Yeah OP jaco is known for that. Go to arenal and monteverde and it’s barely noticeable. When I went with my family and we didn’t go to bars we didn’t see anything like that. At all.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you went to Jaco OP? I saw a little of it when I was out in various touristy areas, going to bars at night. But it was only noticeable if you knew sex tourism was a thing, like you would see a white guy with a younger local and you knew it was sex tourism but only if you are aware it exists. And it was like 1 white guy per bar, not like in your face.

OP here. I did! We traveled around a bit but it was Jaco and San Jose that were bad. We also stayed with some friends outside of San Jose for a bit and it was very suburban, but also nice and sleepy. My friends and I even ran into the seemingly nice dad types we sat next to on the plane and they were all with prostitutes. I was young and naïve and so it was a bit of a shock to me. Since then, I've always associated the touristy places in Costa Rica with that so now that I'm a parent and found this forum I have been surprised that so many people go on family trips to Costa Rica.

Prostitution is legal but generally confined to downtown San Jose, bars, etc. Not in the places you'd be going to with your family.