Departure Details

Asheville has a really small airport which means that flights are usually really expensive when departing or arriving from here. Because of this people usually end up driving to the next closest airport which is either in Greenville, SC or Charlotte, NC. We got lucky (sort of) with our flight to CR as it was only about $100 difference in the local and out of town airports. We were willing to spend the extra money because just the time that it takes to get to Charlotte (almost 2 hours) with gas and asking someone to drive us it seemed like a smarter choice to just spend the extra cash and stay local. Also, when you take into account that most international flights leave very early in the morning or late in the afternoon, you have to start adding in overnight hotel stays in the city you are flying out of. For myself, I prefer to get to my destination mid-day so that I have time to explore the city a little before crashing for the night. If a flight leaves at 6am and you need to be there by 4am to check-in, then take into consideration having to ask a friend to drive you the two hours to get there and leave at 2am. This is not very realist and probably a good way to piss off a friend. I had even priced getting a ride into an out of town airport the night before and getting a hotel room by the airport so we could take off first thing but anyway I looked at it it just made sense to leave from Asheville.

It is smart to check the airfare rates starting about 6 months ahead of your trip and taking note of the price fluctuation for a couple months. I waited too long to buy our tickets and I know that I paid more then I would have if I just bought our tickets when I first started looking, about 6 to 4 months prior to leaving rather than waiting until a couple months before departure and buying them. They say 4 months before your trip usually has the best rates unless it is a holiday so keep this in mind. For us it was really hard to just set the dates in stone, it's a lot of pressure to know you are spending alot of money and there are alot of things that can happen in a two months. For those of you who would let this get to them, they sell travelers insurance for this very thing, so put your mind at ease and pay the extra couple hundred to know that no matter what you will get your money back if something goes horribly wrong.

Our tickets ended up costing about $1400 for two coach seats and we had one layover both coming and going. I think I ended up finding them on Cheapflights.com, which is a great sight because they search lots of sights for the cheapest ticket. Our flight left early but we got into San Jose at around 12pm CR time which was perfect for checking into our hostel and visiting the city before it got dark. Our plan was to just spend the first night in San Jose so we wanted to see what the city was like for the little time we were there. Costa Rica doesn't have daylight savings time so the sun sets (6pm) and rises (6am) at about the same time everyday which was wonderful. I thought I was going to be disappointed with it getting dark so early everynight but instead we ended up waking up earlier and doing so much that we were exhausted and in bed by 10pm every night.