How The Costa Rican Address System Works: Why You Shouldn't Ship Items To Costa Rica
No Amazon Prime, guys
That’s right, no Amazon Prime to your doorstep 24/7. It took me a LOOONG time to get used to that change when I moved from Seattle to Costa Rica!
It can be difficult to send and receive items here. It’s relatively easy to ship things around the country but importing something is a whole other story. Import taxes are HIGH. Like, 30-100% but it depends on the specific item.
It’s not so bad though
On the bright side, I save a lot of time and money. When I lived in the USA, I had an online shopping addiction. I mean, how many hours did I waste putting things in my cart and then abandoning it? Or buying stuff I didn’t genuinely need because it’s cheap and would arrive in what feels like hours.
The other perk- you don’t get junk mail. Ha!
To be real, although not having a traditional address system makes my life harder in a lot of ways, it’s one of the reasons I love Costa Rica.
Life here is simpler.
How does the address system work?
The addresses of homes and business are based on well-known points such as a bank, restaurant, big rock, or sculpture.
I KNOW this sounds crazy, but I’m not making this up.
At my last house, the address was Beige House #1, 100 meters east of the Laundry Room of Hotel XYZ. When they ask you for your address, they’ll often ask you for the color of your home too. Crazy, right?
According to my cousin, ( who has a theory for everything ), a formal address system is coming…eventually. Prob like 5-10 years from now. If you go to Google Maps, you’ll see that Google labeled every street with its own internal system for years. A girl can hope for Amazon Prime. Someday my wishes will come true.
Uhm, so how do you send stuff?
We do have a regular postal service, Correos Costa Rica. I usually have packages sent to the Correos location near me, it has a tracking #, and it usually only takes about 2 days for the item to go from one Correos location to another.
We ship things by bus. Yeah man, by bus. It’s actually impressively reliable, fast, and cheap. A 12” x 12” x 12” box with a few pounds in It costs around $10 to send. Just like Correos, the sender goes to the ticketing station to ship the package and usually the next day the receiver will go to the bus station to pick it up.
Can I send stuff from the USA?
Technically, yes.
Should you do it? Depends.
Small packages and letters? That’s cool.
Large, expensive, or essential items. NO!
Like I mentioned earlier, imports are taxed HEAVILY in Costa Rica. It’s the main reason why products are so $$$ here.
Alrighty, so it’s easy and relatively fast to ship an item from the USA or whatever country to Costa Rica but once it gets to Costa Rica THAT’S when the trouble starts.
Your item will either get a green light or a red light ( there’s probably a technical name for this process ). If it gets a red light, then they have to keep it, review it, etc. They might assess extra fees too. Once they approve it, then you have to go and pay the fees even if they’ve shipped it for review to another location in the country so you might need to travel. Plus, once it gets the green light, you begin getting charged for storage in their warehouse.
Let’s say you get a green light. Well, even if you are using a super reliable service like FedEx or DHL once the item arrives in the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, it gets handed off to a 3rd party courier service that may or may not be so reliable.
A lot of people DO receive items from Amazon (no toiletries or food products) and other websites like Ali Express here.
Most people have a mailbox they’ve set up in Miami which then ships the item to Costa Rica for a small fee which will arrive to the mailbox they’ve set up in Costa Rica (i.e., Mailboxes, Etc.) Several companies offer these sorts of services.
Can I bring items in my suitcase?
Yes! You are allowed to bring items for personal use with you into the country.
If it is super important and something you must have - maybe it’s for the wedding, for example, then bring it in your carry-on.
If not, like all my skincare products, put them in your checked bags.
On a final note
When it comes to shipping in Costa Rica, it’s best to play it safe and save yourself the headache. Either purchase the items in Costa Rica or bring them with you in your suitcase.
Want more tips on how to plan your destination wedding? Check out the blog posts below!
