I see a bunch of trip reports on Costa Rica and was able to gleem some information from them such as the standard fee is $60-80. Jonesie's guide is helpful, but its a little slim and so I wished to expand upon it with this thread. There are plenty of sections in the Costa Rica area of the site that are helpful, but I felt like we need something more comprehensive so as to answer all questions.

I have some open questions about the area in general. Here they are:

1) What would you recommend for a hotel that has the biggest bang for the buck? I am partial to budget hotels and found the Hotel Doral to be an option. What other under $40/night hotels out there would meet my needs as a decent place?

2) Where is the best P4P scene in the city? Are there any good mongering maps out there that show where all the action is located?

3) What about personal safety? Can I feel safe walking down the street in the night-time?

4) Give me an example of a good first trip with an under $40/night hotel from airport arrival to departure. I dont want to break the bank on any trip so lets keep the budget on the low to moderate side.

5) What are the rates for the ladies? How long do they stay and what is their general attitude? Anything I need to know in that regard?

6) Will I get by with just English? The women probably do not speak English...do they?

Anything else you want to add to this thread would be helpful. Lets use this as a basic primer for a first-timer in San Jose (Costa Rica). All questions and feedback is welcome as long as it relates to the San Jose scene...I want to keep it focused on the San Jose scene because there are plenty of budget airline carriers that fly there which have amazing deals in September.

Thanks all for participating.

I have been to Costa Rica a couple of times. I do not have an answer for a lot of your questions. San Jose is pretty fun. The freelancers seem to want short time and will ask for a lot of money. There are from girls from other countries. A lot are from Colombia.

A lot of guys are there on fishing trips so they only have a night before they leave San Jose so they do not mind spending a lot of money and they are looking for short time.

I had fun with the girls, people watching and gambling in San Jose. I went to Jaco and met a cool girl at the beatle bar. I hung out with her the entire trip in Jaco. Jaco is not the nicest beach. It is easy to get to from San Jose. It would of been a different trip if I hadn't met her.

Costa Rica has other things to do. There are a lot of tourist things to do and most of it is really safe. San Jose can be a little shady at night walking around. I never had any problems but I would be cautious. Downtown San Jose is not the nicest city.

I forget the name of some of the places we went to in San Jose. We went to some normal clubs and one strip club that had a plane inside it. You could get dances inside the plane.

I have not been to CR in a little over 4 years so my info is a bit dated. My favorite hotel was the Presidente Hotel (2 blks from the DelRey) but I think it will be a bit more than your $40 budget although it was close to that when I was last there. They used to offer a CRT discount if you asked for it and did not require proof of membership. Not sure if that is still true but wouldn't hurt to try.

There is a link to Don Gordos map of San Jose in the CR section of this site. It shows the locations of many bars and massage parlors but some of the info looks like it may be out of date. http://www.dongordo.com/dongordoSJmap.php

Unless you are interested in more than a mongering trip, I think you will be dissappointed with CR after visiting Pattaya and AC.

H1

Thanks for your replies. Pattaya and AC are the two ultimate mongering destinations offering decent hotels and easily accessible women at a reasonable price. However, there is the monster 24-hour airline trip which is almost always expensive to contend with. A round-trip ticket to Costa Rica would cost me less then $300 and it wouldnt be a long flight. I do know about Brazil and Colombia as other options too, but Costa Rica would fit into my non-mongering plans very well.

Browsing through the hotels and other various sections, it seems like there is a wealth of information. Quite a few people posted trip reports of Costa Rica in the past, but for some reason that has faded a bit.

Im wondering how long do the women consider "short time". 2-3 hours? 1 hour?

I found this hotel in the hotels section of the site. I looked it up Google...its the Hotel Doral.

http://www.hoteldoralcr.com/ing/htm/rooms.php

About $36 a night with tax. The girl fee is probably like $5-10 from what I am guessing. I am going to send an email to them.

Im not going to be there for weeks, but a few days passing through. Im actually heading out for a fishing expedition with some buddies and San Jose is on the way. I figured I would arrive a few days beforehand and do a little non-fishing activity prior to the arrival of the rest of the group.;)

Are there other hotels which have comparable rooms to the Doral? I looked up the Presidente and it seems nice from the pictures, but I only need "good enough" and not "nice".;)

This is an idea I had and that is to stay at this hostel:

http://www.molinorojohostel.com/party.html

I will send them an email asking if I am out on the town and meet someone if its ok to have them overnight;) They have private rooms for $30 a night.

One thing that I am interested in is their party scene. There seems to be lots of women in their party photos. So I could party in the hostel during their event and then hit the town looking for action if no luck at the event. I notice they also have non-mongering tours and other things available.

This would be a different type of trip as compared to the other reports at the Del Rey or the Sportsmans Lounge.

I emailed the hostel and posed the scenario of what if I was out partying, met a random woman and brought her back to the private room. They emailed back saying it was a no-go. Disappointed because it looks like a fun place. Might be good for a cheap tour for someone.

This thread isnt meant as a guide. Im just asking a few questions about the area and posing a few scenarios for others to answer...mental masturbation so to speak. I plan on going there with some buddies for a fishing expedition (arriving a little bit ahead of the buddies for another fishing expedition if you know what I mean).

I found this budget $18 a day hotel, but I couldnt find a way to contact them...
http://www.1costaricalink.com/eng/hotels/hots/ritz/rates.htm

I crossed them off my list since no email.

Thumbing through the hotels section on this board, I found the Hotel Doral which looks like a good deal. $32 bucks and includes breakfast.

http://www.hoteldoralcr.com/ing/htm/services.htm

I think though I might just go with the Sportsman's Lodge:

http://www.sportsmenscr.com/slreservation.html

I was looking at the airline map and also might do a fastbreak to Black Beards in the Dominican Republic, but thats another thread;) I used to do the Black Beard adventure a while ago, but I just stopped going one day.

http://www.blackbeardsadultresort.com/

One thing I noticed from reviewing the previous reports and threads about Costa Rica is that pricing on hotels and women have doubled in the last 5 years which probably why the reports come in sporadically on these places.

The Hotel Del Rey is ground zero

www.delreyhotel.com

I give up. I got an email back from the Doral stating there was a fee for $10 per lady. In reading the reports, most of the hotels have that fee. So it looks like San Jose is an efficient market. I might as well choose one of the more reported on hotels like the Del Rey.

I am thinking of just getting there with my buddies instead of going early. San Jose doesnt sound too much of a deal. From the reports I read, the women dont want to get their pictures taken because too many mongers placed them on the internet. They all charge upwards of $80 for short time. A decent hotel costs upwards of $100 a night and just 5 years ago you could get a decent room for $35 using the TSM rate.

Please say it isnt so...

Portege, I'm sorry I haven't noticed this thread before now. I could have saved you some trouble.

I live in San Jose and have an idea where some of what your talking about is. I'll try to redirect you to a more sane path.

1) What would you recommend for a hotel that has the biggest bang for the buck?

1A: There are a number of reasonable hotels in Barrio Amon, which is a couple hundred meters from the Del Rey and a good number of massage parlors. Among them are Hotel Castillo, Hemmingway Inn, Dunn Inn, and a couple others that slip my mind. Most price between $40-$50 with a weak attempt at breakfast.

2) Where is the best P4P scene in the city? Are there any good mongering maps out there that show where all the action is located?

2A: Send me a PM and I'll get you a monger map for SJO.

3) What about personal safety? Can I feel safe walking down the street in the night-time?

3A: Depends on where you venture out to.

4) Give me an example of a good first trip with an under $40/night hotel from airport arrival to departure. I dont want to break the bank on any trip so lets keep the budget on the low to moderate side.

4A: PM me

5) What are the rates for the ladies? How long do they stay and what is their general attitude? Anything I need to know in that regard?

5A: There are a wide range of options for both day and night time ladies. From $18 to $180.

6) Will I get by with just English? The women probably do not speak English...do they?

6A: Yes, you can make due with only English. But you will be the gringo who speaks no Spanish. Which will affect other aspects of your trip. I'd suggest learning a few commonly used monger phrases to get by...

Shoot me an email and let me know when your coming and I'll try to soften the impact...

Thanks Jonesie. You have given me a little hope. From reading the posts on the board and emailing the various hotels, I thought I would have to fork out $100/night for a room and then $80-100 for a woman who wouldnt be tolerant of photos and run out early.

I wish there was a current list of monger friendly hotels (ones that dont charge any extra fees for the ladies) under $50 and that are not too badly broken down. The list on Clubhombre seems dated. I can do without the Presidential hotel treatment, but I wouldnt want it to be an absolute dump...

I'll send you a PM.

The Doral is $32 plus $10 for girls (you say). That's $42, which is less than $50, last time I looked.

What's wrong it then? How do you come up with the decision that $42 with no chica charge is good, but $32 + $10 for girls to visit is bad?

Huh?

RT Gooch,
Tourist

PS - I'm still waiting for an answer as to why you decided categorically that this site is here solely to cater to people who want to save money.

Well, would I need a site like this one to really travel to these destinations? I could just land in Thailand, Brazil, etc. and just go to one of the many hotels and throw around money as the market demanded. Drop the cash

It is fairly easy to find the most expensive way to go, but it is an art form to do things like this on the cheap. There are tricks to doing these things on the cheap and its sites like this where you can find out how.

I understand the part about meeting other hombres, but I know plenty of hombres from just going on these trips. They are all there at the same bar you are at. You just start talking to them and they respond back to you. You then form a friendship. Easy;)

I have nothing against the hotel doral, but what about the economics. If I take two chicas per 24 hours then that rises the cost to $52 per night. You just have to weigh the economics of each hotel carefully...

This site definitely does not just cater to people who want to save money.... The last thing I do is use this site to determine where are the cheapest places to stay. I am more concerned about information about "girl friendly" hotels for new locations I am scouting out. There are mongers on both sides of the financial spectrum here, some are very comfortable financially and others are not. Personally, I like very nice and higher rated hotels - Unfortunately often those are the most difficult for bringing girls back to the room. I look to my fellow mongers for their reports and experiences....

When it comes to saving money, I think the majority of us are more concerned about not being that one fool that overpays the girls...again sharing normal practices helps us all keep this hobby in balance and not let prices spiral out of control for the girls....this is of interest to anyone.