I am traveling for the first time to Costa Rica with my husband and two young kids. We arrive in the early evening at the airport in San Jose. We were then planning to rent a car
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Cat:Central and South AmericaForum:0EE6C0BA
Cat:Central and South AmericaForum:0EE6C0BADiscussion:ff0204e5-e287-4187-b06c-a15a8ad42c69
I am traveling for the first time to Costa Rica with my husband and two young kids. We arrive in the early evening at the airport in San Jose. We were then planning to rent a car and drive that evening to a hotel in Herradura on the coast. It appears to be about 100 km/60 miles along roads 27 and 34. We'll be there for a few days for a conference and then were planning to drive to Manuel Antonio, stay there for a week, and then drive back to San Jose for our flight back.
Is it a bad idea to rent a car and drive these routes on our own? I just spoke to a few people who said that I should not rent a car and drive ourselves but should just take shuttles as the roads are very bad and there are safety issues.
Although many of the roads in Costa Rica are poor. The 'Costanera', is a new highway betweeen San Jose and the Pacific Coast. I have driven this modern and scenic highway several times and it is great. It is a toll road, but the tolls are cheap - you should have colones coins available to pay the toll booths. We have a villa in Esterillos Este which is midway between Jaco and Quepos/Manuel Antonio, and it has cut our drive from SJO airport from 2.5 hrs to 1.5 hrs. WWW.COSTA-VILLA.NET
What time exactly do you arrive? You can definitely rent a car and drive on your own to Herradura, the roads from SJO to this area are in good shape. However, you need to be aware driving after 5:30 pm is not advisable for tourists. The roads are not marked pretty well and the road signs are not enough. The drive from the airport could take you around one hour and 45 minutes or less, so you just need to plan your time on behalf of that. My advise is just to drive before sunset.
Thanks much. We will arrive around 7:30, which I assume by the time we get our car will be after dark. We are getting a GPS with the car - would that be sufficient, or is it still risky to drive after dark?
I think it would be too late, you could be starting your trip around 8:30 or 9 pm, even with the gps, driving at night is not advisable, since you are not familiar with the roads and you will find lots of big trucks around. The GPS in Costa Rica is not always 100% accurate, because sometimes takes alternative roads and sometimes guides you thru some odd places and bad roads, I am telling you based on my experience. I would say the best option is to stay the night near the airport, lots of hostels, small hotels around, here you can spend the night, have some rest after the flight and drive in the early morning to Herradura. Even if you would like to take a shuttle, based on your arrival time you won´t find any shuttle taking you to Herradura, unless you arrange private transportation which can be quite expensive. Hope this helps!
My apologies - we'll actually be arriving at 5:30. I need to be in Herradura at 8am the next morning, so given your warnings we'll try to arrange for shuttle transportation to there that evening.
Does anyone think it's helpful to have a car while in Manuel Antonio? We're staying at a hotel close to the park. Or is foot and arranged transportation sufficient?
Thanks ever so much to you all - especially Rebecca - for the advice.
We returned from Costa Rica the end of November. My husband who is 75 drove. Once you leave the main roads, the roads are rough. Do drive--it will give you many more opportunities to see things. We had a small 4 wheel drive and it worked well for 3 adults.
I know we are a tech-savvy society, but to rely on a GPS in a strange country is foolish. The GPS I was using went catatonic when I inadvertently crossed into Palestinian territory while traveling through Israel & instead of re-calculating, froze. I had no trouble using maps for the rest of my 2 weeks there. Make sure you know where you're going and how you plan to get there, using the GPS as back up & confirmation that you've taken the correct turns. etc. - in my view, that works anywhere.
GPS works great in Costa Rica. 50% of our clients rent cars for vacation and in the years we have been in operation we have never had any problems with rentals or trouble on the road. This is a wonderful way to visit our country.
We vacationed in Costa Rica earlier this year and were very glad we decided against renting a car. With two young children and arriving late in the day, don't drive in the dark on unfamiliar roads. Let someone else that knows the roads do the driving. We found that private transport was not that expensive. The hotel where your conference is probably has someone they work with. Check in with some of the companies that do tours and activities. They may pick you up take you for a day of fun and drop you at your next location. On a previous trip we had a flat tire on a mountain road where we had no cell coverage and had to flag down help. Pay a little bit to have someone else worry about the driving.
One thing to be especially cognizant of are the speed limits. Costa Rican authorities love their radar and speed cameras. The fines for speeding are among the highest in the Americas, equivalent to the average monthly wage of a Tico (apx. US$450). Other things to be aware of: Turning right on red is NOT permitted. Seat belt use is mandatory and talking on a cell phone is prohibited while driving. Search for "Costa Rica Speeding Tickets" and read some of the articles out there for details.
