Tuesday 27 October 2009

Costa Rican Adventures . . . Bringing back souvenirs

Today's question:
How much difficulty will I have bringing back lots of souvenirs coming through SJO airport.  I am arriving on a domestic flight.  Will my baggage be searched?


No worries. . . the process is fast, efficient and easy on this end.  The airport is fairly small and quite modern.  All the international airlines are in the same terminal.  The domestic SANSA terminal is a 10 minute walk if you are tring to make a domestic connection.  The other airline is Nature Air and they are a 30 to 40 minute taxi ride away.

Go to the International SJO airport, pay your taxes first (turn right as you enter the airport and you'll find the tax payment desks),  go in line for your plane (TIP: print boarding passes first if you can within 24 hours of departure and you can usually get the airline people to allow you to skip the entire line).

Gifts are gifts and no interest to baggage searchers (yes your baggage will be searched but your mileage may vary) . . . and nobody is counting typical tourist gifts (well unless you have guns, drugs and nobody has yet smuggled 10 flat screens OUT of Costa Rica without first being offered psychiatric assistance by the airport authorities). On the way in to the US we have not had a problem lately.  US passport people are even being taught to say "welcome back" again after being a bit strange after 9-11. Good luck, Berni

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