Written by Nikki Solano

Nikki is the CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts), and the author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025 editions) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022 edition) from Moon Travel Guides. Together with her Costa Rican husband, Ricky, she operates the Costa Rica Travel Blog, created the online community DIY Costa Rica, built the Costa Rica Destination Tool, oversees the brand-new (summer 2023) Costa Rica Travel Shop, and designed the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course. Also, Nikki wrote the Costa Rica cover feature for Wanderlust Magazine's sustainability-focused Travel Green List issue, showcased Costa Rica destinations and experiences on Rick Steves' Monday Night Travel show and podcast/radio show, and served as the Costa Rica Destination Editor for Essentialist, a luxury travel brand. Want to show your appreciation for her free article below? Thank Nikki here. ❤️️

INTRODUCING DIY COSTA RICA (.COM)!

Learning anything is a complicated process. But, we hope our Costa Rica Travel Blog and our newest project–DIY Costa Rica–help travellers understand for themselves why Costa Rica is worth a visit and how designing a trip that is safe, affordable, and valuable is easier than most think.

Inline with our interest in keeping the learning process as simple as possible, this blog post documents how travellers use DIY Costa Rica, step by step.

STEP 1: FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH DIY COSTA RICA AND REGISTER TO BECOME A COMMUNITY MEMBER

The DIY Costa Rica homepage displays all of our Costa Rica recommendations. Click on a photo box to read more about the item.

Note:

• You must be logged in to view DIY Costa Rica content.

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Use our menu to search recommendations by category, access webpages, connect with us on social media, and see new portfolio content. To access the menu, click on the square with three lines at the top of the homepage.

The “Home (Search All Recommendations)” menu option displays the following options in its drop-down menu list:

• Search Accommodation Recommendations
• Search Activity, Tour, & Operator Recommendations
• Search Destination Recommendations
• Search Food & Drink Recommendations
• Search Fun & Funny Recommendations
• Search History, Culture, Science, Religion, & Sport Recommendations
• Search Philanthropy Recommendations
• Search Product, Shop, & Purchase Recommendations
• Search Random & Strange Recommendations
• Search Restaurant Recommendations
• Search Site & Attraction Recommendations
• Search Transportation Recommendations
• Search View & Sunset Recommendations
• Search Wildlife & Wildlife Viewing Recommendations

The “New to DIY Costa Rica? Here’s What You Need To Know” menu option displays the following options in its drop-down menu list:

• All About DIY Costa Rica
• New Member Registration
• “How To” Help (Website Screenshots)
• Have A Question? Submit It To Us Here!
• View All Questions & Answers
• View All Reviews

The “For Current DIY Costa Rica Members” menu option displays the following options in its drop-down menu list:

• Member Login (With Link To Logout)
• I Forgot My Password
• Member Profile
• View My Personalized DIY Costa Rica Trip List
• View The DIY Costa Rica Recommendations Map
• “How To” Help (Website Screenshots)
• Have A Question? Submit It To Us Here!
• View All Questons & Answers
• Want To Write Us A Review? Submit It To Us Here!
• View All Reviews

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If you are not yet a member, once you have learned about our DIY Costa Rica community click on the “Buy Now” button on the join us page to purchase access through PayPal.

Between September 30th, 2016 and November 3rd, 2016 access to DIY Costa Rica is FREE! During this time, there is no need to purchase access through PayPal; instead, visit our registration page to register free of charge!

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Upon redirection to PayPal for secure payment, our one-time community access fee of $4.99 (USD) loads automatically. Once payment has been made through PayPal you will receive an email containing a link for registration. Registration prompts you to create a username and password so you can access DIY Costa Rica’s protected content.

Between September 30th, 2016 and November 3rd, 2016 access to DIY Costa Rica is FREE! During this time, there is no need to purchase access through PayPal. Instead, visit our registration page to register free of charge!

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STEP 2: LOG-IN TO DIY COSTA RICA USING THE USERNAME AND PASSWORD YOU CREATED UPON REGISTRATION

As a community member, you can log-in to your account at anytime (for 365 days post-registration) via our member login page.

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STEP 3: AS A LOGGED-IN MEMBER, BROWSE ALL OF THE PROTECTED CONTENT ON DIY COSTA RICA THAT IS PRIVATE AND NOT VISIBLE TO NON-MEMBERS

To access our content, choose a photo box from the homepage, such as “Best Adventure Tour”.

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If you forgot to log-in, you will be prompted to do so. If you do not have an account, you will be unable to access the protected content.

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When you are logged in, protected content displays automatically, starting with the name and a description of our recommendation.

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Protected content also includes a “Costa Rica Field Notes” section identifying extra tips and lessons learned throughout our travels.

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Above the protected content’s “Experience Details” section, you may choose to add our recommendation to your trip list (or remove a recommendation previously added to your trip list). From here, you may also click through to your personalized trip list directly.

Note:

• If you are unsure what the “trip list” is to be used for or how it can assist you, please see our response to a user’s question here.

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If you did not choose to add our recommendation to your trip list, your trip list will remain empty.

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If you chose to add our recommendation to your trip list, you will see it displayed on your trip list page. You may add as many of our recommendations to your trip list as you would like.

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Our recommendation pages also include a “Spanish Pronunciation Help” section phonetically describing the Spanish words we include in our portfolio projects.

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Our recommendations pages also include an “Additional Resources” section linking to supplementary reads (each link click opens our related blog post in a new window), as well as a “Maps” section marking the location of our recommendations.

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From our recommendation pages, you may also click through to our customized DIY Costa Rica Map. Each of our portfolio projects is marked on the map to help you identify the locations of our recommendations.

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You may click on any map marker to display its corresponding portfolio project. Click on the project image to load the project page that contains the recommendation information.

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Questions? Browse through our questions list for answers and additional information.

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Have a question not yet answered on our questions list? Submit it. We welcome questions from all travellers!

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Think our resource is helpful? Tell us. We welcome reviews from our awesome DIY Costa Rica community members!

Note:

• Only logged-in members are able to submit a review.

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And that’s it! We would say that access to our Costa Rica recommendations has never been easier to obtain, but we’ll let DIY Costa Rica–our hand-crafted bundle of joy–speak to that itself.

Already a DIY Costa Rica community member? Awesome! We are happy to know that you have made the leap from traditional trip planning (i.e., booking flights and arranging accommodations) to “do it yourself” vacation planning that focuses on everything else equally as important: what to see, what to tour, where to go, what to drink, what not to eat, what to buy, how to help, what to avoid, who to trust, what not to miss, and SO MUCH MORE!

Not yet a DIY Costa Rica community member? What are you waiting for? The most amazing Costa Rica travel experiences that we have spent years learning about, participating in, and educating others on await you. Start here.

Pura vida!

How To Use DIY Costa Rica

Hey, Costa Rica Travel Blog reader, thank you for visiting and reading our blog! We're truly grateful for your time and preference.

Do you know that your spam-free reading experience is most important to us? Unlike some other Costa Rica blogs, we do not to sell your personal information, and we choose not to display ads, sponsored content, or affiliate marketing on our blog so we can keep your visit as distraction- and junk-free as possible. Because we prioritize your privacy, we don't earn money when you visit us, when you sign up for our e-course, or when you click on our links, which means the time and work we put into this blog—including its 300+ articles—is entirely voluntary! If you find our content valuable, and you'd like to thank us for making the trip-planning process easier and your Costa Rica vacation more enjoyable, please consider making a small donation ($1, $2, $3, or an amount of your choosing) to our blog. Doing so is a great way to pat us on the back if you feel we deserve it. 😊 Pura vida, amigos!

Click on the button above to donate through PayPal. (If you cannot see the PayPal button above, click here.) A PayPal account is not required to make a donation; credit and debit cards are also accepted. PayPal donations are confidential; we never see your payment details.

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