Hello! we leave tomorrow and I'm just realizing that I need help picking out a route to follow!
What is the best way to Arenal from SJO?

It looks like the the options are:

153 through Alajuela, then 53 north toward Muelle San Carlos, then 143 west through Fortuna

Or

hwy 1 Pan American to Canas, then turning on 143 and driving around the lake

option 2 looks easier but longer?

thanks for any imput

i mean 35 north not 53 :- ) And on another map it looks like I want to start on pan american either way and then either say on it toward San Miguel or turn off of it north toward Naranjo on 35....

I'm not good with directions and these maps confuse me... the road names seem to change dependingon which map I look at. Would a GPS help or would it keep telling me "unverified area ahead" that's what mine does here when I'm not in a city

Here's a good route map - http://www.yourtravelmap.com/costari...lmap/index.php I honestly can't recall which route we went (was being driven) but it was about 2.5 hours.

thank you so much, I will check it out!

The route through Grecia, Sarchi, Naranjo and Zarcero is quite lovely, but a little curvy. If anyone in your family has motion sickness, be prepared with non-drowsy Dramamine or seabands.

We just drove to Arenal earlier this week. We intended to take 141. Instead the GPS led us through San Ramon and we went that way. Much of the road was windy. We wonder if 141 would have been better - don't know.

The road around the lake is what I think we took leaving Arenal. We were going to Manuel Antonio and our desk clerk suggested we go that way to get a different view of the countryside. That road was also very curvy - maybe a better road - but it sure seemed like the curvy part lasted forever.

ADVICE - Get a GPS. We had that good waterproof map that has been recommended. However, it didn't help a whole lot because the roads aren't marked very well. Not very well is an understatement. We aren't sure if we ever did see a highway marking on one of the highways. And when we had to change roads, we wouldn't have known without the GPS. The bad news is that the GPS was expensive. The GPS was more than the original rental. ($11 a day) I told DH that we could have probably gone somewhere and BOUGHT a GPS for that price. However, in retrospect, we haven't happened upon anywhere that would have sold a GPS.

Debbie