I have read on threads how you should never drive at night in Costa Rica. Is it safe to pick up a rental car at the airport and drive to the Doubletree Hotel on the outskirts of San Jose in the evening hours or should I taxi it and get the car in the morning? Thanks in advance.
Jeff

I find it much easier to take a taxi after a long flight. The new surroundings make it more difficult to find your hotel and street signs are not plentiful in Costa Rica. Tricolor picked me up the next morning and I had the car in a very short time.

Physically, the Doubletree is not far from the airport, maybe three miles. You can see it from the main highway. But the highway exit is odd, and you have to make a couple of funny turns, part of which takes you a couple of hundred feet on a deserted looking road. I wouldn't attempt it at night. Get the car in the morning.

No reason to pay for the extra day on the car, just hop in a cab.

Save the grief and get the car delivered to you the next day (better than going to the rental office: have all your paperwork in order, and Europcar will do this (almost) as early as you want!)
p.s. Make sure you know exactly what the taxi fare will be BEFORE you get in a cab (even for that short distance).

The orange airport taxis now use their meters instead of charging fixed rates the way they did for years. The driver could give you an estimate but won't be able to tell you for sure what the fare is until you arrive.

Except that they have a chart where all the costs to the hotels are written down, which they don't pull out until AFTER the meter has reached its maximum, and stopped counting, and you have arrived at your hotel; then all of a sudden the price is 3 times what it should be. We had a metered cab, asked the price to our hotel, and were told "no problem, just pay what the meter shows." Except the meter stops at $20. Major ripoff (especially if the route goes the "long" way to your destination).

Hi, I agree with all the other folks, get the car in the morning. Please take a look at my Costa Rica Travel Blog under travel tips category where I talk about renting a car in Costa Rica. I wrote it after my experiences renting a car there and it will save you a lot of time and money. Have a nice trip, costaricalearn

Because our plane came in around noon, we opted to get our car when we arrived and drove on to Orchideas Inn. We wanted to get an early start the next day and didn't want the hassle of getting the car in the morning. We were also concerned that having a car delivered to the hotel could result in delays (don't know how often this happens). It all worked out well. However, on the tail end of our trip we were coming into San Jose late afternoon and got totally lost. As we drove in circles, through bad areas, and trying to find our way with our three maps, the sun was setting and panic set in. It seemed like once we got lost there was no recovering - if only there were a street sign here or there! At this point we were tired, hungry and confused so we pulled into a gas station after a taxi. We asked him how much he'd charge to get us to our hotel - he'd drive and we'd follow. Well, he got us there in less than 10 minutes and charged us three dollars. With a tip, it was the best five bucks we had spent in a long time! I would NEVER drive in San Jose at night.

MominFL,

Great idea to hire the taxi to follow - I love that suggestion and will try to remember it. We were lost in Liberia on our first trip trying to find a friend's house, ended up in the middle of their annual fiesta. We were driving down the main street with the oxcarts, horses, dancers - LOL now, but it was pretty stressful then!

While we didn't end up in the middle of a celebration (but would MUCH rather have been there than in some of the areas we drove through) we did manage to see some of the same buildings several times! Since we were a family of four on an 8-day vacation, there was way too much luggage to fit into a taxi so this was a good solution. We even thought of doing the same thing the morning we had to drop off the car and get to the airport but the hotel staff "drew" us a great map and we made it without extra scenery! We laugh about (and kept for the scrapbook) the directions hotels gave us - they were always detailed drawings of buildings and landmarks BUT NO STREET NAMES! However,I have to admit, it was easier for everyone to "look for the bank on the left, gas station on the right" rather than read street signs to find our way through town. Our kids thought it would be a great idea to start up a business that made Costa Rican maps consisting of pictures instead of street names and numbers!