Frequently Asked Questions

No special vaccinations are required for U.S. and Canadian citizens to enter Costa Rica. If you have special health concerns, we recommend that you check with a physician with knowledge of travel medicine.

Your tour needs at least 16 participants. This can include players, coaching staff, team administrators, parents, relatives/siblings, and anyone else who you would like to join the group. Discounts are available for groups larger than 30 participants.

There are over 350 boys’ and girls’ youth soccer teams and over 50 first division & professional soccer teams in Costa Rica. When matching your team to Costa Rican opposition, we take into consideration your team’s age, competitive level, recent league and tournament performance, and other factors.

We have hosted over 300 boys’ and girls’ soccer teams of every age and competitive playing level since 1995. The majority of our clients are college teams, high school teams, club teams, ODP state and regional teams, and amateur adult teams. Click to see what our clients have to say about us.

We have hosted players as young as nine years old. Costa Rica is a very family friendly destination and parents and younger siblings often join the tour.

U.S., Canadian, and many European citizens may enter Costa Rica with a valid passport and do not need a visa. If you are traveling from another country please check the Costa Rican embassy web site.

We require that every tour participant has adequate medical insurance that covers him/her during the tour. Contact your insurance company to find out whether it will cover you on international trips. If not, we can recommend some travel insurance companies that our clients have used in the past.

We do not offer travel medical insurance as part of our tour packages.

You can request a custom proposal and tour pricing for your team by contacting Costa Rica Soccer Tours.

Cancellations processed 90 days prior to departure are fully refundable (does not apply for airfare). Cancellations processed 89-61 days prior to departure result in a loss of 50% of the total program fee. Cancellations made within 60 days of departure result in a loss of the total program fee.

Step 1: Request a soccer tour proposal for your team online.

Step 2: Review it and meet with one of our tour experts to customize it according to your needs. You can choose your team’s travel dates, tour length, number of games, number of trainings, and sightseeing activities.

Step 3: Meet with your team and present the customized proposal. Determine the tour dates that would work best for the team. Once you have possible dates, we can request airfare pricing and you’ll have a better idea of the total cost per person.

Step 4: Communicate the payment plan to your team and start preparing for the best international soccer tour experience ever!

Yes, we are happy to include parents and family members on the trip. They have joined our tours in the past and have been excellent additions to the group. The additional adults make helpful chaperones when there are lots of underage players. We can include them in any and all of the team activities.   The tour price for parents and family members is the same as for players (children are less, see below). However, we understand that, depending upon the objective of the trip, the coach or team administrator may not feel that it is appropriate for families to travel with the team so we leave this decision up to whoever is organizing the soccer tour.

Yes, they can. However, they do have to be accompanied by an adult. We have discounts for non-player children under 10 who are traveling with a parent. Please contact us for details.

Our standard prices are based on triple and quad occupancy. For an additional cost per person, we would be happy to arrange for you to have a single or double room.

Yes. We price airfare separately from our land portion tour package. If you prefer to book your own airfare, you are welcome to do so. We have extensive experience planning and booking group air travel and work with six different airlines that fly to Costa Rica. We can get you an airfare quote once you please provide us with your possible dates and departure airport.

The length of the flight varies depending upon which airport you are departing from and whether you have a layover. Here are a few examples of direct flight times to Costa Rica:

• Houston to Costa Rica: 3.5 hours
• Miami to Costa Rica: 3 hours
• LA to Costa Rica: 5.5 hours
• Newark to Costa Rica: 5.5 hours
• Toronto to Costa Rica: 5.5 hours

Our most popular tour is nine days and includes a chance to experience the capital city, the rainforest, the volcano area, and the beaches (see sample itinerary). We customize the tour according to your team’s preferences. We can recommend more areas to visit depending on the length of your team’s soccer tour and the number of games that you would like to play.

Costa Rica is famous for its warm, temperate climate most of the year. Costa Rican soccer teams also play soccer all year long making it possible to organize a tour during any dates that are good for your team. Spring Break and preseason (July/ August) are some of the most popular times to take a soccer tour.

Some sightseeing activities come included in our basic tour package. Others are add-on optional activities for which we need at least 10 people in order to organize them. If there are some people who don’t want to participate in the group activity they may choose to relax at the hotel or see the local sights, stores, etc. Examples of our most popular add-on activities are:

• Rainforest Canopy Tour (zipline)
• White Water Rafting
• Team Building Activities
• Hot Water Springs
• La Fortuna Waterfall
• Catamaran Tour

We recommend that you begin talking to your team and planning your tour at least six months before you want to travel. We suggest making your team’s $100 per person refundable deposit as soon as you have determined your preferred travel dates. This deposit secures your team’s tour and guarantees that we will not have to turn your team away during our busiest seasons.

• 30 days after reservation: $100 deposit per person for land portion is due.
• 120 days prior to departure: 50% of remaining land portion is due.
• 60 days prior to departure: Final payment of remaining land portion, and optional sightseeing activity amounts are due. This is the last day for a participant to cancel the land portion without a penalty (payments would be refunded; does not apply for airfare). After this date and until 7 days prior to travel, you can replace a participant.

We manage our billing on a per team basis. This means that we invoice a single contact (most often the coach or a team leader) for the entire amount due. We ask that the contact collect the individual payments from the participants and use either of the following methods to send us the money.

1. Bank wire transfer: you can request a wire transfer directly from your bank to our Bank of America account. We will provide you with this information at the payment time.
2. Payments by check: you can submit payments by check if you deposit the checks directly at any branch of Bank of America in your area.

In order to keep our prices low, we do not accept credit cards for payment. The 7-10% surcharge from the credit card companies would increase the cost of our tours to our clients.

We offer one free land portion for every 18 paying participants. This discount does not apply for airfare.

• Optional sightseeing activities
• Snacks, souvenirs, and personal expenses
• An optional tip for the tour guide and bus driver at the end of the tour

Our tours are all-inclusive which means that we make all of the travel and soccer game arrangements for your group so that you can focus on getting to know your team better and improving your soccer skills. All of the following are included in our tour packages:

• All soccer arrangements (games, fields, matches, referees, etc.)
• Hotel accommodations
• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily
• Local transportation
• Full-time bilingual guide
• Laundry for all trainings and matches gear
• Water and ice for each training and match

Airplane tickets to Costa Rica vary depending on your departure airport, travel dates and the number of people traveling. Round-trip airfare from the United States to Costa Rica often vary between $275-$600 per person.

Yes, you can drink tap water at all locations where you will be traveling on your tour.

Costa Rica is a safe, stable, democratic country. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949 and is known as one of the most peaceful nations in Latin America. San Jose is a major metropolitan city and we recommend that teams use the same common sense while staying there as they would in any large city. For example, we recommend using the buddy system and not walking around the city alone at night.

It is not usually necessary to go to a bank to exchange money once in Costa Rica. U.S. dollars and major credit cards are widely accepted (even in small town stores). The Costa Rican currency is called the Colon. When you buy something with U.S. dollars you will receive your change in Colones. We recommend NOT bringing traveler’s checks with you since they are not widely accepted in Costa Rica.

Wireless internet access is available at nearly all of the hotels if you would like to use your phone, tablet or laptop. Once you start working on your team’s itinerary, we can confirm access at each hotel.

Many U.S. cell phone will work in Costa Rica – but not all of them. Check with your cell phone company before you arrive to verify – and be prepared for possible extra charges.

Our tours include the cost for doing laundry for shirts, shorts, and socks used during all trainings and matches. Your full-time tour guide will collect the uniforms or clothes after each training and soccer match and will be responsible for getting them back to you as soon as possible. We recommend bringing at least two sets of uniforms just in case the first one cannot be washed in time for your team’s next match. If you would like to wash personal laundry, you can use the hotel’s in-house laundry service. Some hotels have washing and drying machines available.

Yes. There are many opportunities to buy great souvenirs everywhere in Costa Rica. Our tours include shopping opportunities in the itinerary. Some of the most popular Costa Rican souvenirs include: coffee, wooden handicrafts, leather goods, pottery, hammocks, and clothing.