Safe to leave a laptop in hotel in Costa Rica?

Question

I'm going to be on vacation in Costa Rica, specifically Mal Pais. I'm debating bringing my laptop, so that I can unload my pictures each day. Is it safe to leave a laptop hidden in a hotel room? Obviously, its never good to leave valuables unattended, but I'm wondering if the risk would be any greater than in the US.

Answer 1

LEAVE YOUR COMPUTER HOME.  Buy extra  memory cards for your camera with a good amount of gigabytes on each.  It will be easier to transport those thaan a laptop.  If you have to label each memory card after each is full.

** some person suggested locking it up in a safe in the room ...those safes are not big enough to place a laptop in them.  those safes are more for locking up jewelry ,money, pasports paperwork etc...not big objects

Answer 2

The safe in the hotels usually isn't large enough to fit a laptop.  We could easily fit our money, passports, camera etc - but it wasn't wide enough or deep enough for a laptop.  It would probably be safer to bring the extra memory cards with you.  The people in CR are great, but it only takes one bad apple...

Answer 3

most hotels have a safe that u can make up the code in the room it probaly costs extra but its safer than nothing

Answer 4

If you expect them to fix up the room, it won't be hidden.

I wouldn't risk it.  

A laptop is much more valuable to a country like Costa Rica where people don't make nearly as much as us Americans.

It would be gone in a heartbeat.

Answer 5

Buy a memory card of 1G to store all the pictures. Or go to an internet cafe and upload the pictures.

Answer 6

It isn't safe at all to leave a laptop in your hotel room.  It isn't safe to carry it in anything that says you have a laptop either.  I have seen many Ticos who carry their laptop in their backpack.  There is no way of really knowing what's in the backpack, especially if you have a sweater and some other things in there.

Think of your safety.  If you get robbed, which is becoming very common in Costa Rica, a laptop can be replaced, but you can't be replaced.  Keep your head up, be wary, and keep your wits about you.  Be safe and have a good time.

Answer 7

hmmmm.. If I were you I would leave the laptop at home. Here you will find a lot of internet cafes, so you can download your picture there and upload to rapidshare or something like that, so you can download them when you get back home.

It's not safe to travel with a laptop.

Answer 8

I have traveled all over Costa Rica with a laptop and have had no problems, and I mean that while knocking on wood. You do risk the chance of it getting stolen.  

The laptop I  use when traveling is one I bought off of Craigs List for $120, so I/m not that worried if it gets stolen and/or gets trashed/dropped,  which is more of a concern to me.  However, I do taken the security precautions to prevent thieves, like, hanging up the "NO Room Service" tag on the door when I leave the hotel and put it in a duffle bag and inside something that does not look like a laptop carrier but more in line of a nylon briefcase.

Recently a friend turned me on to this link and she said it worked great when she was traveling in Mexico:

http://blogs.bnet.com/businesstips/?p=24...

However, traveling with a laptop can be very very cumbersome, but it sure comes in handy if you have business, moreso when you have something like http://www.magicjack.com/4/index.asp where you can make unlimited calls to the U.S without worrying about getting clipped big time for an International call.

If you do not need a laptop and as others suggested, go to the Internet Cafes and/or buy a few more memory cards.

More about Internet cafes go to http://www.ticotimes.com/costa-rica-inte...