Stay Connected in Costa Rica

Costa Rica's mobile signal is rock-solid through the Central Valley and along the Pacific beach towns, fades in the mountains, and pretty much vanishes on the southern Caribbean coast unless you're standing in Puerto Viejo. Visitors blink when they see 4G hanging over Santa Teresa's surf breaks, yet a 30-minute drive inland can dump you back to 2G or dead air. Wi-Fi signs blanket every hostel, sodita, and tour office. But the real speed swings from fiber-grade in Escazú to one wheezing router in Tortuguero. 'Apagones', power cuts, can silence both cell towers and internet for an hour, most often during rainy-season afternoons. Pack a spare battery and pull down offline maps before you quit San José; you'll be grateful on the climb toward Monteverde.

Kölbi, the state-run ICE brand, blankets the country: you'll keep bars in Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna, and every Pan-American Highway town. Movistar and Claro borrow towers yet push denser 4G+ across greater San José; Clari clocks the fastest uploads in Escazú and Santa Ana if that matters. In rural Guanacaste you may see full signal while speeds limp at 2, 3 Mbps, back-haul is microwave, not fiber. 5G is still a pilot, live only on a couple of blocks around Avenida Escazú, don't bank on it. The southern Caribbean from Cahuita to Manzanillo runs almost purely on Kölbi 3G; lock your phone to 3G-only so it stops hunting for missing 4G and draining the battery. Prepaid bundles on every carrier throw in free WhatsApp data, so texts never nibble your allowance, a perk Costa Rica keeps while neighbors bill for it.