Currency and Tipping in Costa Rica

The currency of Costa Rica is the Colón and the symbol is ₡ / CRC. There are approximately 540 Colones per US $ at present (e.g., a Colon is worth less than 1/5th of a penny), but practically speaking it’s possible to travel to Costa Rica and pay entirely in US $. Most restaurants / stores use both currencies interchangeably and you can pay in either (or possibly receive change in $ after paying the check in ₡).

That said, there are a number of impractical things about paying for things in Costa Rica. First and foremost, tipping is ubiquitous within the tourism industry and tour guides/drivers/etc don’t take Visa or Venmo. So we’ve been scrambling to maintain a supply of 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 ₡ bills (or US $1/5/10s), but the volume of tips makes this challenging. It is important to support the people who are actually serving us, but it would be So Much Better if they got paid by the actual price of our tickets and not from additional “voluntary” tips at the end… or at least take Venmo! We can’t keep the right mix of bills in our wallets! 

Secondly, all the prices have too many zeroes. To estimate $ prices, it’s easiest to divide the listed ₡ price by 1,000 and then multiply by two. But that math can get confusing if you’re ordering multiple items in Spanish… 

These two annoyance factors are partially offset by the beauty of the Costa Rican currency. Every denomination is a different color with a different size and a picture of a Costa Rican animal on one side and a famous person on the other. We plan to bring many thousands of ₡ home as souvenirs…potentially as much as $10 worth!!!




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