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Find cheap flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica from $86

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica departing on 5/29. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
1 adult
0 bags
Sat 6/15
Sat 6/22

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Best Costa Rica Flight Deals

Cheapest round-trip prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 72 hours

San José
San José1 stop$225
Liberia
Liberia2 stops$294

Good to know

Low season

September

High season

March

Cheapest flight

$86
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 11% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 21% increase in price.
Flight from Baltimore to San José

FAQs - booking Costa Rica flights

  • Can I rent a car at the Liberia International Airport (LIR)?

    You can make a rental car reservation with several companies that service LIR, including Budget, Enterprise, Avis, and Hertz, among others. All rental car companies that serve LIR have free shuttles to their nearby offices. Keep in mind that you need to purchase Costa Rican car insurance, which you can do at these rental car counters.

  • Can I find a non-stop flight from the Washington, D.C. area to San Jose, Costa Rica?

    From Washington Dulles International Airport, Avianca operates non-stop flights to San Jose. However, you are unlikely to find a non-stop flight that departs from Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. However, Spirit flies from BWI to SJO with one stop in Orlando, Delta with one stop in Atlanta, and American Airlines with one stop in Miami.

  • How much baggage can I take on a flight from Washington, D.C. to Liberia, Costa Rica?

    You should be able to find a cheap flight from Washington, D.C. to Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport that allows one carry-on for the cheapest fares available. Some examples are a Delta flight with one stop in Atlanta or an American Airlines flight that connects in Dallas or Charlotte.

  • Do I need a visa in order to fly from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica?

    Americans traveling from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica for purposes of tourism do not need a visa for a visit that lasts less than 180 days. However, when you enter Costa Rica, you need to show proof of return or onward travel. Your passport needs to be valid for the length of your stay in Costa Rica.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica?

    KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Costa Rica from Washington, D.C. is likely to change within 7 days, so travelers know whether to wait or book now.

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly to Costa Rica with an airline and back to Washington, D.C. with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica?

    Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying to Costa Rica from Washington, D.C. up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

See more FAQs

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Costa Rica

  • Morning departure is around 12% more expensive than an evening flight, on average*.
  • When you fly from the Washington, D.C. greater metropolitan area to Costa Rica, you might depart from either Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) or Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). Washington Dulles International Airport is located on the northwestern outskirts of Washington, D.C., while Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is on the southern outskirts of Baltimore, towards Washington, D.C.
  • Washington Dulles International Airport serves as a hub for United airlines and SkyWest airlines, among others. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is a hub for Southwest Airlines, AirTran Airways, and others.
  • San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, tends to be the most popular Costa Rica destination for travelers from the Washington, D.C. area. When you fly into San Jose, you'll be landing at the Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO). This airport is a hub for Sansa Airlines, Volaris Costa Rica, and Avianca Costa Rica.
  • When you book your airline ticket to the capital city of Costa Rica, make sure you are going to the correct San Jose. The airport in San Jose, Costa Rica has the airport code SJO. The airport in San Jose, California, which is named San Jose Mineta International Airport, has the airport code SJC. Be careful not to mix them up.
  • If you want to fly into the north of Costa Rica, closer to the beaches on the west coast, Liberia in the Guanacaste Province makes an ideal destination. You will be landing at the Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR). Also called the Liberia International Airport, which is situated about 7 miles west of Downtown Liberia.
See more tips
*Average of the lowest prices shown in KAYAK’s search results for departures within the next 30 days

Top 5 airlines serving from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
8.0
DeltaOverall score based on 10673 reviews
8.6Crew
8.2Boarding
7.9Comfort
7.4Food
8.0Entertainment
Airline reviews

A regional sized plane was used for a cross country flight with no overhead bin space. I had to "pink check" my laptop and my medications. I was NOT pleased!!!!

4.0 OkayReginald, May 2024MCI - LGA
Read more about Delta reviews

A regional sized plane was used for a cross country flight with no overhead bin space. I had to "pink check" my laptop and my medications. I was NOT pleased!!!!

Absolutely nothing flight was cancelled and delayed for 2 days. Barely a heads up I want a full refund

The plane from SNA wouldn’t start after 5 tries. The team gave me an option of flying direct from LAX and giving me a Lyft ride there! Perfect!

Best airline! Always friendly and welcoming. Skyclub was great and loved the fast free wifi on board. I also love that you can pre-order your meal on the app!

Atlanta boarding crew at gate were filled with arrogance and were disrespectful. In flight crew showed indifference to the needs of passengers. This is about the flight from ATL to BDL.

The plane was FREEZING SEATS UNCOMFORTABLE Otherwise smooth Thank you

Boarding was chaotic. I didn’t finish dinner because I went to bed early. Breakfast omelet was overcooked and tasteless but croissant was better than usual. Plane was dirty—crumbs in every seam and lavatory was poorly maintained (paint peeling, etc.) and toilet paper had not been refreshed before takeoff. No cubby for storage in first and seat was narrow.

Boarding was somewhat chaotic. Unable to evaluate crew or food/drink because captain kept them seated due to turbulence. Have no idea if entertainment was offered.

West Jet has a horrible boarding process and the seats have no cushion.

Everything went smoothly. I didn’t like that when I booked in the main cabin my wife and I weren’t seated together. One would think when booking on an option that allows picking your seat. They would put you and your travel partner together. Had to call to get it sorted. They did fix.

Copa performed as expected for the amount of money I was willing to spend for the flight; it wasn’t exceptional but it was not bad in any way either. The crew was good; friendly and straightforward. The food was airplane food, so no expectations there and the entertainment was lacking but that was my fault for owning an IPhone with a charging port that’s not compatible with the rest of the world. I’d fly Copa again.

Left my bags in origin city on a business class ticket , spent about 2-3 days in the same clothes plus the flight .

the planes are not modern there are no phone chargers

As usual, the flight with normal legroom was not very comfortable, but the second flight was much better because we had paid for extra legroom. It was very nice to check our bags without an extra fee.

LOCKED MY BAG WITHOUT CONSENT. Had to have my zippers cut upon arrival in Costa Rica.

Pros: "The seats in economy were confortable. The best thing was Copa gave us seats in the second line and my family traveled together."
Cons: "Coffe service could better the experience"
Pros: "The crew was very interested on help and attentive with the passengers. But the seat wasn't comfortable. The design of the cushion is not the best to be seating"
Pros: "You were on time, that is the most important thing in a fly"
Cons: "You could improve your entertainment, you are not a cheap company"
Pros: "That there was seltzer"
Cons: "The management of preparing the flight and plane so that it was ready for the trip!!"
Pros: "Copa was convenient and easy. Very easy boarding process and I appreciated the day flight."
Cons: "This is a business class that is equivalent to a US carrier domestic first class. Good seats, not lay flat but wide on my 737-800. The food and service emulated say American Airlines Domestic 1C as well. Everything was just good enough, and much cheaper that international business on the majors."

No water for a 5 hour flight entertainment not working seats with little room for knees when person in front of me reclined kept bumping my knees.

I don't think anyone actually reads these comments, so I won't spend much time on this submission. If you want to talk, you know how to reach me. The D/FW manager of Avianca (self-identified), Juan Calderon, insisted I buy an onward ticket from San Salvador even though I have diplomatic status in El Salvador and live here. It cost me $1,393 and Mr Calderon would not let me make the ticked flexible so I could get a refund. He went out of his way to be rude to me. He gave me seat 32K -- windowless window seat in the last row and did not offer to let me upgrade even though there were plenty of seats. I have flown well over a million miles in my life and this is the worst experience I have ever had. I would like a refund on the ticket I was forced to buy. Just awful!

This is the Spirit of Latino travel. And don’t even get me started on customer service.

Awful. I checked in online and there was no option to pay for baggage, at the airport when I checked in my baggage was received and Iwas not charged. When I got to LA during the boarding process I was told I didn't pay for baggage, the crew resolved I was let in the plane. When I got to my final destination my baggage was not there. It took me two days to receive my baggage. Bad service ever!

There was no food or drink service, couldn’t even get a glass of water for free. It was a long and expensive flight to not offer food or beverage on the plane.

It is better at the jfk than my home country. It was very easy and everything was on time.

There is no food. There is no in-inflight entertainment. The seats are cardboard. The airline is a living hellscape.

My experience was amazing! They helped my elderly mother board on early through a wheelchair and were accommodating to have us sit together since our seats were in different locations. When landing at the airport in GUA they were very helpful with full of hospitality.

No complimentary snacks food, beverage (not even water), pillow and blanket on a 6 hours long flight (including economy comfort). A low form of nickeling an diming. Lost a recurring passanger over a soda. Avianca never again.

Flight departure late. Got late in Colombia making us take a different flight next day. Avianca airport crew messed up my ticket so when a I got in Brazil I didn’t have a ticket for my destination. Had to buy a new ticket out of my pocket.

We ended up with seats in the very back. So they did not recline. Have no idea why, we reserved and checked in very early. The isles were very narrow and the seats had very little leg room. But they did give us water, and a snack.

Should have video screens Plane audio was poor and without wired connection hard to understand crew. Should serve more than just cups of water and pretzels on six hour flight. Did not see crew rest of flight. Fix charging sockets to retain charging blocks.

Food was terrible Not many options Stewards dont care Delay

The ride was good but no food ot entertainment hence, it was just over an hour flight.

they made me check my carryon. There was space in the overhead bins.

The plane was delayed 2 hours. The wifi did not work. The seat in first class was not comfortable because the bottom felt like it lost all of its padding. And I did not like when the flight attendant made me wait at my seat to use the bathroom and didn't tell me why. If there were too many people using the 1st Class bathroom, she should have told me to go in the back, coach bathrooms. I guess I have to feel fortunate that they found 2 local pilots to still fly the plane tonight after the original pilots ended up at an airport 60 miles away due to high winds.

The crew were really great, but the 4 hour delay in small chunks was the worst.

Every experience was good except for the lack of comfort in those economy seats. I never had knee pain until that flight. Those seats are uncomfortable.

I bought internet for the flight. Don’t waste your money. I wasn’t able to download a 1 Mb file from Google Docs during a 3-4 hr period. You can only use WhatsApp and email if you are willing to wait.

Just a crappy airline. The same every time. You feel you are a cow on a farm. You are being being whipped and pulled.

Overall the flights pretty good. The snacks we’re good and they were plenty of them. Both boarding and deplaning went quickly.

Delayed abs delayed Gate crew giving poor info - we are definitely leaving at —- Ultimately to cancel flight after 4+ hours of delays Just cancel it earlier

The flight was scheduled to depart DCA at 12:30 pm but was delayed twice on the ground so that we were finally scheduled to depart at around 4:00 pm. Once we boarded, it was announced that takeoff would be delayed again to fix a hydraulic problem which delayed our eventual takeoff until around 5:00 pm. Once we departed, it was a smooth flight back to ORD. We did not get any explanation about what caused the original significant delay. In my experience, this happens frequently with AA.

Lots of weather delays that were poorly communicated and managed. I get there are weather delays but they didn’t make it clear what was happening or comfortable on the plane

Everything was on time; the flight attendants and the gate personnel were very pleasant and helpful.

Our second leg to Jackson WY was unable to land due to weather. We were flown back to Dallas after stopping in SLC. We were given hotel rooms and vouchers. We were told that we would be back on the same plane in the morning. Instead we were given a different flight with different seats. Not a good experience. No one knew what was going on.

Perfect flight. On time departure and early arrival. Smooth flight.

Awful! The flight was delayed and we sat on the plane in DCA for an hour because fuel was out in the wrong part of the plane and would not be accessible during flight. So the plane had to be refueled in correct tank. They also allowed someone to get off of the plane. This delayed my six hour flight by an hour and made me miss my connecting flight. I ran to new gate and American Airlines agents new about the delay and even knew that I was trying to make the connection. They knew thru communication with my friend while in flight that I was in the airport and running to the new gate and they still closed the gate and refused to let me on the new flight despite plane still being at the gate. It was horrible and I had to be rebooked on a flight for 24 hours later. This has been a nightmare and if American Airlines can cause customers to be delayed and then have zero empathy as having an on time flight was more important to them than helping a customer who was delayed by no fault of her own, then it's seems that it's not a company that I want to continue to give my loyalty to. I'm so disgusted.

Help was available but timing was bad in my case

It was a horrible snow storm, but updates were inconsistent and the app never displayed a remotely accurate time or gate until very close to boarding.

Book cheap flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica

Recent round-trip flight deals

6/4Tue
1 stopSpirit Airlines
17h 37mBWI-SJO
6/10Mon
1 stopSpirit Airlines
21h 46mSJO-BWI
$225
5/29Wed
1 stopSpirit Airlines
15h 20mBWI-SJO
6/3Mon
2 stopsSpirit Airlines
14h 13mSJO-BWI
$226
5/27Mon
1 stopUnited Airlines
13h 17mDCA-SJO
5/31Fri
1 stopUnited Airlines
13h 27mSJO-DCA
$262
6/2Sun
2 stopsAvianca
10h 55mIAD-SJO
6/6Thu
nonstopAvianca
4h 40mSJO-IAD
$265
5/28Tue
1 stopAvianca
6h 45mIAD-SJO
6/12Wed
2 stopsAvianca
13h 35mSJO-IAD
$266
9/4Wed
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
18h 57mDCA-SJO
9/10Tue
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
17h 39mSJO-DCA
$268
5/20Mon
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
15h 53mIAD-SJO
5/22Wed
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
18h 45mSJO-IAD
$268
6/3Mon
1 stopCopa Airlines
16h 56mIAD-SJO
6/10Mon
1 stopCopa Airlines
9h 21mSJO-IAD
$281
6/1Sat
1 stopCopa Airlines
17h 15mIAD-SJO
6/4Tue
1 stopCopa Airlines
11h 36mSJO-IAD
$286
5/26Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
10h 19mDCA-SJO
5/30Thu
1 stopUnited Airlines
13h 27mSJO-DCA
$293

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Recent one-way flight deals

5/29Wed
1 stopSpirit Airlines
6h 21mBWI-SJO
$86
6/1Sat
1 stopSpirit Airlines
12h 44mBWI-SJO
$93
6/1Sat
1 stopCopa Airlines
17h 27mIAD-SJO
$123
5/20Mon
1 stopAvianca
6h 45mIAD-SJO
$125
5/26Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
13h 54mIAD-SJO
$126
5/27Mon
1 stopUnited Airlines
18h 24mBWI-SJO
$129
5/27Mon
1 stopAvianca
6h 45mIAD-SJO
$130
8/10Sat
1 stopAmerican Airlines
17h 38mDCA-LIR
$144
8/10Sat
1 stopCopa Airlines
7h 10mIAD-SJO
$145
5/28Tue
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
18h 59mIAD-SJO
$148

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Last minute flights from Washington, D.C. to Costa Rica

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

5/20Mon
multi-stopAvianca
6h 45mIAD-SJO
6/4Tue
nonstopAvianca
4h 40mSJO-IAD
$247
5/21Tue
multi-stopSpirit Airlines
15h 20mBWI-SJO
5/28Tue
multi-stopSpirit Airlines
16h 33mSJO-BWI
$259
5/20Mon
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
15h 53mIAD-SJO
5/22Wed
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
18h 45mSJO-IAD
$268
5/19Sun
multi-stopDelta
16h 13mIAD-SJO
5/23Thu
multi-stopDelta
14h 55mSJO-IAD
$276
5/19Sun
multi-stopDelta
15h 13mIAD-SJO
5/28Tue
multi-stopDelta
17h 56mSJO-IAD
$282
5/18Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
13h 58mIAD-SJO
5/25Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
9h 47mSJO-IAD
$296
5/18Sat
multi-stopCopa Airlines
17h 15mIAD-SJO
5/22Wed
multi-stopCopa Airlines
8h 06mSJO-IAD
$305
5/18Sat
multi-stopCopa Airlines
17h 15mIAD-SJO
5/24Fri
multi-stopCopa Airlines
9h 21mSJO-IAD
$310
5/20Mon
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
15h 53mIAD-SJO
5/28Tue
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
20h 24mSJO-IAD
$318
5/18Sat
nonstopUnited Airlines
4h 56mIAD-SJO
5/25Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
9h 47mSJO-IAD
$347

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Flights to Costa Rica

Return flight deals:

Costa Rica - Washington, D.C.

Cabin classes:

$1,442
$2,433
$231