Costa Rica's new Pacific highway

Wow, good news!

Great post Jeff! Thanx but I'm really going to miss Alida's in Atenas. We actually scheduled our drs. appts. in SJ in accordance with their hours of operation Lisa

Lisa,

There is an entrance/exit right in Atenas. Easy off and on.

Cool thanks for posting Jeff...

Woo Hoo! This is exciting, looking forward to trying it out. Thanks, Jeff!

Wow!! Thanks for this, Jeff! Awesome!

The total toll to drive the whole length of the highway will be 2,000 colones (just under $4).

jbella: Thanks! Good to know! After driving the Aquacate for so many years, I'm having a difficult time visualizing all this "modernization"!

Can you please tellme how long it will take now to drive from Liberia to Quepos? Easy directionsif you can!!! Thanks!

Liberia to Quepos won't take you on the new highway, so it shouldn't change. You would still drive from Liberia, cut off at the interchange for Puntarenas and Caldera, and then continue on through Jaco to Quepos.

What will change is that Liberia-San Jose and v.v. can now be quicker. Once you get to Caldera, you can zip right on into San Jose on the new highway in less than an hour.

There's a big photo of a section of the highway on the front page of today's La Nacion newspaper. It shows three lanes, not four. It's two lanes in one direction on an ascent, and one on the descent. I guess it's not four lanes the entire way. It still looks very nice, and it will still get you to the coast in an hour.

The article also says that they expect heavy traffic on the highway the first couple of weeks as people check it out. Once the initial curiosity wears off (and people realize it will cost them 2,000 colones to drive one way), it will be manageable. They also expect a lot of people will continue to drive the old route to not have to pay the tolls.

Thanks Jeff!

Will this help me speed up my times on any of these drives?

1. SJ to Arenal

2. Arenal to Quepos

3. Quepos to SJ

Thanks!

1. No. The new highway would take you way out of the way.

2. Yes. When you get to San Ramon, take the Pan-American Highway toward San Jose and take the Atenas exit, just as you always have when making that trip. Atenas also has its own exit on the new highway.

3. Yes. Quepos to Jaco, then swing north to the new highway and head due east to San Jose.

I'm going to Manual Antonio in three weeks. I wasn't going to get a car because I didn't want to drive 3 1/2 to 4 hours from San Jose to MA. Would this new route shorten that trip and if so by how much. thanks.

It should cut the trip down to anout 2+1/2 hours or slightly less. For me, the attraction is that the road is a lot better and a lot safer.

We're leaving tomorrow for SJ from MA. What is the highway # and is it clearly marked? I don't recall anything resembling a 4-lane highway on the way from Arenal to MA thru Jaco when we came through on the 26th?

It's Highway 27. It's not four lanes all the way, only in sections. It opened on the Jan. 27.

Go Manuel Antonio to Jaco to Orotina. That's where you'll hit the highway. Take it east to San Jose.

Thanks Jeff! I've got 3 maps and each of them has different #s for various highways and, of course, road signage is limited.

Jeff,
I've never been to CR but I'm in the process of planning a trip in May of this year.

It sounds like this new highway might improve the drive from Monteverde to San Jose. Is that correct, and if so what is the estimated trip time for that route?

At the risk of being redundant, can you tell me if I'd use the new road? We plan to go from:

San Jose to Arenal
Arenal to Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio to Jaco
Jaco to San Jose.

I wonder if it will be difficult finding the road if we only have old maps. Is it the extension or improvement of some other road?

Thanks for the info Jeff

How's the hand, Percy? Hope you're doing okay!

Deb15July, the new road is to the south of the Monteverde-San Jose drive and would be completely out of the way. Time from MV-SJO is approx. 3.5-4 hours.

Hey, Percy. . .been wondering about you, thinking your typing fingers might have gotten frostbite! How's it going?

I would use the new highway if I were going to Monteverde. It gets you near Puntarenas much quicker, and from there, you head just north to the Inter-American Highway and the turnoff to Monteverde. You could bypass that moutainous section between San Ramon and Puntarenas. Of course, you couldn't bypass the road to Monteverde itself.

Percy, I hope you are doing well.

So Jeff...what do you estimate the trip time would be if I follow the route you describe? SJ to Monterverde?

Fwiw, there was road construction on that mountainous section between San Ramon and Punarenas when we went through on Jan 26. It added about an hour to our trip.

Deb15July you can get driving times from www.yourtravelmap.com/costarica/travelmap/

The thing is -- there have been problems with the new highway. First, there was the weekend where traffic came to a standstill with so many people trying out the new highway. Second, there was a fatal crash yesterday and the highway was closed for some amount of time.

Now I wonder if so many people are using this new highway, the InterAmerican Highway will be much better. I have traveled it many times from just south of Liberia to San Jose and sometimes it is slow and cranky with a lot of big trucks and sometimes, we just breeze through. It doesn't seem to depend on the day of the week or even time of day - apparently just luck.

You should always be aware that whatever highway you are on, you will have the possibility of construction or road repair, accidents, breakdowns or get behind big trucks that go slow. Or even little trucks that go slow - you know, the little truck that is so loaded with watermelons that the fenders are almost touching the tires?

PS - the highway is not four lane all the way - some passing lanes, etc, but in many areas is two lane.

My apologies for the misguidance! It never occurred to me that it would save time to take the new highway to Puntarenas, then continuing on to Monteverde. Thanks, Jeff.

I'll jump in here with a question. Where is the best place to get onto the new highway going away from San Jose? Actually, what I'm really asking is where does it make the most sense to spend the night now in order to get on the new highway the next morning the quickest, without having to backtrack -- Alajuela; Escazu; Grecia; Atenas?

Specifically, if we're headed to points south (Uvita).

Thanks!

Jeff, I have never been to CR. I posted the other day about my son suffering from serious car sickness and I pretty much ruled CR out since I read that the roads are so bad. With this new highway, would it be possible to pick a base camp off the highway and hang out for a week? Could we get to some interesting sites primarily using the new highway? I think he will be fine if we have to off road it for 15 - 30 minutes but 3 to 4 hours on curvy, pot hole type roads will not make for a pretty vacation. I haven't given up my dream of CR - yet.

The highway starts at La Sabana park on San Jose's west side. It goes west to Escazu, Santa Ana, and Ciudad Colon, just like it always did. It continues west, with an exit at La Guacima (near the Butterfly Farm) and an exit at Atenas. Beyond the town of Orotina is the exit where you'd head south and east to Jaco and Manuel Antonio. The new highway itself continues west to Caldera, the commercial and cruise port near Puntarenas. From there, it's just a quick to Puntarenas itself, or north to connect to the Inter-American Highway going northwest.

okwdvc,
I really hope you can have your dream of a visit to CR. I too get pretty car sick, but I'm planning to take Bonine when traveling curvy roads and fly to at least one location. I'm always much better if I can be in the front seat and have plenty of air...and if I drive I usually have no problem whatsoever. Never quite figured that out, but I've heard it has something to do with your brain and your eyes being in sync.

Hi plumboy!

You can get on the new highway in Escazu. In case you stay in Alajuela you have to drive to Atenas on the old roads and can continue on the new highway from there.

Thanks -- that's what I was looking for. I had a feeling Alajuela wouldn't make as much sense.

The highway opened four weeks ago today and there have already been five traffic deaths, all due to excessive speed.

Also, it rained on Monday and the rains (not heavy at all) caused a landslide that blocked the road until the debris could be cleared away. The fear is that when the rainy season arrives for real, this could be a regular problem.

JeffCR -- would we take this fwy from MA-Puerto Jimenez? We've received 3 diff time estimates for this drive from people in CR: 3 hrs, 4 hrs, 4.5 hrs (last is from our driver). Your opinion on the drive time, please?

You wouldn't take the new highway. It would be out of your way to go back to San Jose. Just keep folloing the coast south from Quepos. I'd say it would take around four hours, maybe less.

Thanks so much JCR. I don't think our driver is using it for SJO-MA as his time estimate was still 3 hours.

I'm hoping the MA-Puerto Jimenez drive would be scenic and interesting since it's alot of coastline. 4 hrs isn't bad esp if the drive is visually interesting.