Costa Rica Travel Insurance – Do You Need It?

By 14 Comments

One of the things you need to prepare for a trip abroad is travel insurance.

I started purchasing travel insurance since my first trip to Costa Rica in 2010 and I also purchase it for our other international travels (which you can read about on Mytanfeet Travels).

Nowadays, travel insurance is highly recommended, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it’s also useful for all travel delays and unexpected occurrences that can occur.

In this post, I’ll talk about why you should get travel insurance and my recommended travel insurances for Costa Rica and international.

Ready to start insurance shopping? Check out our recommended travel insurance here or read on for more options.

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Why You Should Get Travel Insurance

First of all, well, pandemic. We all know from experience that literally ANYTHING can happen and now, even a pandemic can happen in this day and age.

Second, flights. Flying has been greatly affected by recent events, so your flight can change, get delayed and get canceled at any moment due to raising fuel prices, among other reasons.

Lost luggage, lost hotel reservations, cancelled trips, are all possibilities even more nowadays. Throw in there pilot strikes, crazy passengers and damaged planes. These are all reasons to get travel insurance!

Now let’s talk about getting travel insurance for Costa Rica.

Why You Should Get Travel Insurance for Costa Rica

If you are looking for a general Costa Rica travel Insurance, click the link to browse through different insurance options for Costa Rica and other countries. You can find various providers and many different plans to fit your needs.

Weather Delays and Cancellations

We highly recommend travel insurance to protect your flights in case of any delays or unexpected occurrences during our tropical rainy season (May through November) as well as the Northern Hermisphere winters.

Lots of travel mishaps occur thanks to heavy storms up in Canada or US East Coast, delaying and cancelling many flights.

Travelers lost their luggage, got their flight cancelled and many even cancelled their trip altogether since they already lost a couple days of their vacation.

Likewise, hurricane season can cause flight cancellations and delays. For example, Hurricane Ian in 2022 hit Florida hard and cancelled a ton of in and outbound flights. In November 2024, insane rain storms and a damaged runway canceled dozens of flights in/out of Guanacaste Airport.

With travel insurance, you will be covered for all of that due to inclement weather.

Rainy Season in Costa Rica

Costa Rica rainy season can get extremely intense being a tropical country. If you’re visiting the months of September and October, for most of the country it rains very hard as October is the rainiest month for all of the country except for the Caribbean coast.

In 2016, Hurricane Otto crashed through the north of Costa Rica, even killing people and destroying roads and homes. In 2017, Tropical Storm Nate hit Guanacaste hard. Many people had to cancel all their travel plans or they got stuck.

Trees fell on houses and cars, roads were closed, etc. Roads are more slippery in rainy season and accidents are more prone to occur during this time of year.

Then in November 2024, we had massive. continuous down pouring rain all throughout the Pacific coast, particularly the Guanacaste and Puntarenas province. It rained so much that it damaged and washed out the Guanacaste Airport and closed many roads.

Flights were getting turned around, delayed and cancelled left and right. Many travelers got stranded as the airport would randomly close and open during the day without any advance notice, for an entire two whole weeks!

You’re going to adventure in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country highly regarded for its fantastic outdoor adventure and sports.

Every visitor participates in at least during their trip here whether it’s hiking, ziplining, kayaking, etc. Although safety is the number one priority, accidents can happen.

world nomads Costa Rica travel insurance - adventure activities
Canyoning (waterfall rappelling) in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

If unfortunately an accident happens, travel insurance will help cover the cost of emergencies.

Holiday travel means more opportunities for theft

Theft is the most common crime in Costa Rica. If you are visiting during Christmas, New Years or Easter week (which normally coincides with spring break), you need to be very careful.

Since these are our peak season times, the beaches get packed with both local and foreign tourists camping, drinking and partying.

Unfortunately, thieves take advantage of this time to break into cars and pick pocket. (Make sure to read our Costa Rica safety tips post on how to stay safe).

You need to be extremely careful with your belongings when you’re at the beach, a restaurant or driving from one destination to another.

Digital Nomads

Thanks to the digital nomad law passed in 2022, Costa Rica is now one of the best countries who those who want to live and work abroad.

If you plan to be a digital nomad in Costa Rica, we highly recommend to purchase the insurance from Safety Wing as they offer a specific nomad insurance.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ll be a digital nomad for just one month or 24 months, you should get their digital nomad travel insurance to cover you.

Ready to get covered for your Costa Rica vacation?

Click here to get the Safe Travels Voyagers insurance for Costa Rica. (Remember to click trip insurance in the menu to easily get a quote).

Click here to get a quote from Safety Wing.

Get a quote from World Nomads. This is a great option for adventurers and younger travelers. I personally buy this one when we have an international trip with adventure tours booked.

Read our other Costa Rica travel tips below!

Getting around Costa Rica

Costa Rica tourist scams

Immigration and customs in Costa Rica

Costa Rica Vacation Checklist

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14 responses

  1. anna

    Hi- LOVE the blog! you mentioned elsewhere about Chase Sapphire (car rental insurance i think?), and i also inquired about their other travel insurance. it seems pretty good (it’s comparable to allianz which i used to get when i traveled without a chase sapphire). do you think i would need more than the chase? i’m not sure any other travel insurance covers more

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      I use my Chase Sapphire for renting cars since they provide worldwide CDW coverage but for other things like health and emergencies, I normally purchase an extra insurance but its important to compare plans to see which one fits your needs the best

      Reply
  2. Kathy Weidler

    We are researching travel insurance options for our upcoming trip at the end of July. What ‘proof’ is required that you have the travel insurance? Is there a certificate that is shown to someone? We want to make sure that we have the correct proof. Thank you in advance! We have relied heavily on your blog as we have planned our first trip to Costa Rica!

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      Once you purchase your travel insurance, they should email you a PDF with the letter and certificate and that’s what you upload to the CR health pass. Please read our CR COVID travel guide as it goes into this in detail and you can see exactly what you need and have to do: Costa Rica COVID travel

      Reply
  3. Tom Griffiths

    Hi, I went to the Trawick site and the Costa Rica policy for Costa Rica is called Safe Travels International but you quoted Safe Voyager. Did I find the wrong policy or is it just named differently because I’m in Canada? It is however $150 less expensive than Sagicor for a 60+ year old couple for 14 days.

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      It is different as I’m from the US and Trawick has the international policy for non-US citizens/residents.

      Reply
  4. Greg Bielawski

    Hi, Sammi, I like your blog and have followed it for several years now. We are planning our 6th trip to Costa Rica, renting a house on Playa Negra, in Jan 2022. Regarding Travel Insurance, I had a policy from Travel Insured International that they let me carry a voucher forward from a trip that was canceled due to Covid. Unfortunately the terms of that policy are $100,000 medical per person but only $1000 per person for quarantine hotel expenses, versus the required $2000. Have you heard of a traveler just posting a deposit for the quarantine hotel expenses and that being accepted by the Costa Rican Travel Authorities? Or do you know of any insurance company that I can just purchase the quarantine hotel coverage of $2000 per person? Do you think that Costa Rica will lessen their requirements for travel insurance before our trip in Jan 2022? Or that the entry requirements might become less stringent for those that are fully vaccinated? Thank you!

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      Check Sagicor, I know that they sell just the accommodation insurance but in Jan 22 there may be different entry requirements so I would wait since it’s still very early

      Reply
  5. Taylor Rae

    Hello!
    Thanks for you’re great advice! I love World Nomads travel insurance too. I’m going to Costa Rica in two weeks and am wondering if I should buy only Trawick International or both Trawick International AND World Nomads. Please let me know the difference or what you would do! Thank you so much!

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      Trawick offers an insurance specifically for Costa Rica, unfortunately World Nomads doesn’t have one that fulfills the CR requirements.

      Reply
  6. Anita C

    Hi, thank you for the recommendations.
    I’m going to costa rica with my bf next month. We are flying there together but returning at different dates (I will stay another another 3days), do you recommend us purchasing one policy to cover for the both of us or get two difference policies?

    If we purchase one policy, do I need to increase the coverage to $100,000 USD ($50,000 per person) for medical and $4,000 USD for extended lodging expenses?

    Thanks for your help

    Reply
    1. Sammi

      Hi Anita, every foreigner entering Costa Rica must have their own insurance but since you’re leaving different dates, I would purchase two separate ones because your Costa Rica tourist visa stamp gives you as many days you purchase insurance for.

      Reply
  7. Sammi

    Hi Jean-Marc, in Costa Rica medical care is much cheaper. I don’t know exact details or anything so I can’t go into it too much but that would be my guess is why. And that is what World Nomads offers.

    Reply
  8. Jean-Marc Filiatrault

    Hi! I see that you appear to be confortable with $100,000 emergency accident coverage. However, here in Canada, my choice from the insurance companies is 1, 2 or 5 million $. Is 100,000 $ really enough?

    Many tks in advance,

    Reply
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