www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Anyone have advice on the best deal as far as calling cards go?

You can buy them from street venders where they have permanent stands on the corners. 3000 colones about $8. will get you about 13 minutes to the US. or lots of time in Costa Rica. There is no long distance in CR. One Area Code 506. SEAHAWK

One word of caution about the ICE phone cards.

I bought one and made a couple quick local calls within costa rica. One moment I had about 2800 colones worth of talk time left then the next moment I had 700 colones. I must of spent about one or two minutes at most talking on the phone and then my $ balance vanished into thin air.

only in costa rica.

There are 2 types of cards. One has you dial 199 or 198, then you type in the pin number on the card. The other has a chip in it - you insert it into the phone, but those types of phones are limited. Neither are low cost, but I don't know of a cheaper option. Anybody ??

The 199 type card is very convenient, and I always buy one of these. I use it for local and international calls.

I also buy a card with a chip, because I call my cell phone's voice mail for messages. It asks me to press # for messages. The 199 or 198 cards interpret the # as a disconnect, which ends the call. Very frustrating. Now I know.