Is it possible to travel from SJO airport to the Guanacaste region by car in one day?
 

Our plane arrives in Juan Santamaria airport (SJO) and our hotel is all the way in the Guanacaste region located in playa hermosa. After booking everything...plane, hotel, and car rental...i did a little research on my own and discovered that point A and point B are quite a distance away from eachother...about 210 miles. My family will be first time visitors to Costa Rica...and i've heard about how difficult the roads are...we've rented an SUV for this reason...but now we're having doubts as to if we can make it from the airport to our hotel in one day. Any advice? (besides hiring a driver or taking a plane?) How long do you think a drive like that will take? any advice would be greatly appreciated. <BR>Thanks <BR>--Lisa

Did the trip a few times in one day. Would suggest driving during the day. Main roads are good. We did not have an SUV but were able to get to alot of remote areas without one, so you should have no problem. Fill up the gas tank whenever you get a chance, don't wait until near empty.

It depends on when your plane arrives in San Jose. The drive will take 4-5 hours and you definitely shouldn't be driving after dark in CR (because roads are bad and there are almost no signs). It gets dark at 6pm.

It depends on when your plane arrives in San Jose. The drive will take 4-5 hours and you definitely shouldn't be driving after dark in CR (because roads are bad and there are almost no signs). It gets dark at 6pm.

Lisa <BR>Plan on several hours, 5-6. Also are you planning to drive to Liberia and backtrack or crossing using the ferry. <BR>If the latter, plan on a minimum two hour wait just to board the ferry. <BR>You can drive, best to start early in the morning. <BR>good luck <BR>1

Went to Costa Rica in 1998, had planned on spending night in San Jose as plane landed around noon. We figured we would be tired and would just want to relax so we mad resi at the very American Holiday Inn Aureola for the first night. We were planning on taking a bus to the Pacifi coast the next morning; however, we got into a cab at the airport thinking we would go to the holiday Inn and just happened to as the cab driver how long it would take to get to the coast and he said 3 1/2 - 4 hours and that it was crazy for us to spend the night in San jose. To make a long story short, we took a ab all the way to the coast for $25/person (there were 3 of us) We mad e the trip with him, got there in 3 1/2 hours, tipped him well, and checked in a day early to our hotel. It was great as the next morning we could wake right up and go to the beach! I'm guessing it took the cab driver less time as he knew the road well, but it probably wouldn't ake you more than 4 1/2 hours to do the same trip.