Planning a Wedding in Costa Rica: What to Know Before You Fall in Love With a Venue

Costa Rica is not one destination. Nosara can feel surf-town relaxed and intimate. Guanacaste brings beach resorts, more developed hospitality, and easier group logistics. Arenal gives you rainforest and volcano views. Manuel Antonio and the Central Pacific offer dramatic nature with a different travel pattern.

The location should support your guests as much as it supports your vision. Think about the age range of the people you want there, whether they are excited to rent a car, how much unstructured time you want, and whether the celebration is mostly a resort weekend or an adventure trip with a wedding in the middle.

A lower venue fee can stop being a bargain if it adds a long transfer, extra overnight stay, or complicated transportation for every guest. Map the full journey from the airport to the hotel, the hotel to the events, and the events back to where people are sleeping.

Ask each venue or planner for a realistic transport plan, not just a mileage number. Road conditions, local traffic, sunset times, and rain can change how a route feels on a wedding weekend.

Costa Rica venues range from polished resorts to tucked-away villas and open-air spaces. The right questions help you compare them without guessing.

A Costa Rica wedding can be wonderfully simple once the moving pieces have a home. Keep venues, hotels, estimated transportation, vendor rules, questions, and replies together from the beginning. When you compare options side by side, you can see whether a place is actually a great fit or simply a beautiful idea.

That is the point of a planning system: leave room for the feeling, while making the decision with the facts in front of you.