Grecia versus San Ramon

I know quite a bit about San Ramon ;-D.
I have been to Grecia a few times and know something about it, too.

The main difference from my perspective is that Grecia is more expensive for real estate - in general. It has become a magnet for gringos to buy real estate there and so the price has gone way up there. If $ is no object then Grecia may be a good choice if you like having lots of gringos around. It's a very nice town!

Both places have all the amenities you would need while having a small town atmosphere which is one of the things I really like about San Ramon and why I chose to buy there. There are also fewer gringos there which to me is a plus. It still has a very Tico flavor to it. It's known as the "city of poets and Presidents". There is a University there.

One big reason I bought there is because it is not "a gringo magnet" yet, and so the prices are lower there for buying real estate, especially in the mountainous area west of San Ramon. I don't recommend the area north of San Ramon as it gets VERY foggy and windy there due to the cloud forests and mountains north of town.

San Ramon is on the road to Arenal which is a great place to go once in a while to decompress, what with the hot springs there and all. (La Fortuna area). There are also those cloud forests just north of town which are great to visit if you like that kind of thing (we do!).

San Ramon is right off the highway to the airport so that's a plus. You get right on the highway to go to San Jose and the airport and to the beach.

The only way for you to know which you like better is to go to both places and check them out for a week or a month. I'd say both are nice places to live.

I am looking at going down to San Ramon for 4 to 6 weeks.  Do you know who can I contact for rentals?

Gilbertoo wrote:

I am looking at going down to San Ramon for 4 to 6 weeks.  Do you know who can I contact for rentals?

Hi, try contacting Frank Gillespie. I'll pm you the info, not sure if I'm allowed to give links in this case. The moderator(s) here is very persnickety about links. Check your messages here (mail symbol at top right of page)

We were torn between San Ramon and Grecia and ended up moving to Grecia. San Ramon has a great expat community and a branch of the university, which were two positives. It seems to be more cloudy more often than Grecia, but I can't say for sure.
Positives about Grecia. Great downtown with just about everything you need - and what you can't get, it's about 30 minutes to Alajuela (and the airport) or 45 to Escazu, 1 hour to San Jose. So it's closer to those than San Ramon. Lots of opportunities to live either in, near or above the town. We live in a little farming community called El Cajon and we love it. We have Tico and Gringo neighbors, bus comes every hour or it's a 12 minute drive to town.
I belong to a women's group and I go to yoga up the hill; my husband goes to a gym nearby. There are a few pools that you could join. We take Spanish lessons 2x a week. We hang out with our expat and Tico neighbors on a regular basis. We volunteer at the special school but there are also volunteer opportunities at the local schools or in animal rescue groups. We love the weather -- between 60 at the coldest (at night, rainy season, sometimes) and 80 at the warmest (most of the time). We are renting a wonderful 3/3 house that looks down over coffee farms, pastures and -- in the distance -- the town of Grecia.
Negatives ... sometimes the motos are annoying and not all the roads are great (although the road from town up to our neighborhood was recently resurfaced). I can't think of anything else (oh, the parrots hang out at our neighbor's across the road and for some reason won't visit us.) That's it!!! Let me know if you need more info.

I think both are perfectly reasonable places to live.
As to the cloudiness I'm not sure which is cloudier, but I will say that the cloudiness of San Ramon can be a very refreshing type weather in the tropics of Costa Rica.

I think Grecia has become a little more "gringo" than San Ramon both in terms of population and in price. If you want more gringos around, then Grecia is probably the better  choice; though the way things are going San Ramon may catch up with it in that regard.

The bottom line is you have to look at both areas and see which one appeals most to you, and which one has the type of property you want at the right price. (or right rental)

Thanks for the info. How did you locate the house you are renting in Grecia??. We are also interested in Grecia. But I have to say it is hard to find a house to rent that is also near the bus line. Also, the rents seem expensive to me. 1000 dollars per month. Thanks

We found our rental by accident (fortunate accident). We were staying in a little apartment in El Cajon (one of the barrios in the mountains above Grecia) last summer and checking out both Grecia and San Ramon. We happened to meet a woman who had a rental available in October (which was when we had planned to move). It was the first place we looked at and we fell in love AND rejected it at the same time, because it was more than we wanted to spend ($850).   So we spent the next two weeks looking at places for $500/mo. and none worked for us. We ended up deciding on that first house and we are really happy with it. I will PM you with the name of a good rental agent for Grecia -- although samramon is correct in saying that RE prices seem to be going up in the Grecia area. We do have a friend who is renting a large (but "rustic") house for $400/mo. (avail in December) so I guess it depends on what you're comfortable with. We've decided at our advanced ages (haha) that we like hot water on demand, a great view, space for guests and workshop and garden area (plus room for our dogs to run).

Thanks Dusty, I am looking forward to the info.

Gilbertoo- Did you ever get yourself settled in Costa Rica? I am the above-referenced Frank Gillespie. Pura Vida!