Tamarindo and its surrounding area is easily accessible through the Daniel Quirós InternationalAirport in Liberia. If your point of arrival or departure is San Jose, you can fly to the Tamarindo airport via a national airline. There are two main airlines serving Costa Rica itself, TACA (Formerly Sansa) and Nature Air. Hint: If you are a “perpetual 90-Day tourists“, check out the international destinations of Nature Air. They feature international flights from San Jose to Nicaragua and Bocas del Toro, and Panamagion>. Both are great places to visit and very handy for those who needs to leave Costa Rica to satisfy immigration regulations Money Machines and Banks Tamarindo has five banks including Banco Nacional (which is the governmental bank) on the main street across from the Diria Hotel, Scotia Bank inside the Tamarindo Heights Shopping Plaza, and Banco Costa Rica which is inside Plaza Conchal Shopping Plaza. You can exchange money or get credit card advances at these banks. American dollars are accepted everywhere.
General Information Unscheduled Holidays – We are blessed with many scheduled and unscheduled holidays. Here is a list of some of the unscheduled ones: when the electricity or the internet doesn’t work, the day before and after a scheduled holiday, and during strikes by the utility company (ICE). Some frustrated workaholics try to work on those days, but usually end up just catching up on paperwork. On these days it is best just relax by the pool. Currency Exchange Rates - The official currency in Costa Rica is the Colon and its value compared to the dollar varies daily. Right now, it is about 500 colones to the dollar, but you can spend colones or dollars equally well here. Electrical Power – The electrical power in Costa Rica is 110 volts. Time - GMT / UTC minus 6 hours that would be Central Time is the USA. There is no day-light savings.
Tipping Policies- The question of tipping in restaurants comes up frequently. A native person with a run of bad luck will often show respect with a token tip, but if they don’t, that’s ok. If their financial luck changes, then so do the rules change and they are expected to tip. In San Jose, generally, people are expected to tip more and more often. The native people assume all tourists have a lot of money, so they are expected to tip all the time, at least 10%. However many restaurants will automatically add 10% to your bill (Note: Don’t confuse the 10% service fee (tip) with the 13% tax). So avoid unintentional double tipping by checking your bill to see if the 10% has been automatically added. After dinning and any other good personal service we highly recommend an additional tip.
|
