If you’ve been dreaming of a tropical family vacation, chances are Hawaii and Costa Rica are both on your radar. They’re two of the most popular warm weather destinations for families, and they both offer stunning natural beauty, incredible wildlife, great beaches and outdoor adventures.
But they’re also very different trips in a lot of important ways. After reading this article, you’ll be able to make the right choice for your family’s next trip… or at least you’ll have a lot to consider.
We’ve visited Hawaii with a baby, with little kids, with our own tween and teen and on a big multi-generational trip with over a dozen people of all ages. We also visited Costa Rica last March and have another trip on deck for this coming winter. For that winter trip, I spent an embarrassing number of hours researching the pros and cons of both destinations for our group, which is how this post was born – I’ll save you the full-color Canva presentation and just give you the facts.
Is Hawaii or Costa Rica Easier to Get To?
One of the biggest considerations for a lot of families is how much of their limited vacation time they’ll have to spend in transit – and how stressful that will be! If you’re debating between Hawaii and Costa Rica, the answer will depend a lot on where you live.
For East Coasters, the answer is clear: even if you live in a major gateway like New York, DC or Chicago from which you can catch a non-stop flight, you’re looking at 9-10 hours of travel time to get to Hawaii. For those of us who need to connect, we’re fortunate if we can get an itinerary that comes in around 12 hours.
As you move further west, those travel times decrease until you reach those lucky travelers flying from Los Angeles – they only have to fly about 6 hours non-stop to any island.
That’s a sharp contrast with Costa Rica. Floridians and Texans can be sipping a steaming cup of Costa Rican coffee just three hours after take off! As you move further north, non-stop travel times can be 5-7 hours from origins like California, Denver, Chicago and New York.
But if you haven’t looked carefully at a map, you might not realize just how far east Costa Rica is. San Jose is basically at the same longitude as Atlanta. That means we can get there from Columbus in less than 7 hours even though we have to stop, while my friends up in Seattle are stuck on a plane for at least 12 hours if they want to fly to San Jose to see areas like Manuel Antonio.
It’s also worth thinking about what time change you’ll experience when you travel to Hawaii or Costa Rica and how that impacts your ability to make the most of your time on the ground. Both destinations do not observe Daylight Saving Time, so the time difference from most US locations will depend on the time of year.
| East Coast time difference | West Coast time difference | |
| Hawaii | 5-6 hours | 2-3 hours |
| Costa Rica | 1-2 hours | 1-2 hours |
Let’s be clear: everyone living in the lower 48 has a minimal time difference with Costa Rica, with those in Central and Mountain time zones each having no time change at all for half the year.
While the time change in Hawaii is pretty easy to overcome for West Coasters, it can have a big impact on your trip if you’re flying from the East Coast to Hawaii. You might wake up at 3am hungry for breakfast and struggle to get through a luau until you’ve been there for the better part of a week, and by then it’s almost time to pack up and head home… where you’ll have to re-adjust back the other way.
Is Hawaii or Costa Rica More Expensive?
Part of the reason I sat down to make this comparison is because our family was debating whether we should return to Maui for winter break or go with the whole family to Costa Rica. We’re traveling as a group of 12-14 people, so costs add up fast.
Accommodations
Let’s talk first about accommodations, because that can be a huge chunk of your vacation budget.
When I sat down to price out Hawaii, the places we wanted to stay had doubled in price since we went in December 2024 – I’m looking at the same week on the calendar for the same exact properties, so it’s a true apples-to-apples comparison. Last time I booked 11 months in advance, and that’s when I started researching this time as well. Honestly I’m still in shock.
Side note: while I would typically lean on points to book hotels in Hawaii for our immediate family, that’s not an option in this situation because of the size of the group and relatively small number of people with the capacity to earn big chunks of points. If that’s the route you want to go, I strongly recommend that you start strategizing and earning points ~18 months before your planned travel dates. That’s the best way to visit Hawaii on a budget!
In general I would say that it’s easier to find reasonably nice hotels and vacation rentals at affordable rates in Costa Rica than in Hawaii. There are also a lot more budget-friendly options all over Costa Rica than there are in Hawaii – when we had to book a last-minute hotel outside of San Jose, we found a pretty nice B&B for $100 per room. And for our upcoming trip I booked a beautiful three bedroom ocean view condo in a really special area of Costa Rica for 60% less than we would have spent on a one bedroom condo with no view at the popular Honua Kai complex on Maui for the same dates.
Costa Rica also has plenty of areas that are on the less developed side but have really cool experiences to offer. Think amazing eco lodges where you can sip your coffee while toucans fly by or capuchins scheme how to grab your breakfast. Those are almost universally cheaper than anything you’ll find in Hawaii, where almost every cool area now hosts at least one or two big resorts. Yes, those are my actual feet sitting on our balcony at this amazing lodge just enjoying the views of Arenal surrounded by amazing wildlife and unspoiled rainforest.
There are always going to be luxury properties in Hawaii and Costa Rica, and prices for those can be all over the place. In fact, comparing the Andaz Maui at Wailea and the Andaz Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste, the Maui location is cheaper for the same dates over next winter break. Don’t get me wrong – the prices at both are still enough to make my head spin. Comparing the Westin Hapuna Beach on the Big Island and the Westin Reserva Conchal All-Inclusive, the Costa Rica option is slightly cheaper… but it includes all of your food and beverages!
One area where I give the nod to Hawaii (or at least call it a tie) is if you’re booking hotels on points. There are many parts of Hawaii – in particular Waikiki, south and west Maui, the Kona side of the Big Island and Kauai’s south shore – where it’s fairly easy to snag a hotel on points without using your entire stash. Around the islands you’ll find plenty of appealing options from Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and IHG plus some smaller programs like Wyndham and Preferred Hotels.
There are points hotels in Costa Rica (and we stayed at one) but the pickings are slimmer. For instance, if you want to stay near La Fortuna then your one and only option on points is Tabacon Thermal Resort and Spa, part of Hilton’s SLH portfolio. I’ve only heard great things about it, but if it’s not your vibe, it’s sold out on points for your dates or you don’t have a ton of Hilton or American Express points then you’re out of luck. It’s the same story around Manuel Antonio, where SLH property Los Altos is the only option bookable on points.
Outside of San Jose, Hilton is your best bet for those “adventurous” destinations and Marriott is your best bet for the beaches of Guanacaste – that area has Westin, JW and W resorts.
One important trick to know is that American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio… so if you earn a 100,000 point welcome bonus on a new Amex branded card, that can become 200,000 Hilton points! Hilton also gives you the fifth night free on points stays if you have any status above the “member” level and you can get gold status automatically with these cards:
- American Express Platinum
- American Express Business Platinum – includes $50/quarter Hilton credit
- Hilton Honors Surpass – includes $50/quarter Hilton credit and earns a free night certificate each year with $15k spend
- Hilton Honors Aspire – includes an annual free night certificate, Diamond status, $200/6 months Hilton resorts credit and earns a free night certificate each year with $30k and $60k spend
- Hilton Honors Business – includes $60/quarter Hilton credit
The nice thing about those Hilton free night certificates is that there’s no limit on how expensive the night is. Those can be incredibly valuable!
Flights
The cost of flights varies wildly depending on your home airport and the time of year you’ll be flying. If you’re flying from the closest main gateway – let’s say LA to Hawaii or Miami to Costa Rica – you can sometimes find non-stop roundtrip flights for $300 or less.
On the other hand, if you’re flying from a small/medium airport at a peak time it can be a little less expensive to fly to Costa Rica than Hawaii. Looking again at our winter break example, if we wanted to fly from Columbus to Maui our cheapest one-stop itinerary is nearly $2000 each while San Jose is closer to $1500. For New Yorkers, Costa Rica is a whopping $1200 cheaper. From Seattle, on the other hand, Maui is a hair cheaper but it’s non-stop.
No matter which destination you pick, they could both be good opportunities to use a Southwest companion pass – we’ve done it and saved tons of money! Check out the routes from your home airport to see if Southwest offers itineraries that make sense for you. If so, you can follow the instructions I’ve laid out in this post to get a companion pass through the Southwest credit card. My husband and I each have one and they allow us to travel so much more than we normally would since we’re just paying the mandatory fees for our kids.
But Southwest isn’t the only game in town. Both Hawaii and Costa Rica are both well-served by award flight options – we’ve used points transferred from our Chase Sapphire cards to fly to Hawaii multiple times.
They aren’t totally comprehensive, but you can get a sense of what’s possible by making a free account and searching with AwardTool or PointsYeah. Keep in mind that both of those tools omit Southwest and British Airways (which can be used to book American Airlines).
Activities
Overall I’d say that prices for activities in Hawaii and Costa Rica are in the same neighborhood but Costa Rica is generally less expensive. In Costa Rica you can expect to spend $50-100 per person for guided tours on land, while boat tours often run $100-150. There aren’t as many “land tours” you’ll sign up for in Hawaii, but boat tours can cost $200 or sometimes even $300+ for more intimate experiences with a nice meal included.
While tours in Costa Rica are a little less expensive, the average visitor will wind up spending about the same amount on their activities budget simply because there are more situations in Costa Rica when you’ll want to take part in a paid activity.
Thankfully both destinations offer plenty of free things to do, from stunning beaches to beautiful hikes.
Food
How much you need to budget for food depends on your balance of eating at restaurants versus grocery shopping and cooking for yourself, and that’s true no matter where you go. But overall Hawaii will be more expensive than Costa Rica for food.
In Hawaii, even if you’re going to shop and cook you need to be a little strategic – groceries in Hawaii can get out of control, with prices like $8 for a gallon of milk or $6 for a loaf of bread in some places. Staples are generally cheaper in Costa Rica, and you can save more by opting for local brands rather than imported American ones.
But restaurant dining is where the huge differences are. You can generally hit a local soda in Costa Rica and get a traditional casado plate with chicken, beans, rice, salad, plantains and a fresh tortilla for $10 or less. It’s a ton of food!
On the other hand, it’s really hard to find a lunch option anywhere in Hawaii for less than $15 per person. A great example is Coconuts Fish Cafe in Kihei, which our family really enjoys. It’s tasty and not fancy… but a basket of two fish tacos runs $20! Even a sandwich at Leoda’s Pie Shop runs $15+.
Of course you can splash out and spend huge amounts of money dining at resorts in Costa Rica. Expect to pay roughly the same prices as you would at resorts in the US, like my daughter’s $26 steak tacos at the Andaz Papagayo. But in my experience, mid-level sit down restaurants are much less expensive in Costa Rica than Hawaii.
Ground transportation
Unless you’re staying in Waikiki, I strongly recommend renting a car in Hawaii. It’s the best way to explore the islands at your own pace and feel the aloha spirit. Prices can be high if you don’t do your leg work to find the money-saving opportunities, but we’ve been able to snag rental cars in the neighborhood of $500 per week on most of our trips. Be sure to check out my secret hacks for saving on rental cars!
The calculus in Costa Rica is a little different. Rental cars are similarly priced once you account for insurance, but some people don’t want to drive themselves in Costa Rica. Particularly in the rainy season, certain routes can be challenging to drive and there’s a strong culture of hiring professional local drivers. And if you aren’t moving around a lot, it can take away a lot of the stress! A ride from San Jose to Manuel Antonio or La Fortuna – each a few hours – is around $200-300 per group, while a ride from Liberia to Peninsula Papagayo is about half that. If you opt for shuttles, you’ll need to factor in add-on transportation for tours – they all offer it, but each time it’ll cost you a little more money and you lose out on the flexibility to string together multiple activities or go straight to a restaurant.
Overall you can expect to spend around the same amount of money on ground transportation in both areas. Skipping a rental car is feasible (and a common choice) in Costa Rica but it can wind up being a little more expensive.
Does Hawaii or Costa Rica have a better variety of activities?
Let me start by saying that you can easily fill a week or more in both Costa Rica and Hawaii without getting bored. In both of these awesome destinations, what you do is more governed by your own preferences than what’s available.
They both have a wide variety of beaches to choose from – calm lagoons where little kids can safely splash, nice snorkeling, surfing spots and a mix of white, golden and black sands. Personally I’d give the nod to Hawaii if your primary interest is in a top-notch beach destination; there are just so many fun, stunning beaches that you could spend a week bouncing from one to another without running out of new spots..
Thankfully all beaches in Costa Rica and Hawaii are public and free to access! That doesn’t mean it’s always easy to get there… while beaches in Hawaii need to have relatively straightforward access (other than remote ones only accessible by hiking), in Costa Rica there are some very nice beaches that have easy access for club members or hotel guests while other visitors have to walk a rugged path or cross on shore at low tide.
In both places you can get out on the water for whale watching, snorkel tours, sunset dinner cruises and more. There are also fun kayaking tours and fishing charters available.Back on land, in both destinations you can enjoy horseback riding, coffee and chocolate tours, hikes through beautiful forests and around volcanoes and lovely gardens.
But I’d say that Costa Rica gets the edge in terms of things to do. Adventurous visitors can go zip lining (Hawaii has started to offer it but overall its not as popular), whitewater rafting, waterfall jumping and more. If you want more relaxing things to do in Costa Rica you could go for a soak in hot springs or hop on a guided wildlife tour to see sloths, monkeys, birds, reptiles and more in their natural habitats.
Overall I’d say that either destination has great activities for all ages, but if you think you’ll just go to each place one time then I recommend visiting Hawaii when your kids are younger and Costa Rica when they’re a little older. There are just a lot of activities that are unique to Costa Rica that you can’t do with a toddler or preschooler in tow.
Logistics
Planning a trip to Hawaii isn’t all that difficult: pick an island, book flights, choose your hotel, arrange a rental car and then closer to your travel date you can reserve any special activities you want to do. You could argue that there are decisions to make like which resort in an area is better for your family or which luau to attend, but the fundamentals are generally straightforward. Be sure to listen to my podcast episode on common Hawaii travel planning questions:
Costa Rica is a different beast. There are many different regions of the country where your experience will be completely different and you really need to sit down and consider what kind of trip you want to have, if there are specific experiences on your bucket list and how much domestic transportation you’re willing to put up with.
For example, if you want to visit Manuel Antonio and La Fortuna – the two most popular tourist destinations in Costa Rica – you’re looking at a minimum of 11 hours of drive time to go from San Jose to Manuel Antonio to La Fortuna and back to either international airport. If there’s traffic, bad road conditions or you have to take it slow to accommodate motion sick passengers or an animal crossing, that time can easily extend by a few hours.
Want to visit the Osa Peninsula, which has the best wildlife viewing in Costa Rica? I know I do (and I’ve already picked where I’m going to stay). The drive down is, conservatively, 6.5 hours but can stretch much longer so visitors who drive to the area will usually stay overnight in San Jose the night before or stay over somewhere along the route… and then do the same thing on the way back.
Because many routes don’t have great lighting, ideally you’ll get to your destination before the sun sets at 6pm… meaning you have to work backwards and make sure you leave early enough. That’s just not a major concern in Hawaii, both because the drives are much shorter and generally the roads are in good shape. On one of our trips when we hopped from Maui to Kauai the flight got in after dark but road safety didn’t have to play a role in our planning.
Another option is to take Sansa’s small hopper flights to save time and avoid sometimes-challenging roads. Those planes take between 6 and 20 passengers at a cost of $100-150 per person each way and have strict weight and size limits for luggage. Assuming you’re comfortable in a tiny plane and can make the airfare fit in your budget, it can be a great option.
But you really need to put a lot of thoughts into how you’re going to structure a Costa Rica itinerary, and it isn’t always based solely on which places you want to visit. In Hawaii you can pick two islands and book a $59 flight between them on Southwest or Mokulele.
In Costa Rica, the distances and terrain really need to factor into your decision making. For our trip to Costa Rica last spring break our 8 night itinerary ended up being the Central Valley north of San Jose, La Fortuna and finally the Papagayo Peninsula. Our upcoming return trip will have travelers of all ages – some of whom get motion sick – so we’re just going to split our time between Manuel Antonio and the area around Jacó. If conditions are good, our drive time for that itinerary will be a very reasonable 7 or 8 hours spread over the course of 10 days.
The flip side is that we actually have 10 days to work with for a trip to Costa Rica. If we’d opted for Hawaii instead, we would be limited to 9 days on the ground because of the much longer travel required and the more substantial time change.
Seasonality
One of the great things about both Costa Rica and Hawaii is that in some ways they can both be year-round destinations, and they have similar constraints at play. Beyond just looking at the time of year you want to visit, you need to think about exactly where you want to go.
Both Hawaii and Costa Rica have just two main seasons, summer and winter… but those might not mean quite what you think.
In Hawaii, summer and winter are exactly when you expect them to be if you live in North America. Summers tend to be warm (or hot) and dry all around the islands. Winter is still very pleasant and generally dry on the leeward (western) and southern sides of each island. However, the windward (eastern) and northern sides can experience cooler temperatures, plenty of rain, and dangerous swells in the ocean.
At the very least, those parts of the Hawaiian islands can be unpredictable in winter – which is the last thing you want when you’ve spent an arm and a leg and flown to the other side of the world for your vacation! That said, places like Hilo can be rainy all year long – I’ve been cold and wet there in March and June, so December can’t be much worse!
One thing that’s nice about Hawaii is that there’s almost always somewhere on each island with good weather. Since the islands aren’t huge and the roads are generally good, you can usually drive for just over an hour to find the sun… and then look behind you to spot a gorgeous rainbow!
Costa Rica is a little more complicated. The seasonality really depends on your location. Overall the Caribbean side receives more rainfall than the Pacific side, though there are higher elevation areas like the mountains near Manuel Antonio that are quite wet. The Osa Peninsula – all the way in the south on the Pacific coast – also sees a ton of rainfall. You’ll hear talk of dry season, December through April, and Green season, May through November.
You should get the most pleasant weather in January and February – it’s generally pretty dry as long as you’re away from the Caribbean coast and the temperatures are more pleasant than they are in March and April. On the flip side, September and October are really wet outside of the Caribbean coast. Some of the hotels down in Osa just take a few months off because no one wants to come then and the Pacific coast is filled with surfers in search of the perfect wave.
Costa Rica’s mountainous terrain and inconsistent roads make it harder to bail out of a rainy area and spend an impromptu day in the sun. Once you’re in an area, you’re mostly going to stay there for a few days.
The moral of the story is that Costa Rica takes a little bit of a deeper dive to make sure that you’re picking the right area for the time of year you want to visit.
Is Hawaii or Costa Rica more accessible?
As I’ve mentioned, our upcoming winter break trip will feature at least twelve people one of whom is my wonderful mother-in-law. We’ve been traveling with her several times per year for the last four years and unfortunately her mobility has declined over time.
So these days I have to take a long, hard look at a destination’s accessibility when we’ll be traveling as an extended family. Even when she’s not with us, I keep my eyes peeled and think about whether or not a hotel or destination will work for someone in her shoes – still with a zest for exploring the world, but moving through it more slowly and carefully (while hopefully avoiding stairs!).
Based on my experiences and many hours of research, Hawaii is a much easier destination for someone with mobility challenges. I don’t say that as a knock on Costa Rica, but in many ways it just isn’t built for someone who isn’t fully able-bodied – beyond the obvious activities like zip lining.
As an example, in the area around Manuel Antonio many of the nicer hotels are built into the hillside. There are individual bungalows connected by paths with stairs – which could certainly be challenging and exhausting for someone with mobility issues.
Likewise at the Andaz Papagayo, the main beach isn’t accessible at all without going down (and later back up) some really substantial stairs; the only accessible beach option is to take a van to the beach club. There are also no elevators on the property for guests, so they just try to assign guests who need to minimize stairs to ground floor rooms in each building and then offer golf cart transportation around the main area of the property.
The ethos seems to be that buildings are in harmony with the country’s beautiful rolling landscape rather than dominating it. And I have a lot of respect for that efford. In fact, when it’s just our immediate family I much prefer to see low-slung building just peeking out over the trees rather than massive towers obscuring a place’s natural beauty. But it won’t work for everyone.
For our upcoming trip I had to work incredibly hard to find properties where grandma could safely get around. I eventually got them, but had I not been booking 10 months in advance we would have been out of luck since a lot of properties at Costa Rica have small numbers of rooms. If we were going back to Hawaii, on the other hand, there are plenty of hotels and condo complexes that have great accessibility features and ample capacity.
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Want to hear more about visiting Costa Rica and Hawaii, or multi-generational travel? Check out these Family Travel Unpacked podcast episodes! You can also follow on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don’t miss an episode.
Wrapping up
I can’t say that either Hawaii or Costa Rica is unquestionably better than the other – each one has some incredible strengths that make it really appealing and I’ll happily plan future returns to both. If you’re anything like me, reading through this article runs the risk of increasing your “analysis paralysis”. But here are some suggestions:
- If budget is your primary concern, choose Costa Rica (especially if you’re in the midwest or east coast)
- For families with toddlers or little kids, pick Hawaii now and tackle Costa Rica when they’re older
- Short on planning energy? Go to Hawaii
- If you want all the adventure and wildlife, Costa Rica fits the bill
For our multigenerational winter break trip, we’re headed back to Costa Rica – the cost savings for a group of 12-14 people are just too significant to ignore, and I eventually found properties that work for everyone including grandma. Plus we have less time than we’ve had in previous years because of how the holidays shake out, and the better flights to Costa Rica will maximize our time on the ground.
But when we go back to Hawaii, as I’m sure we will in the next few years, I already know that it’ll feel like coming home.
Have questions about either destination? Drop them in the comments – I love helping families figure out which trip is right for them.
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