Trailfinders (00845 0585858, www.trailfinders.com) and STA Travel (08701 630 026, www.statravel.co.uk) both have a solid reputation in helping people with more out of the way destinations, and Trailfinders has fares from £550 with KLM. The fare is the same for departures from any of KLM's 14 UK departure airports, and travel is via Amsterdam.

It is sometimes cheaper to split your journey in two and buy two separate flights - in this case a return to Miami, and then a return from Miami to San Jose. Sidestep (www.sidestep.com) searches through dozens of airline and consolidator web sites for the cheapest fare. It is particularly helpful in the States, where it would otherwise be difficult to find out a list of travel companies. It has fares from Miami to San Jose for about $400 (£210), but as the cheapest fares from London to Miami are about £450, it doesn't really help. This can also be helpful if you don't have enough Airmiles or Nectar points for the entire journey. You can get the first leg free and then buy a ticket for the second flight.

Another option is to see if there are any charter flights. Charter Flight Centre (www.charterflights.co.uk) has a useful list of charter destinations, but there aren't currently any charters to Central America either. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to find a super bargain to Costa Rica, but if you book ahead with a good consolidator, you should be able to find something for about £550.

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