Driving in Costa Rica - 101

Driving in Costa Rica is challenging. You may have heard that the Costa Ricans are pretty crazy and don’t follow the rules, like no passing on double yellow. That’s true. Passing on curves doesn’t seem to be a problem for most Ticos. Stopping on the highway to take selfies or even have a picnic on the dam bridge, sure it happens! Yielding at one lane bridges? Yes, they do. You will also see motorcylists wearing helmets AND reflector strips - it’s the law. Every car must also carry vest protectors in case they are in an accident. They also have to carry an emergency kit in every vehicle – and they can be stopped and inspected, so they do follow THOSE rules!

You may remember that we picked up our car on our fourth day in the country and planned to drive about 175 km to Manuel Antonio. The drive should have taken about 3 hours. We had to detour because the road out of the city, Highway 27, which connect to the Pan American Highway #1, was closed. We later learned that they close it on Sundays sometimes for no apparent reason! We ended up on this road which took us across the mountain – gravel most of the way. It ended up taking about 5 hours. Needless to say, there were no highway signs indicating we were on the correct road and we have certainly learned that Googlemaps isn’t always right.

https://goo.gl/maps/MsygN9P7E4P2

Our second big drive was from Manuel Antonio to Monteverde. We stopped at Carara National Park and had paved road until we turned off Highway 1 onto Hwy 606. Once on Highway 606, it was only 38km to Monteverde – estimated at 1 hour 8 minutes. Maybe, if you are a Tico! For us Gringos, it was much longer … closer to 2 hours!

https://goo.gl/maps/YruCWJMtLck

From Monteverde to Nuevo Arenal it is only 62 km and estimated drive time is 1 hour 42 minutes. It took us over 3 hours.

https://goo.gl/maps/2v3ZyJWZigG2

The drive from Nuevo Arenal to Tamarindo was the easiest, by far, even though it was 175 km. The slowest part of the trip was from Nuevo Arenal to Tilaran.

While paved, the road is narrow, a series of switchback curves and one lane bridges … oh and thoses dreaded potholes! Once we left Tilaran, the road had lots of construction, but was like a super highway! Google estimates 3 hours, 47 minutes and our actual drive time was probably abour 4-1/2 hours, so pretty close.

https://goo.gl/maps/Z3AkxGjyjNL2

Our drive from Tamarindo back to the airport in Liberia was an easy drive – over a road we have already driven. It’s about 65km and took less than 1-1/2 hours, depending on traffic.

https://goo.gl/maps/e4qHi2jrCJF2

Would we recommend driving in Costa Rica? It is totally do-able if you have an adventous spirit.

We rented a small, 4x4 with high clearance, and had no problems. The Costa Rican government REQUIRES that you pay for liability insurance which adds about $11 per day to the rental cost, but what can you do? It’s the law. If your credit card company offers CDW coverage, you have to have a letter stating that to present at the counter. You also have a $2000 hold put on your card during your rental. Lots of options to consider. We also discovered that when we were trying to get rental car prices, we got 3 or 4 different prices for the same company – and have them hold it if it sounds good.