My husband and I are going to do a multisport adventure trip next winter. The one place we'd like to visit that isn't on the itinerary is the Arenal area. At the end,going back to San Jose from Playa Pan de Azucar/Hotel Sugar Beach on the NW Pacific coast we pass by Liberia and Cana. I want to leave the tour in one of those places, grab a rental car and drive to Tabacon. Is that reasonable? And on the map it looks closer to drive to Liberia, but is it actually quicker to drive to San Jose? Either place has flights to get us home that will work.

Although Liberia may be shorter in distance, the drive is a little longer (by maybe an hour) because the road from Canas to Arenal (around the lake) is pretty bad. If you are thinking of doing Arenal as a daytrip from either Liberia or San Jose, I'd recommend against it. You're talking seven to eight hours of driving (round trip) and you only have about 12 to 13 hours of daylight.

Hello, Tabacon is better to reach from San Jose via La Fortuna.
Saludos
costaklaus - www.costaricaweb.de

Sorry, I didn't mention we'll be spending 2 nights.

Pat

Tabacon is easier to reach via San Jose but the Liberia airport is so much easier and quicker than the one in San Jose. Just my 2 cents here.

If you are doing the majority of your trip in the Sugar Beach Hotel area (very nice property, by the way), then you could drive from there to Tabacon/Arenal in about 5 hours... The best route is via Upala not going around the lake... The road from Tilaran to Arenal town is in very bad shape... I did the Upala road last week and it's okay for CR standards.

From the Arenal area you are better off heading to San Jose than back to Liberia.

Can you do an open jaw flight - fly into Liberia and fly out of SJO? Otherwise you could fly to SJO, then get a one way to Liberia and shuttle (or rental car) to Sugar Beach. Sugar Beach Hotel is quite isolated so a car might be an idea to get out and see the area depending on your schedule.

Then take the car via Upala to Tabacon/La Fortuna and then on to San Jose... There might be a drop off charge - depends on the company/dates etc... You would need to check that part out.

When you look at distances for driving in CR you need to double (or more) the driving time at least from what you might be used to in North Ameria. i.e. Sugar Beach to San Jose is about 195 miles - this will take about 5 hours.

Hope this helps make up your mind...
Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew:
Wow, it's hard to believe that long detour is necessary, but I'll take your word for it. Is our best bet to rent a car at the Liberia airport? Can you recommend some agencies?
We're flying into SJO because that's where the tour starts, with running the Pacuare on day 2, then moving north and west through the week.

Thanks, Pat