There are several ways to get to Costa Rica and you need to know a few things before you start out. First things first, you need to get your passport in order. This sounds rudimentary and not worth mentioning but you would be surprised how many people that I know personally that have planned and paid for their trip to Costa Rica and show up at the airport without a passport. Airline travel to Costa Rica and most other foreign countries by U.S. residents requires that the traveler hold a valid passport. You can get a passport at any U.S. Post Office in about three to six weeks. If you need it faster there are agencies that you can go to that will process it in as little as two days, but it will cost considerably more.
When contemplating airline travel to Costa Rica, it will depend on what airport you are leaving from. Delta flies the most planes there but you need to fly to the Atlanta airport and I personally dislike this place. It is so big you have to take a little subway train from one terminal to the other. It is noisy and unless you have a pass to the Admiralty Club, you will find yourself waiting many hours on hard plastic chairs surrounded by screaming infants and self important yahoos trying to impress you by talking as loud as they can into their cell phones about giant business deals they are supposedly putting together. So if you live on the West Coast, you may want to consider Continental Airlines. They also do not travel direct to Costa Rica, but their pit stop is at Houston International Airport, which is not only closer (three hours from the West Coast as opposed to six and a half hours to Atlanta) but also, in my opinion, much more comfortable and far less crowded and noisy.
Also, another requirement of airline travel to a foreign country is that after the flight back home you will be subjected to having to pass through U.S. Customs. In Atlanta chances are you will end up in a gigantic line of tourists and citizens and have to wait for over an hour just to get cleared (hopefully) and sent through to baggage. There you will have to pick up your bags and then redirect them to your final destination. You will also undergo another rigor of modern airline travel which is the Security line and again, at Atlanta, this is huge and snakes around for what seems to be several city blocks. Once again, Houston is much easier in regards to these two aspects and you will be glad you chose Continental. While airline travel to Costa Rica can be rigorous and even downright tedious for some, these tips can help you to make your flight more enjoyable.
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