Shipping to Costa Rica

So you’ve purchased your Costa Rica real estate or found a fab place to rent. You’ve got your plane tickets ready, your passports renewed, and your warm weather clothes packed. You’re ready to make your escape to Costa Rica…except for all that stuff of yours that you’ll need to bring. What should you bring? How should you ship your stuff to Costa Rica? Where do you start?

Shipping your life to Costa Rica can seem like an overwhelming and even impossible task. It’s not, though, and we at Escape Artist Costa Rica have the tips and tricks to make shipping your life to Costa Rica a whole lot easier!

Assess Your Possessions
What things are most important to you will be entirely different than what’s important to someone else. It’s best to make a list of the “Can’t Live Without It” things you plan on bringing to your new home abroad.

Here’s a good way to break things down:
1. “Can’t Live Without It / Absolutely Must Bring It” stuff
2. Things you think you really need
3. Things you’re not sure you need to bring
4. Stuff you don’t need
5. Stuff you don’t even want/ aren’t even sure why you have

While many people move to Costa Rica to parr down on their belongings and “live with less”, there are still things from your current life that you’ll want to bring with you. Many things, such as appliances, furniture, clothing, and toiletries are readily available in Costa Rica. So just bring those things that you really need.

Obviously, the things you want to ship or pack are in groups 1 and 2.

First, see if you can’t fit it all in your suitcases. Even if you have to pay for the extra weight or extra bags, bringing all of your belongings to Costa Rica this way is the cheapest and easiest option.

If you can’t fit it all in your bags, there are still several options.

Shipping to Costa Rica: Your Belongings
Many moving companies and international shipping companies offer containers, which you can fill with boxes and furniture and have shipped to Costa Rica. The containers normally come in 2 sizes:
1. A full container: 40 x 8 x 8 feet
2. A half container: 20 x 8 x 8 feet

With these international shipping companies, most give you the option of “door to door” shipping, which means they will bring the container to your home, for you to load yourself. There is also a full service option, which includes movers than will pack the container for you. You can also request movers to unpack and clean up for you when the shipment arrives at your new home in Costa Rica.  Moving companies and international shipping companies should assist you with all of the paperwork required to ship your stuff to Costa Rica. Remember, you will have to pay taxes on everything you bring into the country this way, so be sure that it is stuff you ABSOLUTELY need.

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