Getting online in Costa Rica
A travel eSIM is a data plan you install before departure and switch on when you land, so your phone is online in Costa Rica without roaming charges and without hunting for a SIM counter at arrivals. Your home number stays where it is — the eSIM sits alongside it.
Plans, prices, data amounts and validity are set by our partner and shown on their own page. We do not repeat them here because they change and we do not measure them.
Where you land in Costa Rica
These are the airports in Costa Rica with scheduled flights and an IATA code. The minute you step off one of them is the minute an eSIM stops being optional.
| Airport | Code | City |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport | LIR | Liberia |
| Juan Santamaría International Airport | SJO | San José (Alajuela) |
| Limón International Airport | LIO | Limón |
| Puerto Jimenez Airport | PJM | Puerto Jimenez |
| Quepos Managua Airport | XQP | Quepos |
Where you will actually use the data
The largest towns and cities near those arrival airports, by population (GeoNames). Coverage is the partner's to state, not ours — this is simply where travellers in Costa Rica tend to be.
- San José335 007 people
- Limón63 081 people
- San Francisco55 923 people
- Alajuela47 494 people
- Liberia45 380 people
- Paraíso39 702 people
- Puntarenas35 650 people
- San Isidro34 877 people
Before you buy
Two things worth checking on your own handset, because they decide whether any eSIM works at all: the phone must be eSIM capable, and it must be carrier unlocked. Most phones sold in the last few years are both; phones bought on a carrier contract often are not until the contract ends.
We do not test handsets and cannot tell you whether yours qualifies — your phone's settings screen and your carrier can.