Costa Rica has an excellent phone system, with a dial tone similar to that heard in the United States. All phone numbers in Costa Rica have seven digits. For information, dial 113.

  A pay phone costs around 20 colones(3¢) per minute. Pay phones will either take a calling card or 5-, 10-, 20-colón coins. Calling cards are becoming more and more prominent and you can purchase them in a host of gift shops and pharmacies. However, there are several competing calling-card companies and certain cards work only with certain phones. Others work with complicated touch-tone dialing sequences. Moreover, pay phones are generally hard to find and frequently unreliable. It is often best to call from your hotel, although you will likely be charged around 100-200 colones per call.

  For making international calling-card and collect calls, you can reach an AT&T operator by dialing 0-800-011-4114, MCI by calling 0-800-012-2222, Sprint by dialing 0-800-013-0123, Canada Bell by dialing 0-800-015-1161, British Telecom by dialing 0-800-044-1044, and a Costa Rican International operator by dialing 116(pay phoe may sometimes required a coin deposit).

  The Costa Rican telephones system allows direct international dialing, but it's expensive. To get an international line, dial 00 followed by the country code(1 for U.S.) and number.

  You can make international phone calls, as well as send faxes from the ICE office, Avenida 2 between Calles 1 and 3, in San José (506/255-0444). The office is open daily from 7:00am to 10:00pm. Faxes cost around 2 dollars per page to the United States.(Many hotels will also offer the same service for a fee). Radiográfica 506/287-0087, at Calle 1 and Avenida5 in San José, also has fax service.

  To call Costa Rica from the United States, dial the international access code, 011, followed by the country code 506, then the local number.