How to Watch American Netflix in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is not only a beautiful country with some of the best beaches in the world, it’s also a favorite vacation spot for Americans. With English widely spoken, it’s the ideal spot to spend time. You might be disappointed with the TV when you get there though. That’s why I put together this guide to watching American Netflix in Costa Rica.

The country is in central American, bordered by Panama and Ecuador and is very popular with North American and European tourists. It has a fairly open internet with no censorship or obvious control over what its citizens can and cannot access. With a very highly educated population, Costa Rica seems to value a free internet.

According to Finder.com, the current Netflix catalog in the US stands at 4,052 movies and 1,580 TV shows. Costa Rica has 3,153 movies and 1,032 TV shows. That’s more than many countries but still falls short of what you can get at home.

Costa Rica and VPNs

Costa Rica seems to have no problem with VPNs. With the rise in cyber crime in the country, that’s probably not surprising. With an educated populace comes more sophisticated crime and a VPN is a key tool in avoiding the worst of that. It also lets you watch American Netflix from anywhere in the world too which is a neat side benefit.

A VPN works by encrypting all of your internet traffic and sending it via a secure tunnel directly to a VPN server. If that VPN server happens to be in the US, your web traffic, once decrypted, is given a US IP address. This address is recognized by Netflix or other website and is treated as American traffic. That’s how you can watch American Netflix in Costa Rica or anywhere.

It isn’t a one way street though. Netflix is under obligation from the networks and studios to stop unauthorized access from other countries. If you live in a country, you’re supposed to only access content from that country even if you’re paying the same price but getting a fraction of the content. To avoid this you need to use a VPN provider that works to keep Netflix available over VPN.

Getting a VPN up and running is simple. You sign up for a VPN service, download the app to your device(s), connect using the VPN every time you use the internet and your traffic is protected.

Each of the following providers has a reliable network, uses strong 256-bit encryption, provides apps that work on most devices, offer decent value for money and works to keep Netflix available as much as possible. All of the following suggestions offer all those things.

NordVPN

NordVPN is a top performer in the VPN market thanks to a fast reliable network, great little app and strong encryption. With double hop, you can hop from one VPN server to another for an extra layer of anonymity. With over 5,200 servers in 60 countries, it has the breadth and reach to provide secure access to and from anywhere.

Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access is another credible VPN provider with a fast network able to stream, over 3,200 VPN servers in 32 countries, a great app that connects quickly and offer some great features and a reliable network accessible to and from anywhere. It is one of the cheapest providers too.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is known mainly for speed and for its huge marketing campaigns. As a VPN provider it is easily equal to these others in terms of speed and reliability. It also has a neat app that connects quickly, competitive pricing and huge network. With thousands of VPN servers in 94 countries, it has the widest reach of all of these other providers.

IPVanish

IPVanish is another decent option to watch American Netflix in Costa Rica. It has a fast, secure network that has proven itself reliable, over 1,300 VPN servers in 75 locations, a simple to use app, competitive pricing and works to keep Netflix available as much as possible. It compares well with these other options on every count.

Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield compares well with these other VPNs in terms of network speed and reliability, security and ease of use. With over 2,500 VPN servers in 25 countries, the spread isn’t quite as wide but it has enough servers to more than cope with traffic. With competitive pricing a very usable app and strong encryption, it is well worth checking out.

There are other VPN providers out there that will allow you to watch American Netflix in Costa Rica. As long as they offer a free trial or money back guarantee and work to keep Netflix available, most providers will work, these listed are just some of the better ones I have tried.