Packing for a few weeks of Spanish in rural Guanacaste is easier than most people expect. Nothing here is formal, you can wash your clothes at the house, and most of what you need fits in one bag. What matters is packing for the life you will actually live: class in the morning, an afternoon on a horse or a forest trail, and dinner at the family table.
This is the same list we give our own students in La Fortuna de Bagaces, with a little more explanation of why each thing is on it.
The essentials
These are the things that are hard, or impossible, to sort out once you are here.
- Your passport. Check the expiry date now, not later. Most airlines will not board you if it expires within six months of your travel date.
- Your travel insurance documents. Your policy should cover medical treatment, repatriation, cancellation and your belongings. Keep the policy number somewhere you can reach it on your phone.
- A card that works abroad, plus some US dollars or colones in cash for the first days.
- Any medication you take, in its original packaging, with enough for your whole stay.
- A refillable water bottle.
- Sun protection and a hat.
- Insect repellent.
- Closed walking shoes you do not mind getting muddy.
Clothes: fewer than you think
Nothing here is formal, ever. Pack clothes you can walk, ride and work in. It is hot by day, so light things are best, but bring one warmer layer too: evenings in the dry season can be cooler than people expect.
You will not need a different outfit for every day, either. You have use of your host family’s laundry room and you do your own washing, so a few days’ worth of clothes, washed as you go, is plenty.
Two things people forget: long trousers for horseback riding, and swimwear for the waterfall.
Pack for the afternoons
Four afternoons a week you are out of the classroom with a local instructor: on a horse, at a dairy, on a forest trail or walking down to a waterfall. That is where most of your packing decisions come from. You can see the full range on our Language activities page.
| Activity | What to bring |
|---|---|
| Horseback riding | Long trousers, closed shoes, a hat and sun protection |
| Forest and volcano hikes | Closed walking shoes, insect repellent and your water bottle |
| Cabro Muco waterfall | Swimwear and a small backpack |
| A morning at the dairy | Closed shoes and clothes you do not mind getting dirty |
| Any afternoon in the green season | A light rain jacket |
A small backpack makes all of these easier. Water, sunscreen, a rain jacket and the vocabulary sheet you prepared in class all go in one place.
One more word on shoes. There are venomous snakes in Guanacaste, so closed shoes on trails and around farms are a must, and it pays to watch where you put your feet. If you see one, stop, back away and tell your instructor; they know what to do.
Dry season or green season?
Guanacaste has two seasons, and what you pack changes a little with each.
The dry season, roughly December to April. Hot, sunny days and evenings that can be cooler than you expect, so bring that extra layer and plenty of sun protection. Water is scarcer at this time of year, so keep your showers short.
The green season, roughly May to November. It is not a washout. It usually rains in the afternoon, and everything is greener. A light rain jacket earns its place in your bag, and so do shoes that can cope with mud. Rivers rise fast in this season, sometimes while the sky above you is clear, so only swim in or cross a river when your instructor says it is fine that day.
For class
Bring a notebook and pens. You will write more by hand here than you expect.
Your teacher writes your material every evening, around what you did that day, and you collect it from the print shop on your walk to class, usually between 10 and 30 pages. So the material comes to you. All you need is something to write with.
Phone, money and power
- Phone. Bring an unlocked phone. A local SIM is cheap and far better than roaming, and we will help you get one in your first days.
- Money. Costa Rica uses the colón, and US dollars are widely accepted. Cards work in towns, but the village runs more on cash. Bring some cash for your first days and draw more from a cash machine in Bagaces.
- Plugs. 110 volts, with the same flat two-pin plugs as the United States. Bring an adaptor if you are coming from Europe.
- Wifi. There is wifi, and it is rural wifi: good for messages, calls home and looking things up, not for streaming films all evening.
- Water. The tap water is drinkable, so fill your bottle at the house instead of buying plastic.
What to leave at home
- Smart clothes. Nothing here needs them.
- A hairdryer, or anything heavy that draws a lot of power.
- Large amounts of cash.
- Anything valuable you would be upset to lose on a farm or in a river.
Before you close the bag
Two weeks before you fly, tell us about anything we should know: food you cannot eat, allergies, anything that affects where you stay or what you can do in an afternoon. Your host family cooks for you three times a day, and they need to know in advance, not on the first evening.
The full checklist, together with everything about getting here and your first day, is on our What happens next page. You can download it as a PDF to read offline at the airport. Quick answers to other questions are in our FAQ.
Still deciding when to come? Tell us your dates, how many weeks and your level, and we will send you a written plan and price the same day.
