Trust

Editorial Policy

Every claim on this site was produced somehow. Here is exactly how, including what we refuse to do.

Where the information comes from

Destination facts (drive times, seasons, typical costs, what there is to do) are compiled from official Costa Rican sources such as SINAC and ICT park information, operator schedules, published rate cards and long-running travel reporting, then cross-checked between sources before publishing.
Every destination profile carries the editorial owner of that page and the month it was last reviewed.
Costs, drive times and season notes are planning estimates in US dollars, not live quotes. Prices in Costa Rica move; we round to ranges rather than pretending to precision we do not have.

Pura Vida Index scores are editorial opinions scored 0-10 relative to other Costa Rican destinations, applied consistently across all destinations. They are not measurements, review aggregates or official ratings.
Matcher percentages are deterministic: the same answers always produce the same result from the same published scores. Nothing is generated on the fly by a language model.
The full methodology is public, including what the scores are not.

Commercial links earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and every one of them is labelled where it appears.
No partner can buy a higher score, a better position, an inclusion in an itinerary or a mention in a comparison. Partner links are added to pages after the editorial content is written, never the other way round.
Our planning tools tell you when an itinerary is too aggressive or a destination is not worth the drive, even when a longer trip would earn us more.

Illustrative imagery on this site is AI-generated art, not photojournalism, and is used to set a mood rather than to document a specific view.
Scores, itineraries, costs, comparisons and matcher logic are human-authored and human-reviewed data, not model output.
We do not publish AI-written reviews or fabricated first-person experiences.

Destination, wildlife and itinerary pages are reviewed at least twice a year, and sooner when a road, park rule, ferry or route changes.
If you find something wrong or out of date, tell us the page and what changed — corrections are made on the page rather than quietly deleted.
When a correction changes advice materially, the last-reviewed date on that page moves with it.

We do not guarantee wildlife sightings — every wildlife page states the realistic odds instead.
We do not publish live prices, live availability or weather forecasts.
We do not invent reviews, testimonials, certifications or awards, and we do not present our editorial scores as official ratings.
We are a planning resource, not a travel agency, tour operator or insurer, and nothing here is legal, medical or financial advice.