www.CostaRicaTicas.com

i was in jaco and i told the van driver i need to go to the airport and he quoted me $164 one way to go to san jose, haha, little did he know that i just wanted to go to the local airport.. he had his daughter with and was all ready to go to san jose.. well $10 later i was flying to san jose with my $29 fare, i only had to book the fare 6 months in advance to get... lucky me...

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I know nothing, nothing!

I'm sorry, but there's NO way it only took 3.5 hours to drive there. It's 200 miles to Tamarindo, which means you would have had to drive 65 mph the whole way, and anyone that's ever driven that knows that's simply not possible given the number of slowdowns because of trucks and busses that back up traffic.

On top of that, you claim he made pitstops in heredia and what not? Sorry, it's just not going to happen in 3.5 hours. 5 hours is a pretty conservative travel time. I've driven about 10 times, and it's never taken less than 5 hours.

You shouldn't have had to pay for the ferry, it's the taxi drivers job to pay for any extras like tolls or ferry's, and he includes that in his price.

In any event, my point is that $600 is not "over charging", it's about average. Most drivers will charge you a minimum of $100 to go to Jaco or Arenal (one way), both of which are about 1/3 the time and distance. Getting $50 off that price is indeed a discount.

I don't know Gustav, and have never used him. So i'm not trying to defend him, but frankly i think you're estimates are out of whack if you think it should have been significantly cheaper.

Oh, and as for poor driving, what you describe is not out of the ordinary. Seriously. I see tico's drive that way all the time, and it still freaks me out, but it's still something you have to expect.

I was thinking the same thing but decided to let that point go. Actually your math is a little off (what is it around here?). The average speed would come out closer to 57mph, but your point is well taken. Maybe you can drive that fast on the PAH between Esparza and Liberia (assuming he went that way), but driving through SJ and Heredia traffic will really drag down that average speed as will driving down the twisty mountain road to the coast behind all those trucks and the much rougher road to Tamarindo after Liberia (or La Palma if he got off the PAH there). You'd probably have to drive WELL over 65mph on the PAH part of the drive to make that up.

Also he mentioned taking the ferry on the way back. You talked about the ferry and toll charges, but I was wondering why he even went that way. I could see possibly returning across the Nicoya Peninsula and crossing back to the PAH by way of the new Tempisque River bridge, which USED to be by ferry. However the roads get even worse after around Carmona all the way to Playa Naranjo and then there is the wait for the ferry itself. I guess that is why these guys make the big bucks because they know ways to go that I would never think of.

Hell, *IF* he can get you there and back in 3.5 hours each way, it's well worth the $300 for a carload of people. That guy deserves a tip!

That said, my math was calculated at 3 hours, not 3.5.. but oh well.

There are places you can go quite fast on. 18 from Limonal across the new Nicoya bridge you can go quite fast until just on the other side, then the road gets pretty bad and you're speed will have to drop significantly. And, there are likely places along the PAH where you can get up some speed, but the mountains will kill you because of the trucks, delaying you significantly until you can find a place to pass them. Then you have all the rinky dink towns where you have to slow down somewhat as well, not to mention the larger towns that have a few stop lights.

If you go through Liberia, add another half hour or more to your time.

It just seems to me that Mike is pissed off because his expecations were out of line with reality, and then he wants to blame the driver, and throw in some comments about his driving to make it seem worse.

Fact is, most people would commend a driver who gets them there in record time, and for those that would prefer a slower pace.. well, tell him to drive slower and compensate him for his effort.