How far is Escazú from San José's international airport?

Escazú is 17-19 kilometers from SJO: roughly 20-30 minutes when traffic cooperates. The Próspero Fernández Expressway (Route 27) connects them directly. Outside of morning and evening rush hours, the drive is fast and straightforward. Private transfers from the airport run $25-40; Uber costs $12-18 depending on exact destination and traffic. Escazú is the closest major upscale residential area to the airport in Costa Rica, which is part of why it works so well for business travelers with early departures or late arrivals.

Is Escazú good for medical tourism?

It's the medical tourism capital of Costa Rica for good reason. Hospital CIMA (the first JCI-accredited hospital in Latin America) is located within the district, surrounded by dozens of specialist dental clinics, cosmetic surgery practices, and medical centers. International patients come from North America and Europe for dental work, cosmetic procedures, orthopedic surgeries, and cardiac care at prices that run 40-70% below U.S. rates. Escazú's vacation rentals are meaningfully better for surgical recovery than hotel rooms: full kitchens, private space, quiet gated settings, and proximity to the hospital. Nest Stays' Escazú properties are specifically suited for this purpose and can coordinate pre-arrival grocery stocking and transportation logistics.

How do you get around Escazú?

Uber is the primary answer and it works extremely well here. The app runs the same way it does in any major city: four-minute average wait times, transparent pricing, and English-speaking drivers are common given the neighborhood's international population. Fares within Escazú run $3-8. A rental car adds flexibility for day trips to volcanoes and coffee tours; within the district itself, it's an optional extra rather than a necessity. The area is not walkable the way a beach town's main strip is: distances between commercial zones and residential areas require wheels, and Uber fills that role efficiently.

When is the best time to visit Escazú?

Escazú doesn't have a dramatic seasonal swing the way the beach destinations do. Sitting at about 1,100 meters elevation in the Central Valley, the temperature runs 18-26°C (65-80°F) year-round with cool evenings. December through April is dry season: clear skies, stable conditions, peak crowds at San José–area restaurants. May through November brings afternoon rains most days, typically 1-3 hours in late afternoon, with mornings that are often clear and pleasant. The restaurants, shopping, and day trips operate year-round without meaningful seasonal degradation. Come when it works for your schedule; Escazú will deliver in any month.

Is Escazú better than staying in downtown San José?

For most travelers, yes. Downtown San José puts you in a dense, congested urban core with traffic noise, a hotel-room experience, and limited dining quality near the main tourist hotels. Escazú gives you residential quiet, genuine safety, the best restaurants in Costa Rica, and a 15-minute Uber to any San José meeting or attraction. For medical patients especially, the difference between a hotel room and a private home with a full kitchen during recovery is significant. For business travelers who want a functional evening after work. For families who want to feel settled rather than passing through. Downtown San José has its own appeal for specific itineraries (the National Museum and Central Market are worth the trip), but as a base for anything longer than one night, Escazú is the better decision.

What's the food scene like compared to other parts of Costa Rica?

Genuinely different. The beach towns (Jacó, Tamarindo, Santa Teresa) have good food at the upper end and resort-standard options throughout, but the variety and quality ceiling is lower. Escazú has the critical mass of residents, expats, and professionals with high expectations to sustain a restaurant scene that actually keeps chefs honest. Peruvian, French, Argentine, Indian, Italian, contemporary Mexican, traditional Costa Rican: all represented at quality levels that compete with what you'd find in any major Latin American city. The wine lists are better. The service is more polished. The Saturday market in San Antonio sells cloud-forest vegetables that serious cooks get excited about. This is not a place to come for a beach bar with good ceviche; it's the place to come when you want the meal itself to be the point.

Escazú Costa Rica: The Insider's Guide

Most people who end up in Escazú didn’t plan to come to Escazú. They were in Costa Rica for something else, a company meeting, a hospital appointment, a relocation scouting trip, and someone told them to stay in Escazú instead of San José’s downtown hotels. So they did. Then they spent a week eating at restaurants that surprised them, sleeping in a genuinely comfortable home in a quiet gated community, and having an Uber arrive in under four minutes every time. Now they come back on purpose.

That’s the thing about Escazú. It doesn’t announce itself the way Jacó or Santa Teresa does. There’s no dramatic coastline, no famous surf break, no backpacker mythology. What it has is the best restaurant scene in Costa Rica, the country’s most capable private hospital, the kind of urban infrastructure that actually works, and spring-like weather 365 days a year. It sits at about 1,100 meters elevation in the Central Valley: warm days, cool nights, no beach heat, no humidity that fogs your glasses.

The people who know Costa Rica well tend to have a private affection for Escazú that they don’t fully explain to beach-seeking tourists. This guide is for people who are ready for that explanation.

What Escazú Actually Is

Escazú is San José’s most upscale suburb. That sentence undersells it slightly, but it’s the right starting frame. Think of the relationship the way you’d think of Beverly Hills to Los Angeles, or Kenilworth to Chicago, a district that exists within the metro’s orbit but has its own distinct identity, its own restaurants and culture and real estate market, and its own reasons to stay there specifically rather than anywhere else.

The population here is a particular mix: Costa Rican professionals who commute to San José, American and European expats who found that their dollar or euro goes further here than anywhere else in Latin America with this quality of life, diplomats, multinational executives, and (increasingly) medical tourists who come for care at CIMA Hospital and stay through recovery in a well-equipped rental home rather than a hotel room.

This is not a destination where you’ll spend your mornings chasing waves and your afternoons hiking to waterfalls. If that’s the trip, go to Santa Teresa or Manuel Antonio. Escazú is the place for people who want genuine comfort, excellent food, easy access to everything, and a base for a different kind of Costa Rica, the country’s urban intelligence rather than its beach mythology.

That said: the day trips out of Escazú are exceptional. Poás Volcano in an hour. The Doka Estate coffee tour in 90 minutes. The Central Pacific beaches (Jacó, Los Sueños, Playa Hermosa) in 90 minutes. San José’s National Museum in 20 minutes. La Sabana Metropolitan Park on a Tuesday morning with almost no one else there. Escazú rewards travelers who use it as a base and explore from it, not just as a place to sit.

The Three Escazús

The district divides into three zones with meaningfully different personalities, and understanding which one you’re staying in matters.

San Rafael de Escazú is the commercial and international hub: the Escazú you’ll encounter first as you exit the Próspero Fernández Expressway from San José. This is where Multiplaza and Avenida Escazú are located, where the density of restaurants, hotels, and services is highest, and where the architecture is most obviously international. High-rise condominiums (some reaching 15-20 stories with valley views from the upper floors), designer boutiques, the kind of sidewalk café that could plausibly be in Madrid or Miami. The corporate presence is visible: multinational offices, coworking spaces, business hotels like the InterContinental and Courtyard by Marriott. It’s not generic, exactly, the surrounding mountains are always visible, and there’s enough green in the landscaping to remind you you’re in Central America, but it’s the most modern, most commercial face of Escazú.

San Rafael is where Hospital CIMA sits (within walking distance of the commercial center, though most people Uber the 5-10 minute ride rather than walk the hills). The infrastructure for international residents shows in the details: the AutoMercado at Multiplaza stocks imported cheeses, European wines, and the kind of specialty ingredients that aren’t available elsewhere in San José. The pharmacy chains carry international brands. The banks have English-speaking staff and expat-friendly account services. Business travelers and first-timers tend to land here. The proximity to the expressway means you can be at the SJO airport in 20 minutes or in downtown San José in 15.

San Antonio de Escazú is something else entirely. Drive 10 minutes uphill from Multiplaza and the landscape shifts: fewer commercial signs, a colonial-era church (Iglesia de San Antonio, built in the 1800s) on a proper plaza, a Saturday morning market where local farmers from the surrounding cloud-forest belt sell organic vegetables, handmade cheese, artisan bread, and preserves, and views across the entire Central Valley that stop you mid-sentence. The elevation here is higher (1,400-1,600 meters in the upper sections), so the air is noticeably cooler, 2-4°C below San Rafael’s temperatures. The houses are older: traditional Costa Rican architecture with wide eaves and wooden details alongside newer estates built by families who wanted the views and the quieter character.

This is where Mirador Tiquicia sits, one of the most atmospheric restaurants in the country, in a century-old farmhouse perched on a hill with the valley sprawled below it. The Saturday market runs from about 6 AM to noon near the church plaza: arrive early for the best produce and the full local energy before it transitions into a more tourist-friendly scene by mid-morning. San Antonio has the feel of the Costa Rica that existed before the expressways were built, except it’s 12 minutes from the best mall in the country. That contrast is part of what makes Escazú interesting.

San Miguel de Escazú is the quietest of the three, primarily residential, with gated communities (condominios) occupying the hillside terrain and less of the commercial noise of San Rafael. The architecture here is predominantly low-rise: single-family homes, townhouse clusters, and a few mid-rise condo buildings, but nothing approaching San Rafael’s high-rise density. The streets are narrower and wind through hilly topography dotted with coffee plants and tropical gardens. Families who’ve lived in Escazú for years tend to prefer this end, as do long-term rental guests who want to feel like residents rather than tourists.

San Miguel has its own small commercial center with a handful of restaurants, a grocery, and service businesses, but the energy is neighborhood-scale rather than destination dining. Most San Miguel residents drive or Uber to San Rafael when they want the full restaurant and shopping infrastructure, a 10-15 minute trip. The trade for that slight inconvenience is genuine residential peace: no tourist foot traffic, very low street noise, and the kind of gated-community security that lets people leave doors unlocked within their development. If you’re coming for a medical recovery stay or an extended work trip and want residential quiet without sacrificing proximity to everything, San Miguel is where to look.

Hospital CIMA: The Reason Escazú Is on the Medical Map

Hospital CIMA (Centro Internacional de Medicina) is a fact worth stating plainly before anything else: it is the most internationally credentialed private hospital in Central America, the first hospital in Latin America to receive Joint Commission International accreditation, and the reason that Escazú, specifically, became the medical tourism capital of Costa Rica.

CIMA operates across more than 60 specialties. It has over 800 board-certified physicians on staff, robotic surgical suites, and dedicated international patient services: coordination staff who speak English, help with insurance paperwork, and can arrange recovery logistics including transportation and accommodation. The physical plant is modern: opened in 2000, continually updated, with the kind of equipment and protocols you’d expect at a major private hospital in the United States or Europe.

The procedures that bring international patients here most often fall into a few categories. Dental work (full mouth restorations, implants, crowns) at prices that run 60-70% below U.S. rates. Cosmetic surgery (rhinoplasty, liposuction, breast augmentation, facelifts) performed by board-certified surgeons at comparable quality and a fraction of the U.S. price. Orthopedic procedures (joint replacements, knee surgeries, spine work): both the cost savings and the recovery time in a pleasant climate make Costa Rica genuinely attractive compared to returning home immediately post-procedure. Cardiac care and oncology are CIMA’s higher-complexity specialties, areas where the hospital’s equipment and physician credentials allow it to handle cases that would typically require major U.S. medical centers.

The recovery question is where staying in Escazú specifically (rather than downtown San José) makes a concrete difference. A vacation rental in Escazú gives a post-procedure patient a proper kitchen for the diet restrictions that follow surgery, space to move slowly without the noise and stimulus of a hotel corridor, a bed that actually encourages rest, and grocery delivery from AutoMercado so they don’t need to go out. The hospital is a 10-minute Uber ride from most Escazú properties. The restaurants will deliver. CIMA’s international patient team can communicate directly with your rental manager to coordinate logistics. The infrastructure for medical recovery in Escazú is, by design or accident, excellent.

If you’re planning a procedure at CIMA or one of the dozen specialty dental and cosmetic clinics that cluster near the hospital, build the recovery stay into your trip planning from the start. Two weeks minimum after most surgical procedures: you need that time, and having a proper home base rather than a hotel room matters more than most patients think before they arrive.

See Nest Stays vacation rentals in Escazú →

The Restaurant Scene (The Real One, Not the Summary Version)

The honest claim: Escazú has the best restaurant scene in Costa Rica. Not the most scenic: for that, go to a beach. But for quality, variety, and the kind of cooking that takes a serious kitchen seriously, nothing in the country competes with the two square kilometers around Multiplaza and Avenida Escazú.

Mirador Tiquicia is the non-negotiable. Drive up to San Antonio de Escazú, park near the old church, and keep going up the hill until you see the farmhouse with the view that doesn’t seem real. The restaurant sits in a century-old colonial house that has been thoughtfully restored: exposed beams, terrace tables, traditional ceramics, and the food is serious Costa Rican: roasted meats, hearts of palm salads, black bean soup that tastes like someone’s grandmother made it. Come for the Noche Tica experience on weekends: traditional buffet, folkloric dance, the entire Central Valley lit up below you at dusk. It sounds like a tourist trap and is the opposite: this is what Costa Rican culture actually looks like when it’s presented with pride rather than condescension. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights.

La Divina Comida is where you go for Peruvian. The Central Valley has accumulated a serious Peruvian restaurant culture over the last decade, and La Divina Comida is consistently at the top of it: ceviche prepared properly (not the lime-soup approximation you’ll find elsewhere), lomo saltado that tastes like Lima rather than an approximation of Lima, and a wine list that treats the meal as something worth drinking through rather than just eating around. Terrace seating. Reservations necessary on weekends.

El Novillo Alegre is the Argentine steakhouse that gets the specifics right. The beef is properly dry-aged, the parrilla technique is legitimate, and the chimichurri doesn’t come from a bottle. This is not difficult to achieve and yet somehow difficult to find in Central America. Come for the entraña or the ojo de bife, bring someone who appreciates properly cooked meat, and don’t rush it.

Taj Mahal has been running an Indian restaurant in Escazú long enough to have earned its reputation without qualification. The setting is a garden tucked behind the commercial strip: candlelit tables, enough greenery to feel removed from the mall half a kilometer away, and the cooking is northern Indian with the kind of depth that comes from actually knowing what you’re doing with spices. The lamb rogan josh is the order. The naan comes fresh. Mains run $15-25. Open daily for lunch and dinner. This is the Indian restaurant the rest of Central America wishes it had.

Factory Steak and Lobster at the InterContinental near Multiplaza delivers exactly what its name promises: high-end surf and turf without the pretense. The mixed grill boards are designed for sharing (steak, lobster, chicken, with sides of rice, potatoes, and vegetables), and the quality justifies the prices ($30-50 per person for a full meal with wine). The space is upscale-casual, the kind of place where business dinners happen alongside anniversary celebrations. Reservations recommended on weekends.

Samurai Fusion in San Rafael brings Japanese technique with cross-cultural accents. The menu moves between traditional sushi and creative fusion plates that pull from other Asian traditions without losing the thread. Teppanyaki tables are available for the full performance, though the regular dining room is where the kitchen’s range shows best. Expect $25-40 per person before drinks. The service can be slow on busy nights, plan accordingly.

Caffè Negroni is Mediterranean cooking in a garden setting that feels more intimate than most of Escazú’s commercial dining. The kitchen does artisanal pizzas with proper crust, risottos that require attention, and braised meats that benefit from the slow approach. The Negroni cocktails (obviously) are the house specialty, and the list runs deeper than the name suggests. Come for brunch or an unhurried dinner. Mains $12-28. The terrace seating surrounded by greenery is the right call when weather permits.

Tintos y Blancos is the wine bar for evenings that aren’t quite dinner but want to become dinner. The wine list is the work of someone who actually went looking: South American reds alongside European bottles you wouldn’t find elsewhere in San José, chosen with the kind of intentionality that makes you trust whoever assembled the list. They do food, and the food is good. They occasionally do live music on weekends. The location near Multiplaza means it fills up with the young professional crowd that the neighborhood attracts, and the energy is good without being loud. Start here before dinner elsewhere or make it the whole evening.

Insurgentes 21 at Avenida Escazú is contemporary Mexican, a level above taqueria, below fine dining, with a kitchen that treats tortillas and salsas as real cooking rather than delivery vessels for cheese. The design of the space is deliberately stylish (all the venues at Avenida Escazú are) and the mezcal selection is serious. Good for a dinner that doesn’t require a jacket but still feels like the evening was intentional.

Praha Restaurant Lounge is where a crowd of locals and expats ends up on Thursday through Saturday nights, a lounge-restaurant hybrid that plays music, serves food, and stays open later than most of its neighbors. The crowd skews mixed: Costa Ricans, expats, people in from San José for the night. It’s not a club, but it has the energy of somewhere that hasn’t decided to close yet at midnight.

Shopping in Escazú

Multiplaza Escazú is the best shopping mall in Costa Rica. That’s a fact rather than a promotional claim. The tenant mix includes international fashion brands that don’t appear anywhere else in the country, an upscale cinema, and an AutoMercado supermarket on the ground floor that stocks imported goods, an excellent cheese and charcuterie section, wine from South America and Europe, and the ingredients for a real kitchen. If you’re staying in an Escazú rental for more than a night, start with an AutoMercado run before you head to your property, the alternative of hunting for a separate grocery store is worse.

Avenida Escazú is the open-air commercial district adjacent to Multiplaza, and the two together function as a walkable dining-and-retail complex that works for an afternoon or an evening. The architecture is more pedestrian-friendly than Multiplaza’s interior corridors: outdoor passages, café terraces, boutique storefronts. The restaurant density at Avenida Escazú is high, and it’s where several of the trendier dining openings have landed in the past two years.

For a different kind of shopping, the Saturday market in San Antonio de Escazú is the antidote to the mall. Farmers from the surrounding cloud-forest belt come down with produce, cheese, homemade preserves, and crafts. It runs through late morning and is worth making a detour for even if you don’t cook, the market is more about the place and the people than the products, and the 10-minute drive from San Rafael feels like a trip to a different century. For serious artisan shopping: ceramics, woodwork, leather, the kind of handicrafts that justify luggage space, the town of Sarchí is 60 kilometers northwest and worth the day trip.

Nights Out

Escazú’s nightlife operates on a different clock than the beach towns. Nobody’s up at 5 AM to catch a surf window, so the restaurants go later and the social scene runs past midnight on weekends. The scene is upscale-casual: people dress for dinner, drinks follow, and the energy is urban rather than beach-party.

The cluster at Avenida Escazú is where most evenings start. The commercial strip has enough bar seating and terrace tables to generate the kind of ambient social energy that makes wandering from one place to the next feel natural. Tintos y Blancos is the wine bar anchor, a good starting point that can easily become the whole evening if the company is right and the wine is working.

From there, Praha Restaurant Lounge if you want to go later. The small-scale club scene exists (Fodor’s calls Escazú “the Central Valley’s hot spot for nightlife”), but Escazú’s evening character is really built around restaurants that function well as social spaces rather than dedicated clubs. The dinner at La Divina Comida that starts at 8 and ends at 10:30 with three bottles of wine and a conversation that extended past the dessert menu: that’s the Escazú night that people remember, not the dance floor.

If you’re visiting during the week, Escazú’s residential quiet is an advantage rather than a limitation. The neighbourhood’s safety and the abundance of Ubers make an independent evening genuinely easy: dinner wherever you want, drinks after, home when you feel like it, without logistics anxiety.

Day Trips That Are Actually Worth It

Poás Volcano National Park is about 75–90 minutes from Escazú and is the most accessible active volcano experience in Costa Rica. The main crater holds an acid lake: brilliantly turquoise, occasionally steaming, dramatic enough to justify the drive. Go early (the park opens at 8 AM and the summit cloud cover comes in by mid-morning on most days). The crater overlook is a 15-minute walk from the parking area. Entrance fee is around $17 for international visitors and must be reserved online in advance at sinac.go.cr, the park has a daily visitor limit and fills up on weekends. Pair it with a coffee tour at nearby Doka Estate on the way back.

Hacienda Doka (also widely known as Doka Estate) is a working coffee plantation 30 minutes from Poás on the road back to Escazú. The tour covers the full coffee production process: growing, harvesting, wet-milling, sun-drying on the traditional raised beds, and includes cupping at the end. The estate has been producing coffee since 1940 and knows how to explain what they do to visitors without making it feel like a museum exhibit. Tours run daily, reservations recommended; roughly $28 per adult for the tour, $43 with lunch included. If the Starbucks mythology interests you more than the history of Costa Rican coffee, Hacienda Alsacia: the Starbucks experimental farm and visitor center near the Poás access road: is the alternative. It’s slicker, more designed, and run with Starbucks-level hospitality standards.

La Sabana Metropolitan Park is 15 minutes east of Escazú in San José and is where the city’s residents actually go to decompress. Joggers, families, pickup soccer games, the National Stadium on the eastern edge, and the Museum of Costa Rican Art in the old airport terminal on the western end. It’s not a tourist attraction; it’s a city park being used by the city. That’s exactly what makes a Tuesday morning walk through it interesting. You’re seeing San José as it actually lives rather than the curated version. The museum is worth 45 minutes for the permanent collection alone.

San José’s city center is 20 minutes from Escazú and contains more than most visitors give it credit for. The National Museum of Costa Rica at the Bellavista fortress covers pre-Columbian history with the country’s best collection of jade and gold artifacts and a view from the fortress walls that makes the political and geographic history of the place tangible. The Central Market (Mercado Central) is a covered market from 1880 that still functions as a working market: sodas serving gallo pinto and casado, spice vendors, leather shops, the organized chaos of something that hasn’t been designed for tourism and is better for it. Go for breakfast at one of the market sodas before the tour groups arrive.

Beach Day Trips: The Central Pacific from Escazú

Escazú sits at the geographic center of Costa Rica’s most accessible beach corridor. The Próspero Fernández Expressway (Route 27) runs west from San José through Escazú and continues all the way to the Central Pacific coast, making beach day trips or overnight escapes genuinely practical rather than theoretical.

Jacó Beach is the closest: 95 kilometers (59 miles), roughly 90 minutes of driving. The road is fully paved, four lanes for most of the route, and well-maintained. Jacó is Costa Rica’s most developed beach town on the Pacific side: a long stretch of dark sand beach, consistent surf for beginners and intermediates, and a commercial strip with restaurants, surf shops, and bars that stay open late. It’s not remote or pristine (if you want that, go to Santa Teresa or the Osa Peninsula), but it’s the beach town with the most infrastructure, which matters when you’re making a day trip with a family or you want dinner options after a day in the water. Parking is easy near the beach. Bring cash for meters or private lots ($5-10 for the day). Read the complete Jacó area guide.

For a more upscale version of the same geography, Los Sueños Marina and Resort in Herradura is 5 kilometers north of Jacó: about 75-90 minutes from Escazú depending on traffic. Los Sueños is a planned resort community with a deep-water marina, a beach club, the La Iguana golf course, and vacation rental condominiums that function as Nest Stays’ primary market on the Central Pacific. The beach club at Playa Herradura is private (day passes available for around $50 per adult, kids less), with infinity pools, beach loungers, full food and bar service, and the kind of setup that makes a beach day feel curated rather than improvised. The contrast with Jacó’s public-beach energy is deliberate. If you’re staying in Escazú and considering whether to base your beach days at Los Sueños or keep it as a day trip, the drive is short enough that either approach works. Explore vacation rentals in Los Sueños.

Playa Hermosa (not to be confused with the Guanacaste beach of the same name) is immediately south of Jacó: quieter, less developed, with stronger surf that attracts serious surfers rather than beginners. The beach is longer and less crowded than Jacó, and the handful of beachfront hotels and restaurants along the access road give it a more low-key character. Playa Hermosa is where you go when you want the proximity and road quality of Jacó without the commercial density. Same drive time from Escazú, just continue 10 minutes past Jacó’s main strip. Read the Playa Hermosa area guide.

The logistics question: is a day trip to the Central Pacific worth it, or does it make more sense to stay overnight? The honest answer depends on how early you’re willing to leave and how much beach time matters. If you’re out the door from Escazú by 7 AM, you’re at the beach by 8:30, which gives you a full day before the return drive. That works. If you’re not functional until 9 AM and you want to avoid the afternoon heat, the math gets tighter: by the time you arrive, set up, and settle in, it’s nearly lunch, and the return drive during late-afternoon traffic (3-5 PM) can stretch closer to two hours. In that case, staying overnight in Jacó or Los Sueños makes more sense.

One practical advantage of basing in Escazú for a week and making beach trips rather than staying at the coast: you get the Central Valley’s spring-like climate and Escazú’s restaurant quality in the evenings, and you still have access to the Pacific when you want it. The Costa Rica tourism mythology says you should wake up to ocean views every day. The Costa Rica that people who live here understand says you can have it both ways if you’re based in the right place.

Real Estate and Investment Context

Escazú’s property market operates on a different scale than Costa Rica’s beach destinations, and understanding the numbers matters if you’re considering purchasing here rather than just visiting.

Property prices in Escazú reflect its status as the most internationally desirable residential area in the Central Valley. Luxury homes (3-4 bedrooms, modern construction, gated community, mountain or valley views) range from $500,000 to $2 million+, with the upper end reaching $7.5 million for estate properties in prime San Antonio locations. Condominiums in San Rafael’s high-rise towers start around $250,000 for a 2-bedroom unit and climb to $600,000+ for penthouses with views. Land prices for buildable lots in gated communities run $150-400 per square meter depending on location, access, and views.

For context: comparable properties in Manuel Antonio or Tamarindo at the beach typically cost 20-40% more per square meter due to coastal premium pricing and foreign buyer demand. Escazú’s value proposition for investors is that you’re buying into Costa Rica’s most stable, infrastructure-rich real estate market without paying the beach tax. The trade is obvious: no ocean views, no resort-rental income in high season. What you gain is year-round rental demand (business travelers, medical tourists, expat professionals), lower vacancy rates, and a property that functions as both an investment and a place you’d actually want to spend time.

HOA fees (homeowner association fees, or “cuota de mantenimiento”) in Escazú’s gated communities and condominiums range from $100 to $500+ per month depending on the development’s amenities and unit count. A typical gated community with 24/7 security, landscaped common areas, and a small pool runs $150-250/month. High-rise condominiums with gyms, concierge service, rooftop terraces, and higher operational costs push fees to $300-600/month. These fees cover security, maintenance, common area upkeep, water, and trash collection. Property taxes in Costa Rica run approximately 0.25% of the registered property value annually, paid quarterly, one of the lowest rates in Latin America.

Rental income potential for an Escazú property is steady rather than explosive. A well-equipped 3-bedroom home in a desirable gated community can generate $2,500-4,000 per month in long-term rental income (furnished, targeting expat professionals or corporate relocations) or $150-250 per night as a vacation rental targeting medical tourists, business travelers, and families using Escazú as a base for Central Valley exploration. Occupancy rates for vacation rentals in Escazú run higher in the dry season (December-April) but remain respectable year-round due to the area’s non-seasonal appeal: people come for CIMA Hospital procedures, business meetings, and Central Valley tourism regardless of the month.

The investment case for Escazú is stability and utility rather than speculative appreciation. Property values here grow at 3-7% annually, tracking Costa Rica’s broader real estate market and tied to the country’s economic performance and ongoing infrastructure development (the coastal highway expansions, San José metro improvements, and continued foreign direct investment). You’re not buying Escazú real estate hoping it doubles in five years. You’re buying it because it generates reliable rental income, holds value through economic cycles, and gives you a genuinely functional property in Costa Rica’s most livable residential area.

If you’re comparing Escazú to beach markets like Los Sueños, Tamarindo, or Nosara, the question comes down to how you plan to use the property. Beach properties command higher nightly rates in peak season and appeal to the vacation rental crowd, but they face longer vacancy periods, higher turnover costs, and more wear from salt air and humidity. Escazú properties generate lower per-night income but rent more consistently, require less aggressive maintenance, and attract tenants who treat the property as a home rather than a party venue. For owners who want rental income without the volatility of beach-market seasonality, Escazú is the better decision.

Getting There and Getting Around

From Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO), Escazú is 17-19 kilometers: roughly 20-30 minutes outside of rush hour. Take the General Cañas Highway west from the airport toward San José, then connect to the Próspero Fernández Expressway (Route 27) and exit at San Rafael de Escazú. The drive is fast when traffic cooperates. Traffic does not always cooperate.

Avoid arriving between 7-9 AM and 5-7 PM on weekdays. The San José metro corridor is legitimately congested during these windows and what should be a 20-minute drive can become 50. If your flight arrives at 5:30 PM on a Tuesday, factor in an extra 30-45 minutes. Private transfers from SJO run $25-40 for most Escazú properties. Uber from the airport costs $12-18 and is available the moment you clear customs.

Once you’re in Escazú, you do not need a rental car to function. Uber is genuinely abundant here: four minutes is a typical wait, and the app works the same way it works in any major city. The fares are cheap: $3-8 for most rides within Escazú, $10-15 to San José’s city center. Taxis (orange cabs) are plentiful as well and use meters.

The partial exception is day trips. Poás Volcano, Doka Estate, Hacienda Alsacia, and the drive up to San Antonio de Escazú are more comfortable with your own car, particularly for the coffee route, where the flexibility to stop along the road matters. If you’re planning multiple day trips, a rental car for 2-3 days makes sense. For a stay that’s primarily based in Escazú with day excursions via a driver or tour, you can skip the car entirely and rely on Uber plus arranged transport.

Escazú is not walkable in the way that Jacó’s main strip is walkable. The commercial zones at San Rafael (Multiplaza, Avenida Escazú, and the restaurant corridor) have legitimate pedestrian infrastructure. The residential areas are spread across hillside terrain with narrow roads and no sidewalks in places. You will not walk from your gated community rental to Multiplaza in 10 minutes on a pleasant sidewalk. You’ll Uber. This is not a problem. It’s just worth understanding before you arrive expecting a European pedestrian city.

Safety: Escazú is among the safest residential areas in Costa Rica. The gated community model is dominant in the residential zones: controlled access, 24/7 security, private roads, and the commercial areas around Multiplaza are well-lit and actively patrolled. The standard Costa Rica precautions apply: don’t leave valuables visible in parked cars, stay aware at night on less-traveled streets, use the safe in your rental for passports and extra cash. Within Escazú’s primary residential and commercial zones, you can move with genuine ease.