Erin44

Hello! Our family of four will be flying into SJO in March and traveling on to Bosque del Cabo. We booked our flights with USAirways last March using frequent flyer mileage. Bosque arranged our connecting flight with Sansa to take us to Puerto Jimenez.

I just happened to call USAirways to confirm our times and found out that we now arrive at 1:49pm instead of 11:51am. We can no longer make Sansa's 2pm flight, which is their last flight of the day.

We cannot afford to pay for a charter flight, so now only have the option of spending the night near San Jose and trying to catch a morning flight with Sansa (if any are still available). Or getting a rental car and driving ourselves. I don't think we're up for the bus trip there.

If we should drive, we would have to stop somewhere along the way before nightfall and spend the night. Can anyone who's made this trip recommend a place to stop about 2 -3 hours away?

Also, does anyone know approximately how long a drive it would be in total? And what the road conditions are like? I had heard that the roads aren't good and there aren't many towns along the way in case you have car trouble. But another reader recently told me that the roads were recently repaved, or redone (doubt it's paved all the way) and the drive wasn't bad.

After spending 4 nights at Bosque we will be traveling on to the Jaco area. So I'd be interested in knowing about driving conditions coming up the coast also. We were in the Manuel Antonio to Jaco area last year and were pleasantly surprised with the roads there. But are more concerned with the roads south of there, going through Osa.

We had a rental car last year, and my husband felt fairly comfortable driving from SJO to Jaco, then on to Arenal, and back to SJO. We just avoided driving at night, and learned to go slowly.

I would welcome hearing from anyone who has driven to or from Osa recently. Thanks so much for your help!

Molly2

While, July probably doesn't quaify as recent, I have done the drive to the Osa. Actually, a driver drove my husband and me from Savegre Lodge, which is perhaps a couple of hours south of San Jose, to Sierpe, where we caught a boat to the Drake Bay area. I would not choose to do this again, as it was a long, and, as we got further south, VERY hot and humid drive. We flew back to San Jose, a comparative breeze. I would personally choose to fly out the next morning to Osa, but that's me.

On the other hand, you are familiar with the Costa Rican highway, and it might be an adventure.

Jessie_

Bosque del Cabo is a lot further away than Drake Bay. I would allow around 7hrs (driving times are always approx in CR because you just don't know how driving conditions will be at that moment) to drive to Puerto Jimenez over not too bad roads. From PJ to Bosque the roads will be rough going and are not paved. Plan on about 45mins for this leg. This would not be advisable at night at all. You will be traveling on the interamerican which can get extremely fogged in in the higher elevations. There is also a lot of truck traffic. The newly paved area is the coastal road from Dominical. From San Jose, the furthest you might get would be San Gerardo de Dota but, again, you will be running into the fog that time of day as well as cutting it short for darkness.

So sorry to hear of the schedule change. I am sure you are disappointed. Honestly, if it were me, I would make lemonade and just stay in Alajuela the night you arrive and take an early flight out to Bosque the next morning rather than loose a whole day driving.

We are running into schedule conflict and changes ourselves for our christmas travels. And we paid for those tickets! We use FF's to travel to CR and it is a pain not being able to make changes.

Good luck and I hope they don't change you any more.

greenfieldhunter

You will really enjoy the area. I have not done the drive(we flew)but I have heard that it is one of the longest in thwe country. I am sure it will be fixed but last I heard Puerta Jimenez was cut off by a mudslide.
Get a nice room in SJ, try an afternoon trip have dinner and catch the 6:00 am flight the next day.
Sorry

dfarmer

Just another suggestion. Have you considered reversing the order of your trip? Could you drive to Jaco for your first leg and then do Bosque at the end?

karenf

Erin, We have not done this drive recently but did it the summer before last. It was very long, there were places where the roads were bad,e.g. one washed out and we were lucky there was a small dirt road we had to go around but that also included fording a stream. It is too much of a waste of time. Stay in Alajuela over night and fly out early the next morning. We took a six am nature air flight and got to Bosque in time for breakfast this summer.