Costa Rica is nice, though I’d avoid San Juan. Sweet people out in the countryside.
Small town/rural America is still just fine though, I left the big city 11 years ago and have homes in two small towns. Things are great, no issues.
FM me the town names and maybe a few factoids if you don’t mind.
We are researching now but we are 100% going (it was going to be Mexico but AMLO pretty much put a stop to that).