The rainforest wakes you before your alarm does. A howler monkey somewhere in the canopy, then the birds, then the drip of rain that stopped an hour ago still coming off the leaves. You are eleven hours from Gatwick and you never changed planes. British Airways flies London to San José non-stop, and the return currently starts at £548.
✈️ The deal
- From: London Gatwick, United Kingdom
- To: San José, Costa Rica
- Airline: British Airways
- Stops: Non-stop
- Price: £548–£599 return
- When: October to December 2026
Example dates:
25/10/2026 – 13/11/2026 27/10/2026 – 10/11/2026 04/11/2026 – 22/11/2026 04/12/2026 – 11/12/2026
Check dates on Kiwi
💰 How far does your money go?
Costa Rica is not the cheapest country in Central America, but your daily spend still undercuts London badly. A casado at a roadside soda, a plate of rice, beans, plantain, salad and grilled chicken, costs around £5. A cold Imperial, the local lager, is £2.50 in a bar and closer to £1.50 from a supermarket cooler. A proper cocktail on the beach runs £6. A backpacker gets by on £45 a day here. A mid-range trip with lodges and guided tours sits around £110. That is the flight buying you a week and a half of eating well.
☀️ The weather
London in late October gives you 11°C, wet pavements and dark by half five. December is worse. San José sits up in the highlands at a steady 24°C by day and 16°C at night, all year. The catch is rain. Late October is the wettest week of the Costa Rican year, heavy afternoon downpours that clear by evening. November dries out fast. By December the Pacific coast and Guanacaste are into the dry season, hard sun and strong afternoon wind. Book December dates for beach weather. October and November are greener, emptier and cheaper.
🏨 Where to stay
You will not base yourself in San José. Most trips run north to Arenal or south to the Pacific.
Arenal Backpackers Resort — 8.3/10 · from £38/night A hostel with a pool that faces the volcano. Dorms and private rooms, ten minutes on foot from La Fortuna town.
Arenal Springs Resort — 8.8/10 · from £135/night Free-form thermal pools fed by the volcano, bungalows with Arenal filling the window.
Nayara Springs — 9.3/10 · from £480/night Adults-only villas with private plunge pools in the rainforest. The sloth-spotting is done from your own deck.
🎯 What to do
Costa Rica packs volcanoes, cloud forest and two coastlines into a country the size of Wales.
Hike Arenal: the old lava trails run through forest to a lookout under the near-perfect cone, best early before the cloud sits down on it.
Zip-line the canopy near La Fortuna: a dozen cables strung between platforms above the treetops, with a Tarzan swing at the end for anyone still keen.
Manuel Antonio National Park: white-sand beaches backed by jungle, with squirrel monkeys, sloths and coatis on the trails down to the water.
Night walk in the rainforest: a guided hour after dark with a torch, turning up red-eyed tree frogs, sleeping birds and the odd snake you would never have spotted yourself.
🗺️ Where to go from here
San José is the hub, not the destination. Everything is a shuttle or a short domestic hop away.
La Fortuna and Arenal — 3 hours north by shuttle, for the volcano, the hot springs and the hanging bridges.
Monteverde — 3 hours by road, or a jeep-boat-jeep transfer from Arenal, for the cloud forest and its suspension walkways.
Manuel Antonio — 3 hours south on the Pacific, for the national park and the easiest wildlife in the country.
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca — 4.5 hours over to the Caribbean side, for reggae bars, rainforest and quieter black-sand beaches.
Tamarindo and Nicoya — a 45-minute domestic flight to Guanacaste, for the driest beaches and the surf towns.
Non-stop from London to Costa Rica does not come cheap or come often. Pick your dates and book the flight first.
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