<![CDATA[Costa rica Filming Locations

<![CDATA[Costa rica Filming Locations - CRFL BLOG]]>Mon, 09 Mar 2026 11:28:31 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Tax rebate in costa rica]]>Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:34:20 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/tax-rebate-in-costa-ricaWe are honored to share that Costa Rica Filming Locations was the first company to work on a Tax Rebate project in Costa Rica!. We had the wonderful opportunity to be pioneers hand to hand with the UK company Worker Bee and its incredible team.

Worker Bee´s team reached us in September of 2023 and we started working on finding the best locations for Netflix´s show Celebrity Bear Hunt. The whole process was absolutely brilliant and we will keep this shooting memories always close to our hearts. The shoot was a success in every single way because it had a great cast, fantastic locations that held hundreds and a hard working team.

Tax rebate is now available in Costa Rica for any project that will spend over $500k in the country. Costa Rica offers to give back the 90% of the taxes spent in 90 working days. You can contact us to guide you trough the process and start making your project a reality.

]]><![CDATA[Filming reality shows in costa rica]]>Thu, 13 Feb 2025 17:19:12 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/filming-reality-shows-in-costa-ricaFilming reality shows in Costa Rica is one of our main strengths. We have shot all sort of reality projects, from House Hunters International for HGTV passing for all sort of medium size projects for Nat Geo, Discovery or Netflix, to bigger scale realities that demanded hundreds of crew members on site such as Keeping up with the Kardashians or getting muddy in the jungle with our friend Bear Grylls.

Giving film support in Costa Rica for reality shows like the ones that host Bear Grylls is Manu- our Location Manager- top joy. Do you need the most remote looking location but someone that can get you there? Do you want to add wifi to that? Well... Manoohar Tahilramani is the person that you need besides you. Helicopters, waterfalls, rivers, jungle, beaches and challenges, you will have it all.

Violeta Grancelli, our Line Producer, on another hand, is the person that you want looking after your budget when the challenges team is planning for the impossible. She will deliver and make sure the budget is well looked after, finding the best ways of making it go the extra mile.

As a combo we will make sure our clients get the most amazing locations, the best on set results, and leave happy not only with the filming experience in Costa Rica, but also because the show will be fantastic, and on a budget!

]]><![CDATA[Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones]]>Thu, 13 Feb 2025 16:56:27 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/live-to-100-secrets-of-the-blue-zonesDuring February and March of 2022 we had the pleasure of working with amazing people, both from Costa Rica and from abroad. As part of our pre production tasks we had to find characters that could represent best the amazing people from Nicoya Peninsula, which often are close (or over) 100 years old and still not only living, but working, interaction with their families, cooking, riding horses, etc.

Filming in Costa Rica can be a wonderful and life changing experience, and we think this project certainly inspired all of us to pay attention to our daily habits, appreciate family and the beauty in the simple things.

The locations for this project, shot in Guanacaste, were mostly the houses of the characters. Some of them lived quite remotely so good logistics were put in place to make sure we could have a time efficient schedule along with the crew.

The production company Make Make simply sent a wonderful crew that were beautiful to the centenarians and eager to learn about the costarrican culture and worked along brilliantly with our Costa Rica Filming Location crew, which is the filming crew you want to be with when in Costa Rica. So talk about a magic combo!

The result: a wonderful series for Netflix, that you do not want to miss!

]]><![CDATA[The world around with 80-years]]>Wed, 16 Jan 2019 17:09:19 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/the-world-around-with-80-years

Last year we had the opportunity to work with Talpa, a Dutch company, for an unusual tv show project, since the cast were a group of older adults all older than 80 years.
In ‘The world around with 80-years’, 8 elderly who have never travelled before, will make the journey of their lives. Together they literally cross borders and discover the world. The seniors experience many things for the first time. They encounter the most diverse climates, people and cultures. All our elderly have a special wish, a bucket list thing, that we are going to make true.

For Costa Rica Filming Locations the security of all is very important, therefore for each of our filming we have an Emergency Plan according to the location where we are to be prepared if necessary. In this project in particular we took these measures more seriously than ever…considering the age of the cast and the activities they were going to be doing!

For several days we were in two different locations, the first Fortuna de San Carlos, land of the arenal volcano where the cast showed us that to have a good time no matter the age, and that they did tubing in one of the rivers that the area has to offer. In this same area they learned and participated in a Maleku ceremony. The Malekus are an indigenous group from this part of the country, their customs and culture are of great value to the area and we had the opportunity to show this to the spectators of the program.

The second location was in beautiful beach, Jaco, a beach well known worldwide for its waves, but this time it was chosen for its landscapes and be the destination desired by one of the group members to fulfill their dream of going fishing.

After being part of their experiences for a few days, the group continued their journeys around the world, but made it clear that age is not a limit to live to the fullest and fulfill our dreams.

Want similar locations for your shoot in Costa Rica? Don't hesitate in contacting us.

]]><![CDATA[Alba Botanica]]>Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:00:00 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/alba-botanica

Last year began full of work, we had the production of 3 commercials for the brand of hair and skin care products Alba Botanica, with the production company Fueld Films.

As a company we have the philosophy of being aware of the environment and pet friendly, so we were thrilled yo be working for a brand like Alba Botanica that differs from other brands of similar products because of it's marked position of not testing animal, being reef safe and using natural ingredients ( if you haven't tried them, we urge you to go and get them!).

Each commercial had a different cast and location but they were part of the same campaign. Unlike most international campaigns which usually bring the cast from abroad, for this project we made a cast throughout the country to get the girls who were going to be the face and secondary characters of each story.

It took us several days trying to find the surfer, the guitarist, the adventurer, the girls -and even the right dog!- that our clients were looking for. Beach, jungle and waterfall were some of the requested locations for this project, and our clients left happy with the experience and Costa Rica´s filming crew and locations.

See what else we have been up to here

]]><![CDATA[Keeping up with the kardashians costa rica]]>Wed, 10 Oct 2018 21:23:41 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-costa-rica

The year 2016 was ending and we were finishing up another job in Argentina when we were contacted by Bunim/Murray Productions to hire our production services in Costa Rica, to shoot the episodes 9 and 10 of season 13 of the reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

We had previously worked in productions of this genre such as Bear Grills´ Mission Survive , several episodes of House Hunters International, Beach Front Bargain Hunt among others ( check our experience), but with a total of 86 crew members (with 54 US crew members and 32 costa ricans) this was definitely an interesting project!.

For productions like this we rely in our experienced crew, teamwork within a collaborative atmosphere is what we always look for with each crew we pick for each production we have, and as usual it worked this time!.

As with any project, specially with celebrities, confidentiality was key to avoid paparazzi’s ruining the shoot. The arrival of the family was filmed at the airport tarmac, as requested by our clients.

These 2 episodes of the show came to record in 4 days and in 2 locations. The area of the Papagayo Gulf in Guanacaste and La Fortuna de San Carlos were the locations chosen to take the cast to enjoy different tourist attractions known worldwide.

It was not the first nor the last time that both locations attract the attention of our customers. The Papagayo Gulf has private bays with beautiful beaches and La Fortuna de San Carlos has one of the most visited volcanoes in the country, El Arenal, which was completely clear to receive the cast when landing by helicopter in the area.

Both locations and our schedule required to have 2 production units and also the transfer of the cast and part of the local and foreign crew, for this we have means of transport by land as well as air. Costa Rica has the advantage of having different landscapes, with different climates, vegetation and scenarios in general at short distances either by car, boat or airway. As usual, our clients were happy and we are pleased to say we made many new friends among their crew!.

]]><![CDATA[Chanel IN Costa Rica]]>Thu, 29 Jun 2017 16:17:06 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/chanel-in-costa-ricaLast year we had the pleasure of working with the Chanel team twice. They were preparing a video for their new amazing cream the Blue Serum, that brings elements from the world's blue zone into one cream that leaves your face looking amazing ( you can check it out here: www.chanel.com/en_MY/fragrance-beauty/skincare/c/blue-serum.html

From Costa Rica they use the essential oils of coffee, in the Peninsula of Nicoya where people leaves over 100 years old. The reason why this is a blue zone has been in discussion for many years, but in general terms everyone agrees it has to do with both their active lifestyle and their diet. We did a tv show with Jamie Oliver about this subject too, which we will post about later.

Going back to this project, we had a lot of fun. The crew, both from Chanel and the production company Suffraggettes was incredible nice and fun to work with, and we met beautiful people in the coffee plantations area, that actually accommodated us as it is. a very remote location. So not only everyone got amazing images, they also left with a very nice memory and experience the life in this kind of rural areas.

The crew as small and flexible, perfect for this kind of location: Director, Director of Photography, Assistant Camera, Executive Producer and the two Chanel representatives. From the Costa Rica team Costa Rica Filming Locations provided the local production services/ fixer , gaffer and production assistants and drivers.

We were very happy when we saw how great it ended up looking, have a look at it and enjoy:

]]><![CDATA[filming in costa rica]]>Thu, 08 Jun 2017 22:30:00 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/filming-in-costa-rica
Filming in Costa Rica it's easy and straight forward, but you will want to have you production services company working with you along the way to make sure that your projects runs smoothly.

One of the great things about filming here is that it's definitely cheaper than filming in the USA, Europe and even many other Latin American countries, and dollars are widely accepted which makes things very easy for a foreign production company coming here to shoot.

Another great thing about Costa Rica is that we have a very experienced and bilingual crew. Our crew has worked in all sort of productions: music videos, tv shows, feature films, corporate videos, photo shoots, and everyone is willing to give their best for each and every project.

Being close to the USA it's certainly a big plus, both for clients from that country and for bringing any gear that it's not possible to get locally ( the basics are here, but some specific things might need us to brig them from the USA or Panama).

On another hand, Costa Rica its a very small country but with incredible geographical changes with only short trips. We can take you from a very dry forest to the lush jungle within a couple of hours of driving.

Some of our client's favorites are the the Blue River, Arenal Volcano, Guanacaste's beaches or Monteverde. But we have shot in all sort of locations, from a high security prison to the most beautiful National Parks.

Contact us now to make any inquires about filming in Costa Rica: customs, filming permits, locations and crew, we will provide the production services that you are looking for from start to end.

]]><![CDATA[filming paddington bear in costa rica]]>Thu, 20 Apr 2017 18:18:50 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/filming-paddington-bear-in-costa-ricaour experience with paddington

Paddington was the first feature film project of Costa Rica Filming Locations ( see all of our projects here). We had worked as free lancers before and had created the company less than a year ago when we were contacted for this project. Feature films of this size do not get shot in Costa Rica that often (although we are trying to change that!) so we were very happy when it got confirmed.

This movie had very big names involved, it was for Cinecanal and Hayday Films, produced by the Harry Potter's producer David Heyman and directed by Paul King. It was King's first big movie, but we had seen The Bunny and the Bull and loved it, so we were thrilled of working with him.

We filmed in Monteverde, which is a wonderful location and it's cloud forest was exactly what they were looking for. If you have seen the movie then you will probably remember that Paddington lived in " The darkest Peru" so we had to find that here, and we did.

After several scouts the serious pre production began. All projects are different and in our line of work nothing should really surprise you, but watching our crew make a marmalade machine in the real jungle- among of course, so many other crazy sets- was a very interesting experience. There were many different hard tasks, but between our experienced costarrican crew and the wonderful UK team ( together we were over 120 people!) we made it happen.

If you have not seen the movie we strongly recommend you to go ahead and have a look, as we really loved the final product.

Have a look at this behind the scenes video!:

This is the trailer for the movie:

]]><![CDATA[Presenting our new website!]]>Mon, 13 Mar 2017 22:12:29 GMThttps://www.costaricafilminglocations.com/crfl-blog/presenting-our-new-websiteWe are proud to have a newer and fresher website. A lot has been going on since we started Costa Rica Filming Locations and we have been traveling and filming more than ever!. Last year only we have had some great projects like 50 Ways to kill your Mammy , several episodes of House Hunters International, Stupid Man, Smart Phone , Blue Serum- Chanel, High And Low ( Empire of the Sun) , and much more. And we started this year working for Bunim/Murray in Keeping Up With the Kardashians, coming soon!.

We will be uploading our news and keeping you up to date with our never ending travels around the beaches, jungles, rivers and all sort of crazy locations of Costa Rica, many times in the company of our partner in crime: Coqueta the dog.

Stay tuned!]]>