matter if ur male or female.
You will be safe. Just use common sense like not being alone in really quite places. Look for crowds of people, rent a phone so that if u have any problems u can dial 911. Yes there is 911 in CR.
Also if a car that is not a cop car tries to pull u over don't stop and look for a place with people. In some cases thiefs pretend to be under cover cops so only pull over if u can tell its a transit cop or a regular cop from the public force.
Don't give any strangers rides and don't touch or move anyone elses bags or stuff.
But in general, its a country with a whole lot of tourism and it is pretty safe for tourists male or females.
Yes it is safe. And it is safer when you exit San José. Like every big city, San José can be "soso" sometimes. Small places are more peaceful.
I am a woman myself and live now in Costa Rica.
Some tips:
Travel by day, avoid travelling by night if not necessary.
Go at recommended places
Thats it! Costa Rica is pretty safe and calm.
I don't know if you already booked your hotel, but one of my favourite place is this Costa Rica Villas:
http://www.cristalazul.com/
Hope you a good trip girls!
Enjoy!
we want to go to costa rica but most of the resorts we are looking at are away from san jose. Would it be safe if we rented a car? Just need some safety advice.
