R14 692 Find Cheap Flights to Costa Rica – Compare and Save

1 adult
1 adult, Economy, 0 bags

Save 13% or more on flights. Compare deals from all over the web.

Never overpay with our price tracking tools.

Filter searches by price, airline and more to find your best flights.

Flight Deals
Booking Insights
Flight Deals

Cheap Flights to Costa Rica

Cheapest return prices found by our users on KAYAK in the last 5 days
Sort by: Cheapest
San José
23h 48m2 stops
from R19 941per person
Liberia
47h 59m3 stops
from R47 276per person
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for flights to Costa Rica

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights to Costa Rica to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

How many airports are there in Costa Rica?

There are 10 airports in Costa Rica. The busiest airport is Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO), with 70% of all flights arriving there.

How long is the flight to Costa Rica?

An average direct flight from South Africa to Costa Rica takes 45h 17m, covering a distance of 20058 km. The shortest route is Cape Town (CPT) to San José (SJO) with an average flight time of 31h 41m.

What are the most popular destinations in Costa Rica?

Based on KAYAK flight searches, the most popular destination is San José (80% of total searches to Costa Rica). The next most popular destination is Liberia (20%).

Good to know

Low season

August

Cheapest flight

R14 692
Best time to beat the crowds but there is an average 11% increase in price.
Most popular time to fly and prices are also 6% lower on average.
Flight from Johannesburg to San José

FAQs - booking Costa Rica flights

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from South Africa 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 South Africa to Costa Rica.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket from South Africa to Costa Rica?

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

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights from South Africa to Costa Rica?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional return ticket. You could then fly from South Africa to Costa Rica with an airline and back with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from South Africa 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 from South Africa to Costa Rica up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Costa Rica

  • Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest Costa Rica flight deals.

Reviews of the top airlines flying to Costa Rica

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from South Africa 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.
7,4
United AirlinesOverall score based on 10188 reviews
7,7Boarding
7,1Entertainment
7,3Comfort
8,1Crew
6,6Food
Airline reviews

My experience on this United Airlines flight was highly uncomfortable, primarily due to two issues: Cabin Temperature: The temperature on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was unacceptably high, feeling consistently around 80 degrees throughout the flight. This made sleeping impossible and significantly detracted from the experience. Seating Arrangement: Being stuck in a middle seat for a six-and-a-half-hour overnight flight compounded the discomfort. Moving forward, I will always purchase a seat assignment to avoid this situation.

6,0 GoodWilliam Drew, Nov 2025
Read more United Airlines reviews

My experience on this United Airlines flight was highly uncomfortable, primarily due to two issues: Cabin Temperature: The temperature on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was unacceptably high, feeling consistently around 80 degrees throughout the flight. This made sleeping impossible and significantly detracted from the experience. Seating Arrangement: Being stuck in a middle seat for a six-and-a-half-hour overnight flight compounded the discomfort. Moving forward, I will always purchase a seat assignment to avoid this situation.

Crew was dismissive. Snacks and refills not offered. Poor business class experience. Bed not comfortable compared to Emirates or BA.

We were Polaris passengers and found the service poor. The food was ok but the flight attendants were not attentive and rushed the service.

Food was very very bad! Same flight from US was amazing with great food but the food prepared for the flight from Cape Town to New York was not eatable. The crew also did not smile once. They all looked like it was a shift they had not signed up for but were forced to take. :(

Plane was so old it had cigarette butt trays in the seat

On time - really well operated flight. Friendly staff. Super impressed with United on this round trip.

I had very little time to change planes originally in Denver after my flight from Omaha. I had an hour and a half layover in Denver originally and my flight leaving Omaha was delayed an hour because they had to change a tire, which I can understand. When I reached Denver my other flight was late, fortunately, but I still had only 10 minutes to run about a mile through the airport to get to my flight. Again, fortunately, I am a healthy 71-year-old and was able to accomplish this feat. However, the stress was more than necessary to bear.

Less packaged foods in between meals Appreciated fruits cheese platters ice cream

Flight was canceled and United offered zero assistance. Left many of us in an unsafe situation

The flight itself was fine and the pilots were great. The crew was awful - the purser WOULD NOT SHUT UP, they ran out of food, I would not serve the “beef” dinner option to my dog. The boarding process was a clusterfuck-no announcements were made about boarding groups, and when we did get on the plane, attendants were blocking the aisles taking orders for the premier lounge and not letting the poors get to their seats

They lost my luggage on my way to Namibia (I was unable to review that flight as I was in the bush/off line) It took 3 days to get my bag and I had to pay $375.00 to have it transported to my location as it was over 100 Kilometers from that Airport and the local Airlink carrier would not got that far.

Great flight, last one out the air-conditioning was far to hot and the return it was to cold and then issued blankets. On the outward bowned the headset connector didn't work properly. You had intermittent sound from the audio socket.

Terrible service especially for premium economy. Much more comfortable seats on other providers

Friendly hosts/hostesses; dinner was of acceptable, but mediocre standard

Our original booking with Kayak -our first experience -was exactly what we wanted and worked well. Updates were friendly and reassuring as were the contacts with UnderPricer so a big win-win. We learned a lot on your reliability and will definitely put you on our organisational list for the future.

It was just ok. Half the bathrooms were broke on the flight.

If they wouldn't have canceled the flight WITHOUT informing me until I looked at my ticket and saw I had 2 extra layovers in 2 different cities than the ones I paid for? That would have been nice.

Poor BA get a lot of stick and have some problems getting your bags to the same destination BUT the whole experience is very much 5 star and probably due to excellent, helpful and sooo British staff. We travelled in economy plus.

The flight was uncomfortably warm. We asked a member of the crew to adjust the temperature, and they said they would but it didn't make a noticeable difference. They really cram you into the plane, too, in economy. It was quite uncomfortable for an 11 hour flight.

The 7 hour delay in Johannesburg was extremely tiresome, with poor communication at check-in and a sad R120 voucher as compensation. All in all sitting for 10 hours on an airport was pretty bad. At arrival the baggage arrival took 2 hours. All in all, a very, very long trip.

More options for your flight to Costa Rica

Complete your trip to Costa Rica with a hotel stay or car hire