Country Information

Country Code: . There are no area codes in Costa Rica. Public payphones exist, but they are becoming increasingly rare as increasing mobile phone usage means that phone companies are removing them. However some still exist taking coins or credit cards. Alternatively prepaid phone cards can be bought from most small gift shops and newsagents.

Roaming agreements exist with some countries. Handsets can be hired, although this can be difficult and time-consuming (www.ice.go.cr). Costa Rica employs both GSM and TDMA systems. The state telephone company ICE has a monopoly on service, which is available throughout much of the nation except remote mountain regions.

There are internet cafés throughout the country, and most tourist hotels also provide facilities such as Wi-Fi. Internet speed may be rather slow but this should improve as the government aims to improve infrastructure to allow for faster broadband connections.

Costa Rica has nine major newspapers, several private and public TV stations, and a busy FM radio scene. Cable TV is widely available. Costa Rica enjoys near total freedom of media, although the major dailies are considered to be conservative. Daily newspapers printed in Spanish include Al Día, Diario Extra, El Heraldo, La Nacion, La Prensa Libre and La República; the Tico Times is a weekly newspaper published in English. The public channel is Rede Nacional. Private channels include: Teletica, Repretel and Conexion. Direct TV cable service is available throughout most of the country.

Airmail letters to Western Europe usually take at least 10 working days days; those to North America take at least one week.

Mon-Fri 0800-1730; Sat 0730-1200.