What does «pura vida» mean (and what's «así o más pura vida»)?

What does «pura vida» mean in Costa Rica?

Literally it’s “pure life,” but on the street it almost never means that. Depending on how it’s used, pura vida is a greeting, a goodbye, a “thank you,” a “you’re welcome,” an “all good,” and a way of saying that a person or a thing is good people. Spain’s Royal Academy finally added it to the dictionary in November 2023 and listed six distinct uses — which is exactly what you’ll hear:

• “How are you?” “Pura vida.” — All good, relaxed.
• “That guy is pura vida.” — He’s good people, easy to like.
• “It came out pura vida.” — It turned out well.
• “See you — pura vida!” — A “take care” on the way out.
• “Can I help you with that?” “Pura vida.” — Yes, sure, thanks.

The trick is that one phrase covers hello, thanks, goodbye and “that was good.” You don’t need to memorise each case — you pick up the tone after hearing it for a couple of days.

Where did the phrase come from?

From a film — and not a Costa Rican one. In 1956, the Mexican comedy Pura vida opened in Costa Rica, directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares and starring the comedian Antonio Espino, “Clavillazo,” whose character repeated the phrase constantly with a stubborn optimism even as things went wrong for him. The movie ran only a couple of weeks, but the catchphrase stuck. It settled into Costa Rican speech in the late 1950s, and within a few decades it had become the country’s calling card.

It’s a nice story precisely because it’s humble: the most Costa Rican phrase in the world was brought in by a Mexican, in a film almost nobody remembers.

Is «pura vida» actually a philosophy of life?

Here we should be honest, because it’s the first thing a visitor wonders. Costa Ricans themselves don’t agree, and both versions are worth hearing.

Some people do see a way of being in the world, and they describe it well: a calm that isn’t complacency, but rather not living obsessed with competing; a flatness where hierarchies don’t impress much and you speak to the person in charge as an equal; and that habit of not saying “no” outright, of softening things so as not to hurt anyone, where how something is said matters as much as what is said.

And others say, just as frankly, don’t overthink it: it’s just a greeting that gets used a lot, the “philosophy” is mostly added by outsiders, and from being used so hard to sell things — from beer to mattresses — even younger Costa Ricans say it less now. They’ll also remind you that plenty of ticos work long hours in survival mode, and that the visitor has the privilege of choosing which Costa Rica to see.

Both are true at once, and they contradict each other less than it seems. It’s a real, warm, heavily used phrase, and it’s also a phrase worn thin by marketing. You can love it without turning it into a postcard.

What does «así o más pura vida» mean?

It’s one notch higher. Costa Ricans build a superlative with así o más… — literally “like this, or more”: así o más bonito (“could it be prettier?”), así o más rico (“could it taste any better?”). It’s a way of saying it doesn’t get more than this, half joking, half in admiration. “Did you see the house? Así o más bonita.”

So así o más pura vida isn’t plain pura vida — it’s the phrase turned up to the top. It’s what you say when something went so well, so genuinely good-natured, so free of hassle, that it can’t get any better. It isn’t a greeting. It’s a verdict.

What does «así o más pura vida» mean to us?

We chose the phrase knowing it’s worn out, and for that exact reason we use it as what it really is: a high bar, not a bumper sticker.

To us, así o más pura vida is the point a place has to reach to be listed here. We don’t say it about every hotel or restaurant in Costa Rica — that would be the very empty marketing that tired out half the country. We say it about the ones we check one by one and that genuinely deliver: where the owner is the one looking after you, where there’s no fine print, where you leave saying así o más pura vida without anyone having to prompt you.

That’s why every listing on this site carries the owner’s WhatsApp up front, with no platform in between: the phrase promises good-natured treatment, and we turn it into something you can check for yourself right away, instead of a pretty word on the homepage.

In the end the phrase isn’t ours — it belongs to the whole country, and a Mexican even brought it in. What we add is the promise not to wear it out: to say así o más pura vida only when the place can carry it.

If you want to see what we mean, the listings are here: where to stay, where to eat and experiences. We look at each one against that bar.