Car rental or private driver
 

I have been reading several trip reports and dicussions about driving in CR and a little confused. We are planning a 6 day trip to CR early May - fly into SJO, 3 nights arenal, 2 nights MA and back to SJO. I have 2 kids ( 6, 1.5). MY questions is :

Should we hire a private driver for the 3 long trips between destinations or rent a car?
If we hire a private driver...is moving around in arenal and MA fairly easy and economical?
What are my other options?

Thanks in advance for all your help

It reads like there will be three of you traveling. Were I to do this, I would hire a driver for the long legs of the journey and use local transportation for Arenal and MA. A driver would allow you to tend to the young ones in transit and stay with the car and luggage through any stops. Interbus might work. Most of the "tours" will pickup/dropoff at your hotels so that local transportation is taken care of. Personally, I would pick hotels in both locations that have suitable food available in house, or are located close to a range of restaurants that open fairly early for the children.

Hiring a driver for the entire time would be very expensive, in my opinion.

Arenal Volcano is actually about 20 km from the town of La Fortuna. However, lodging is spread out all over the place and most of it will be closer to La Fortuna.

You can check here for more information: www.arenal.net

I mostly agree with kinkazote's advice, although I do like Arenal Observatory Lodge very much, it is kind of remote. And I think that going with tours that provide transportation is a good idea - but - for this area, I would consider renting a car just for the time you are in Arenal. It will give you so much more flexibility and freedom. You can then pick and choose the places you want to go without always going on a tour or having to take a taxi.

We always hire a driver just because my husband likes to relax and enjoy the view. We just use taxis while we're in town, but a lot of people do like to have a car in the Arenal area because it's spread out. Los Lagos and Tulemar Bungalows are very popular with young families if you want to check them out. Also Si Como No. Taxis are cheap in MA, and for the most part, things are clustered together.

Thanks for all your replies. We are going to be in Tabacon and Tulemar respectively. With 2 kids me and and my husband are tilted towards hiring a driver for the longer distances.
Locally Are there car rentals available only for the Arenal/ La fortuna area? How far is Tabacon from the waterfalls, hanging bridges and other points of interest? How is the food in Tabacon? Good restaurants in Arenal..how far are they from Tabacon? How much do you think we will spend on taxis in Arenal? Any recommendations?

There are several options, you can rent a car, you can a have a private services beteween places or for the whole trip, or you can just move around with shared shuttles, shared shuttles are less expensive than private shuttles and they have a very good service, there are several companies, here's one: http://www.transportationincostarica.com/