For those of you who have done the Costa Rica trip, did you find that credit cards were accepted pretty universally? I'm trying to decide how much local currency I should bring. Thanks!
We went to Costa Rica on our own and either paid with a credit card or paid with American dollars. We were there 10 days in various locations and never had any Costa Rican currency.
I can second this...U.S. dollars were widely accepted when we traveled to Costa Rica last summer (not with ABD, though). Bring small bills, $1 $5, $10, $20 because they are wary of higher denominations. We notified our credit card companies of travel plans and were able to use them at hotel check-outs, big restaurants, etc, but we used U.S. dollars whenever we could.