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Find cheap flights from San Francisco to Costa Rica from $176

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight from San Francisco to Costa Rica departing on 6/14. 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
Wed 6/5
Wed 6/12

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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$308
Liberia
Liberia1 stop$566

Good to know

Low season

October

High season

December

Cheapest flight

$176
Best time to beat the crowds with an average 21% drop in price.
Most popular time to fly with an average 66% increase in price.
Flight from San Francisco to San José

FAQs - booking Costa Rica flights

  • If I have made plans to travel from San Francisco to Costa Rica, will I need to have a valid passport and do I need to obtain a visa before I make my trip?

    Travelers that are making the trip to Costa Rica will need to have a valid passport and you need to make sure that your passport will be valid for your entire length of stay in Costa Rica. It is also important to remember that your passport needs to have at least one blank page for an entry stamp. While you will not need a visa to stay in Costa Rica for up to 90 days, the immigration service in Costa Rica will expect you to present a return airline ticket upon your arrival.

  • If my flight from San Francisco International Airport will be landing at San José Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO), what type of public transportation is available to travel from the airport to downtown San Jose?

    There is a bus service available, operated by TUASA, that will make the trip from the airport to downtown San Jose in around 30min. The fare for this trip is around CRC 642 (USD 1).

  • If I'm looking for a lounge to wait for my flight to Costa Rica, will I find one at San Francisco International Airport (SFO)?

    There are several lounges provided by both United Airlines and American Airlines at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). These lounges are often used by passengers making the trip to Costa Rica from this airport since both airlines offer one-stop service to airports in Costa Rica.

  • If I will be bringing children on my trip to Costa Rica and I plan on renting a car at the airport, what should I know about car seat laws in Costa Rica?

    When traveling with children in a car in Costa Rica, all children under the age of 12 months must ride in a rear-facing car seat and children from 12 months old to four years old must ride in a forward-facing car seat. Children from four years old to six years old must ride in a booster seat and those from six years old to 12 years old must ride on a booster cushion.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights from San Francisco 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 San Francisco to Costa Rica.

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

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Costa Rica from San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight from San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 28% cheaper than an evening flight, on average*.
  • A good way to get from downtown San Francisco to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is via the train service offered by Bay Area Rapid Transit, which makes the trip to the airport in around 30min for a cost of about $9.
  • If you are going to be driving yourself to the airport before your flight to Costa Rica, San Francisco International Airport has two different international garages that are just a few steps from the terminal building. For the ultimate convenience, the airport also offers a valet parking service.
  • If you are bringing kids along with you on your trip to Costa Rica, San Francisco International Airport has Kids' Spots play areas in terminals 1, 2, and 3 of the airport.
  • For any travelers with disabilities that will be bringing a service animal along with them to San Francisco International Airport, you'll be glad to hear that there are several animal relief areas located throughout the terminals, including one in the International Terminal near the A Gates.
  • If you want the most convenient way to travel out of San Francisco International Airport, you might consider using the airport's Airport Butler service that provides travelers with a dedicated staff member to guide them through every step of their journey through the airport.
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 San Francisco to Costa Rica

 
Need help choosing which airline to fly with from San Francisco 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
Alaska AirlinesOverall score based on 9134 reviews
7.9Comfort
7.3Food
8.2Boarding
7.3Entertainment
8.6Crew
Airline reviews

Boarded the plain and had to wait 1 hour for crew Captain to arrive from another flight

4.0 OkayRandy, May 2024SFO - SEA
Read more about Alaska Airlines reviews

Boarded the plain and had to wait 1 hour for crew Captain to arrive from another flight

They canceled the flight 30 minutes prior to departure without any heads up.

All parts were excellent, especially staff at bag tag printing and inflight crew. Just the normal differences from past air travel could be improved but we’ve learned to accept those—cramped seats, minimal food/beverage, etc.

Attentive crew. Best of all was the empty seat between me and my rowmate.

We had a very scary attempted landing in Palm Springs and were redirected to Ontario. It was a stressful flight.

Every thing means , crew, service, timing, boarding is very good.

I like that we took off on time and arrived a bit early. I like that I could gate check my bag and board early. I don't like how crowded the flight was. I had ok leg room, but could feel every move of the person next to me. And the aisles are very narrow. The gate and flight crews were terrific.

The flight was diverted and departed from San Jose instead of San Francisco. This could’ve been executed more smoothly because after arriving in San Jose it seemed like nothing was being processed correctly as needed for the gate agents to do their jobs well and the flight to leave on time

Excellent service and prices. I was not award of inflight entertainment.

Both flights from NYC to SFO were delayed more than an hour. No wifi, no screens/movies etc. The crew was nice.

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.

Hated every minute of it. This flight should have only taken 1.5hrs but was delayed over 10hours. Now I am being told I cannot be compensated or refunded my ticket price or extra leg room, which I purchased but did not receive, because the airline is throwing the blame on the 3rd party I purchased tickets through and 3rd party putting the blame on airline. No one wants to help. They received their money and that's all they care about. Im going on 3 days of still trying to get to my final destination, had to cancel car rental, car insurance and hotel. Currently staying in airport until hotels open up. Thank you Lufthansa, Kayak, Underpricer and United for making this trip the worst ever.

Crew was great and did their best to make us comfortable and captain came out at the beginning to announce why the flight was delayed, weather situation up ahead, and kept us updated throughout the flight.

United WiFi is consistently unusable (it can take 10 mins to load a single web page). If you need Wifi to do work, be prepared to lose half a day of productivity.

Awful. I got stuck next to a person carrying a dog and behind someone with a dog. People need to board these dogs downstairs. The cabin is crowded enough with your pets

Packed in like sardines, very uncomfortable. Sitting the aisle my shoulder was rammed into numerous times by rushing flight attendants. Also flight was very cold.

Beverage and food services are excellent. We enjoy paying the extra for economy plus for the 3 inches more leg room to be exact.

Flight was delayed by 3 hours. The pilot made up 1 hour during the flight, but that made the wait at the airport 5 hours once you factor getting there 2 hours early.

Airline did not explain reasons why flight was delayed two hours. Explanations were badly needed and rarely provided. Problem seemed to clearly be the airline’s fault and not the fault of the weather or airport.

Very uncomfortable seats and seat backs, and I am only 5’9”. Delayed due to crew issues, spent a long time with no ventilation. Teeny overhead bins. Wifi worked well. Arrived safely.

I was delighted that we were able to get on the 4:40 pm flight rather than our original booking at 6:55 pm!! Other than that, the flight was comfortable and landed early😊

Horrible - they lied to me about baggage & boarding, even though I specifically spoke to their agents the day before my flight about my issue. When I showed up they did not let me board and stranded me at my airport until I bought a new flight with money I did not have to spend.

Not sure why JAL partnered with American Airlines because their service is no where near similar. Flight attendants were not friendly and didn’t smile. Food was horrible…

The experience was great and much better than the flight going out. of course I was in first class but the service was excellent

Comfort of seats, ease of boarding. Food selection could be better

Food options were limited which is absolutely embarrassing for a Flight of this size The staff did not come around as much and I am not accustomed to such poor service from American Airlines Drinks I believe were limited to soda and water

Crew were attentive and friendly. Flight was smooth and early! I enjoyed the less crowded plane. Thank you!

We are gluten free, there were not any available complimentary gluten free options.

No meal on a cross country flight? SFO-MiA is pretty much the definition of a coast to coast flight. No meal provided. Sky high wi-fi rates too. Stop nickel and diming your customers.

The staff was unprofessional and didn’t communicate very well. The boarding process was very disheveled, potentially due to a power outage the previous day but there was no contingency plan to properly get passengers boarded the following day. Once boarded the aircraft stayed on the tarmac for over 45 minutes due to high winds. The communication was sporadic but an announcement was finally made an additional 30 minutes later that the flight was cancelled but we couldn’t get off the plane. Prior to deplaning one of the gate agents came on the plane and made an announcement for everyone to pickup their checked bags and take a card to rebook a new reservation because they didn’t have adequate staff. Flights were missed, passengers went to different airports and there was little to no assistance from AA.

You cancelled my flight by email then made it very difficult to get in contact with you. Then put me in a flight with a long layover in Mexico returning to the wrong airport in uk. Mind blowing my stressful. I missed see my grand dad because of you.

Book cheap flights from San Francisco to Costa Rica

Recent round-trip flight deals

5/15Wed
1 stop
8h 05mSFO-SJO
5/16Thu
1 stop
26h 27mSJO-SFO
$308
6/1Sat
2 stops
21h 39mSFO-SJO
6/11Tue
1 stop
10h 05mSJO-SFO
$347
9/3Tue
1 stopCopa Airlines
10h 46mSFO-SJO
9/10Tue
1 stopCopa Airlines
13h 06mSJO-SFO
$354
9/3Tue
2 stopsAvianca
16h 10mSFO-SJO
9/10Tue
1 stopAvianca
10h 05mSJO-SFO
$372
6/11Tue
1 stopAvianca
12h 00mSFO-SJO
6/19Wed
1 stopAvianca
8h 20mSJO-SFO
$375
9/2Mon
1 stopCopa Airlines
16h 43mSFO-SJO
9/10Tue
1 stopCopa Airlines
13h 06mSJO-SFO
$409
5/27Mon
1 stopAmerican Airlines
13h 21mSFO-SJO
6/3Mon
1 stopAmerican Airlines
19h 21mSJO-SFO
$416
5/27Mon
1 stopAmerican Airlines
13h 21mSFO-SJO
6/3Mon
2 stopsAmerican Airlines
15h 01mSJO-SFO
$421
5/26Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
8h 33mSFO-SJO
6/7Fri
1 stopUnited Airlines
12h 05mSJO-SFO
$436
7/7Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
11h 27mSFO-SJO
7/22Mon
1 stopUnited Airlines
14h 22mSJO-SFO
$465

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Recent one-way flight deals

6/14Fri
1 stopFrontier
31h 41mSFO-SJO
$176
5/14Tue
1 stopAmerican Airlines
18h 53mSFO-SJO
$189
8/3Sat
1 stopAvianca
8h 00mSFO-SJO
$190
5/20Mon
2 stopsAvianca
23h 25mSFO-SJO
$209
7/6Sat
1 stopUnited Airlines
9h 04mSFO-SJO
$223
7/14Sun
1 stopUnited Airlines
9h 04mSFO-SJO
$240
6/12Wed
1 stopCopa Airlines
13h 09mSFO-SJO
$247
6/30Sun
1 stopCopa Airlines
28h 43mSFO-SJO
$286
7/4Thu
1 stopAlaska Airlines
24h 31mSFO-LIR
$315
6/22Sat
1 stopAlaska Airlines
24h 31mSFO-LIR
$317

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Last minute flights from San Francisco to Costa Rica

Last minute flight, train and bus deals

5/6Mon
multi-stopCopa Airlines
13h 29mSFO-SJO
5/9Thu
multi-stopCopa Airlines
15h 54mSJO-SFO
$354
5/8Wed
multi-stop
10h 53mSFO-SJO
5/21Tue
multi-stop
25h 55mSJO-SFO
$369
5/6Mon
multi-stopAvianca
7h 45mSFO-SJO
5/22Wed
multi-stopAvianca
8h 20mSJO-SFO
$390
5/9Thu
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
9h 55mSFO-SJO
6/19Wed
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
9h 48mSJO-SFO
$416
5/6Mon
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
11h 58mSFO-SJO
5/11Sat
multi-stopAmerican Airlines
17h 20mSJO-SFO
$419
5/7Tue
multi-stopAvianca
10h 30mSFO-SJO
5/22Wed
multi-stopAvianca
8h 20mSJO-SFO
$440
5/11Sat
multi-stopAlaska Airlines
13h 25mSFO-LIR
5/21Tue
multi-stopAlaska Airlines
13h 42mLIR-SFO
$465
5/8Wed
multi-stopAlaska Airlines
21h 40mSFO-LIR
5/21Tue
multi-stopAlaska Airlines
22h 29mLIR-SFO
$475
5/10Fri
multi-stopUnited Airlines
11h 25mSFO-SJO
5/18Sat
multi-stopUnited Airlines
11h 46mSJO-SFO
$526
5/10Fri
multi-stopUnited Airlines
20h 05mSFO-SJO
5/26Sun
multi-stopUnited Airlines
19h 51mSJO-SFO
$1,018

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San Francisco - Costa Rica Flights

Departure:

San Francisco (SFO)United States

Return flight deals:

Costa Rica - San Francisco

Cabin classes:

$1,858
$1,633
$708