Over several days we drive around the central valley in Costa Rica to narrow down where we want to buy property. Our plan is to build an off grid retreat somewhere in the mountains. Palmares was our favorite city and landscape, second to San Ramon.

We take a car ride up to the Poas Volcano in Costa Rica and stop for a free viewing of the waterfall. Definitely a recommended stop if you’re in the San Jose region!

We spend the morning in search of hiking trails in Escazu/San Antonio, Costa Rica. Eventually we make our way to Pico Blanco with a gorgeous view of the valley.

If you’re ever traveling and don’t know if you’ll have cell service or wifi, check out the “maps.me” app. Not only does it allow you to download offline maps, but gives you turn-by-turn directions without using any data. (Note: We have no affiliation with the app, we were just REALL grateful to find it when we couldn’t get directions home from the airport.)

After arriving in Costa Rica, it took about 2 hours to get through customs, immigration, and pick up our rental car. Just in time to meet our realtors at a McDonald’s about 10 minutes away from the hotel.

We discussed how much land we want (3-10 acres) for how much ($20-100k) and in what areas. They gave us a list of 6 regions to check out on our own before bringing them along to see actual property for sale.