jdrl

i was wondering if anyone could give me drive times from a few place in costa rica
we will be driving a 4x4 and do not care to much about roads being paved.
dominical to monteverde cloud forest.
monteverde cloud forest to san jose.
monteverde cloud forest to tortuguero national park.
and manuel antonio national park to tamarindo
any info would be great. thanks

shillmac

Dominical to Monteverde--about 7 hours

Monteverde to San Jose--at least 4 hours

Monteverde to Tortuguero--depends. Tortuguero is not accessible by vehicle. You would need to drive to San Jose and from there arrange air transportation or vehicle/boat combination.

Manuel Antonio to Tamarindo--about 4.5-5 hours.

Traveler863

We drove from Monteverde to a hotel in Alejuela (near SJO airport), it took us under 3 hours and that included a traffic backup on Pan Am hwy because a truck dumped its load and torrential rain for part of the drive. I would guess it could be done in a little over 2 hours on a good day.

shillmac

I'm curious about your time! Although we haven't been to Monteverde, we have driven from Alajuela to the Pacific coast many times and it usually takes us about 2 hours to reach the point where you leave the highway to continue on up to Monteverde! I understand it is slow going from there and takes a fair amount of time. It doesn't seem possible to do this drive in less than 4 hours! That's amazing.

Traveler863

Shillmac, I'm not sure which road you are referring it takes 2 hours to reach to leave the highway for Monteverde, there are several. The fastest way is to turn off at Sardinal and for the first 10 miles or so this road is wide and paved, then it turns to gravel but was not bad and we did not hit much traffic. That part took us about an hour or hour and 15, its the Pan Am hwy that was the hang up and it appears always like that. On a good day, without alot of traffic or other obstacles the drive from Monteverde to Alajuela could be done in about 2.5 hours, probably less.

shillmac

I'm talking about the Interamerican highway from Alajuela. It takes us (on a good day) about 1.5 hour to get to Puntarenas; and continuing on the Interamerican, another 30 minutes to Rancho Grande, which is one of the roads leading up to Monteverde. I'm still confused--wish I weren't! Can't find Sardinal on the map. But am definitely interested in the fastest way since we want to go there sometime!

I'm not trying to be argumentative--I guess I'm just not familiar with the route you take!

shillmac

Sardinal is between Liberia and Playa Coco--finally found it! There must be another town by that name. Pretty common down there.

Traveler863

Shillmac,
I think we're talking about the same road, I believe the signage should read at Rancho Grande "Sardinal, Guacimal, Monteverde". The Sardinal you found near Liberia is another town of the same name. Your drive times for Pan Am hwy are different from our experience, perhaps you hit even worse traffic than us. For example, from the turn for Puntarenas to Rancho Grande is only about 10 miles, I realized Pan Am hwy can be slow but 30 minutes to drive 10 miles? It took us two hours to drive from Alajuela to the turn off for the bridge to Tamarindo....sounds like that might have taken you 3? Also, we're pretty aggressive drivers and don't didle around...we do alot of passing

shillmac

So when you turn there at Rancho Grande, it's only about 30-45 minutes from Rancho Grande on up to Monteverde? I guess this is where I was confused--I always thought it was longer. Well, I THOUGHT we were agressive drivers. We've been on that road probably 15 times and I thought we had learned to drive like the Ticos---perhaps not!! LOL

Traveler863

Shillmac,
No, from Monteverde to Rancho Grande (Hwy1 junction) it took about an hour or hour and 15 minutes, that combined with about an hour and 3/4 (truck and rain delays) or so on Pan Am totals about 3 hours. We made no stops.
Another example of drive times is Arenal to Monteverde most say 4 hours, we did that in 3.5

shillmac

jdrl. . .sorry for the prolonged discussion on your thread. I hope something in there was helpful to you! LOL

However long it takes you to drive from one place to another, have a great trip!

Jessie_

Can't give exact times because we missed the turn the first time, next time we went via Arenal through the clouds by horseback, another time was from Liberia, there was another time also, but can't remember how we arrived. The last time I was there I took the public bus from Monteverde to the airport. If you take away the 1/2hr break for food/bathroom, it took 3 1/2hr by bus. Most people can drive faster than the bus so conservatively it would be around 3hrs from Monteverde to Alajuela. For you speed demons, 2.5hrs does seem possible. We prefer to take our time and enjoy the scenery so for us 3-3 1/2 hrs is more like it-we also can't resist stopping for at least one rainbow picture or the Gulf of Nicoya along the way down the mountain.

jdrl

thanks for the help.
now if i dont get lost trying to remember you you said. lol

shillmac

jdrl,
If you do get lost, it will the most fun you've ever had while lost! Arm yourself with a Berndston & Berndston laminated map of Costa Rica. You can usually pick one up at Barnes & Noble or order online. In one of the past threads, someone posted the website for the company. You can do a search. The map is excellent in its accuracy. Some of the maps you pick up down there tend to be a little distorted and downright incorrect! The B & B map will be your new best friend! Have a great time!

Ally

I seem to have lost my Bernston map....urg!
When I went online yesterday to get another, It showed they were 'sold out'. That's a bummer because our Barnes & Noble does not carry them. I sent an email to the 'sales' people on the web site to ask when they would have more but as yet have not received a reply.

kazsi

Ally,
I just got my maps (Berndtston & Berndston and Nat'l Geographic) in yesterday's post. Put this into Google and you'll find a lot of people offering the map for sale. Good luck!

Berndtson and Berndtson map Costa Rica