{
  "response": {
    "Key": "PHL-CR",
    "orig": {
      "code": "PHL",
      "type": "airport",
      "city": "Philadelphia",
      "fullCity": "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania",
      "airport": "Philadelphia Intl Airport"
    },
    "dest": {
      "code": "CR",
      "type": "country",
      "country": "Costa Rica"
    },
    "faq": {
      "q0": {
        "question": "Which cities in Costa Rica can I fly to from Philadelphia?",
        "answer": "From Philadelphia you can fly non-stop to Liberia in Guanacaste, which serves Pacific beach resorts. One-stop connections reach San José, the capital and hub for cloud forests and Caribbean coast trips. Choose Liberia for direct beach access or San José for broader exploration."
      },
      "q1": {
        "question": "How long is the flight from Philadelphia to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "From Philadelphia to Costa Rica, non-stop flights to San José take about 5 hours 15 minutes to 5 hours 30 minutes southbound and roughly 5 hours northbound. One-stop itineraries to Liberia often run 6½ to 8 hours total depending on the connection."
      },
      "q2": {
        "question": "Are there direct flights from Philadelphia to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "There are no non-stop flights from Philadelphia to Costa Rica. The most common one-stop routings connect through Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Charlotte, or Panama City, typically on American, Spirit, Delta, Frontier, or Copa. Total travel times usually range from about 7 to 10 hours, depending on the connection."
      },
      "q3": {
        "question": "Which airlines fly from Philadelphia to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "From Philadelphia to Costa Rica, American offers non-stop flights to San José and Liberia. One-stop options include United, Delta, Copa, and JetBlue."
      },
      "q4": {
        "question": "When is the cheapest time to fly from Philadelphia to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "The cheapest months to fly from Philadelphia to Costa Rica are May, April, and June, with late spring and early fall offering the lowest fares, while peak summer and December holidays are notably more expensive. Tuesdays tend to have the best midweek prices, and evening or early morning departures are usually cheaper than midday or Thursday flights. Booking about 8 to 11 weeks ahead typically secures the best rate.",
        "methodology": "This 'good deal' estimate shows a representative best price for each departure date across roughly a 12-month window (about 3 months back and 9 months forward). It is built from real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, accumulated into a price history for each departure date. Rather than weighting all of that history equally, we apply exponential time decay so recent prices dominate — a price seen yesterday counts almost in full, one from about a month ago roughly a third, and prices from a few months back very little — giving a figure that tracks today's market instead of a stale long-run average. Clear price outliers are removed before any calculation, departure dates with no observations are filled in from nearby dates, and the resulting curve is lightly smoothed so it reads as a clean seasonal trend rather than day-to-day noise. This booking-window guidance is built from the same real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, re-grouped by how many days before departure each price was seen (from the departure day out to about 180 days ahead) across the route's price history. At each booking lead time we report the 25th-percentile price — the cheaper end of what travelers were quoted, rather than the rock-bottom minimum (which can be a fluke) or the average (which is pulled up by expensive last-minute fares). The buy-or-wait advice then applies a risk premium that grows as departure approaches, since seat availability shrinks and prices become less predictable; using that adjusted curve we flag windows where waiting is likely to save a meaningful amount (at least $20 or 5%) versus windows where booking now is the better call. Isolated single-day recommendations are filtered out, so the advice only reflects a window that holds for several days in a row. The cheapest day of the week and time of day to depart are drawn from the same large sample of real fares Priceline users found on this route in the last 72 hours, grouped by the day of the week and by the time-of-day window of the outbound departure, with the lowest and average price reported for each."
      },
      "q5": {
        "question": "How far in advance should I book flights from Philadelphia to Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "For flights from Philadelphia to Costa Rica, the optimal booking window is 8 to 11 weeks before departure, with the very lowest fares typically appearing around 60 days out.",
        "methodology": "This booking-window guidance is built from the same real flight prices found by Priceline users searching this route, re-grouped by how many days before departure each price was seen (from the departure day out to about 180 days ahead) across the route's price history. At each booking lead time we report the 25th-percentile price — the cheaper end of what travelers were quoted, rather than the rock-bottom minimum (which can be a fluke) or the average (which is pulled up by expensive last-minute fares). The buy-or-wait advice then applies a risk premium that grows as departure approaches, since seat availability shrinks and prices become less predictable; using that adjusted curve we flag windows where waiting is likely to save a meaningful amount (at least $20 or 5%) versus windows where booking now is the better call. Isolated single-day recommendations are filtered out, so the advice only reflects a window that holds for several days in a row."
      },
      "q6": {
        "question": "What are the most popular cities to visit in Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "In Costa Rica, most U.S. visitors fly into San José, then explore the Central Valley, Arenal Volcano area, Guanacaste beaches such as Tamarindo, and the cloud forests of Monteverde or the Caribbean coast near Puerto Viejo."
      },
      "q8": {
        "question": "Which airports in Costa Rica are best to fly into from Philadelphia?",
        "answer": "From Philadelphia to Costa Rica, your main options are Juan Santamaría International Airport in San José and Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia. San José is the primary hub with the most long-haul connections and works well for exploring the central highlands, Pacific coast, or Caribbean side via domestic flights or shuttles. Liberia is the better choice for Guanacaste beach resorts and the Nicoya Peninsula, often with seasonal nonstop flights that save you a long drive from the capital. Costa Rica has no passenger trains, so onward travel relies on rental cars, buses, or domestic flights."
      },
      "q12": {
        "question": "When is the best time of year to visit Costa Rica?",
        "answer": "For Costa Rica, the dry season from December to April offers the best weather, but it is also the busiest and most expensive. The green season from May to November sees fewer crowds and lower prices, with sunny mornings common even in rainy months."
      },
      "q13": {
        "question": "How do I get to Philadelphia Intl Airport from the city center?",
        "answer": "From Center City Philadelphia, the fastest and most popular way to reach Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is the SEPTA Airport Line train, which takes about 25 minutes and departs every 30 minutes from stations like Jefferson, Suburban, and 30th Street. Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft are readily available and offer door-to-door convenience at a higher cost, while taxis provide a flat-rate option from the city center. Several shuttle and limousine services also operate, and driving yourself is possible with multiple on-site parking options ranging from hourly to economy lots.",
        "toolsUsed": [
          "article_lookup"
        ],
        "references": [
          {
            "url": "https://www.phl.org/Pages/HomePage.aspx",
            "title": "PHL Philadelphia International Airport | PHL.org",
            "favicon": "https://www.phl.org/themes/basic/apple-touch-icon.png",
            "time_published": "2026-07-14T18:42:29Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://www.phl.org/",
            "title": "PHL Philadelphia International Airport | PHL.org",
            "favicon": "https://www.phl.org/themes/basic/apple-touch-icon.png",
            "time_published": "2026-07-14T18:42:29Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Philadelphia_Airport",
            "title": "Northeast Philadelphia Airport",
            "time_published": "2026-07-06T00:50:56Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia%20International%20Airport",
            "title": "Philadelphia International Airport",
            "time_published": "2026-05-01T12:23:05Z"
          },
          {
            "url": "https://www.phl.org/media/1869",
            "title": "City Mask Mandate | PHL.org",
            "time_published": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
          }
        ],
        "methodology": "Airport details are drawn from the sources listed with this answer, primarily the airport operator's official website along with airline, lounge-operator and transit-authority pages, collected by our research process and refreshed periodically. Only information found in those sources is used; where a source does not cover a topic it is left out rather than guessed."
      }
    }
  }
}