AustinCountyAg said:
doing some research CR seems to be a pretty neat place. Looking at hotel online on the west side of the country many seem somewhat isolated. For those who've been did yall rent a car or just pay for taxi's/private shuttles?
Several hotels have caught my eye, but I dont want to be isolated at the hotel. Looking to travel to different bars, beaches, etc.
For your scenario, rent a car.
We just got back a week ago. Stayed at Dreams Las Mareas (Nicoya Peninsula) for 1 week then La Fortuna area for 4 days. We flew into Liberia, picked up rental car there and drove it to the resort where we dropped it off at the National desk. Shuttles we priced were quite expensive, 1 way rental was cheaper even with the drop off charge. Got another car when we left Dreams for the drive to La Fortuna. Kept the vehicle for the remainder of the trip. Taxis would have been quite expensive for us as we were on the go every day and our rainforest eco-lodge was actually 1/2 hour south of La Fortuna. The excursion shuttles didn't pick up that far out.
Make sure your rental vehicle is 4WD with reasonably high clearance. The highways are pretty good but local roads are pretty dicey, lots of potholes. There will be times when you have to slow to a crawl to pick your way through them. There are no street addresses used in CR. The best "address" you will see in decent size towns is nearest junction, like Avenida 100 Calle 300. Other addresses will be something like "100 meters past the post office" (which has no address). Villages will feature mostly "unnamed road". Get the GPS with the car or get the Wifi gizmo that works in the car and use the Waze app. We didn't know about that option. I had read that CR men drive like madmen but didn't really see much of that. You may find yourself driving aggressively in some situations. I know if I never have to make the drive around Lake Arenal again, it will be too soon. So frustrating with the slow traffic due to constant hills, switchbacks, etc. Oh, and the mudslides/water running across the road.
We had to stop at 3 different police checkpoints but they just looked in the windows and waved us on. As mentioned, be sure to have your passport handy.
I am not the Six Million Dollar Man, but I might need that surgery. "We have the technology, we can rebuild him!"