Travelling in and around Costa Rica is relatively easy with a good internal flight network. San Jose serves as the major hub for most connections. With the country being small these tend to be propellor planes where your flight is likely to be under an hour. A quick, easy and exciting way to get around and helps to avoid long car journeys. We tend to only recommend these for getting to the Osa Peninsula in the very south.
The road conditions vary in Costa Rica with long stretches of paved highways, however these tend to only be to major locations and once leaving these you will find yourself on pot-holed roads and dirt tracks. The network is not overly extensive and sometimes you have to come back on yourself to reach the next major road to another part of the country. We plan the itinerary to keep this as much to a minimum as possible. The limited road network means traffic can build up around rush hour so we set timings for transfers to avoid this in busy places.
A lot of our trips are with a driver as this means you can be relaxed and comfortable as you travel around the country. However it is also a great destination for a self-drive holiday. We tend to recommend a 4×4 for all trips and having good insurance is mandatory. We would also include a sat-nav for you as whilst in more touristy places are adequately marked, other areas are not.
The biggest consideration when planning a self-drive holiday is the driving distances and this is where we are there to help you. It can be deceiving sometimes as a distance of eg, 300km could be thought to take 3 hours when in fact it might take 4-5 hours if you are travelling through some of the more remote areas of Costa Rica.
Another option for getting around is using shared transfers. If you are travelling between major destinations most offer bus type services at set times. These are a great way to reduce costs and of course help the environment!