www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Any noticeable difference between the two? Sansa has more flight time options, but is $20 more. Same king of planes, etc?

Used to be that Nature air was more $. Only real diff is Sansa flies out of Int'l airport and Nature Air out of Bolanos near Rohmoser--similar planes, not exact, but similar from a passenger's perspective. One nice thing about Sansa is that it has a one week airpass for $200 or so--fly all u want. I used to fly to the beach in the am and party all nite back in SJ but that requires a lot of effort. I think I saw where NatureAir may be offering some kind of similar pass but not sure. They both crash about once every couple of years or more. That 's one of the reasons Nature Air changed it's name from TravelAir maybe four years ago--they had a bad spell and wanted to change their image.

I flew NatureAir simply for the fact that they fly the larger twin engine Otter airplanes. Sansa only flies one engine Cesna airplanes. We all know about the numerous Cesna airplane crashes over the years. My flight from Tamarindo was actually quite fun. You will get some "bounce" in the sky since these planes don't have much weight. I did find the Natureair flight crew to be very professional and they look very well trained.

From San Jose, Natureair flies out of the small airport about 20-25 mintutes from the San Jose International airport. There are always taxis there.

My safety is my number one concern beyond price.

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I will travel the world over to find a better latina! Gringas have flat asses..

You would think a twin would be safer but my recollection of crashes in CR let's say over the past 10 years, more than half of them for sure have involved twin engine craft. Remember Stanfield Turner, head of the CIA under Carter? He went down in a twin in 2000, killed his wife and 3 others. For some reason they didn't pull that plane out of the house that it crashed into for a long, long time, so whenever you would fly that route, you'd see the tail sticking out over the rooftops. All of the crashes that I can remember were definitely pilot error except one that rec'd alot of media attention app 3 years for the super brains of the captain in avoiding a crash, but I forget which airline company he flew. The last crash down here involved a 22 year old captain who flew thru cloud cover smack into the top side of the volcano with a load of tourists. Took the recovery people 3 days to reach the site. Very very frequently, commonly actually, you fly into complete cloud cover going over the mountain ranges, so it's all instrument flying then.

Still, with CR having one of the highest per capita automobile/road fatality rates in the world, it's still probably safer then driving, and the time saved--e.g., 25 minute flight to Quepos, 3.5 aggravating hs by car, I fly.

Beautiful: a bunch of info about how much they crash. Thank you, gentlemen. I guess I asked for it.

I'll be flying from San Jose to Tambor, if that means anything to ya.

Tiki,
Like DGD said, you're safer in the air.

But seriously, on a clear day, it's very safe. On a bad weather day, I'd probably pass and eat the ticket. Most air accidents are weather related. I took the SJO-Liberia flight in Sept and it was fun.

Flown them both. Nature Air has bigger windows for a better view. Took my GF on her first ever flight on Sansa from SJO to Quepos. Hit some turbulance over the mountains and scared her shitless. Still had her nail marks in my arm a month later. Also remember tourists pay a higher fare on both.

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My life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming...." MAN....WHAT A RIDE!!!!"

I know what you mean, on my gf's first flight last year, I had no blood in my hands during take off and climb. But she loved it. Thank God it was a pretty smooth flight.



Technically it's true, but I would rephrase that, to make it more easy to understand. Instead of saying tourists pay a higher fare, I'd say Ticos/Ticas pay a lower fare. The published fare, usually $70-85 each way, is the toursit fare. I was told that they get 50% off that, but there's a catch. They have to walk up and buy their own ticket themselves and show their cedula (gov't issued ID). You can't book online for the both of you. The problem is that if you walk up the day of the flight, they may be sold out, it's a small plane (12 max), so it's a good idea to have her buy her tickets a couple days before to make sure you get on the same flight.

oops - see below

Tiki - watch what flight you get to Tambor. The later Natureair flight stops at Nosara first and is well over an hour from Pavas to Tambor. I had booked online a few weeks before the flight, on the 12:30. They called me about a week ahead and asked if they could bump me to the 3:30. I said sure because on the website it looks like it is cheaper and I thought I would get some refund. They didn't tell me about the stopover at Nosara at the time, and No I didn't get any money back. This was a couple weeks ago.

It wasn't that bad I guess I got to see a little more birds-eye view of CR but still kinda ticked me off a little. That said I have flown both airlines and I felt more secure in the DeHaviland Twin Otters. Same planes that got that lady doctor out of Antarctica when she felt a lump in her boob in 2001 and have been to the North Pole more times than any other aircraft, according to their website. They are pretty cool planes, why they paint them so butt ugly is beyond me.

Thanks Orange I thought Ticas could fly cheaper but didn't know how to do it. No you can't book online that way, that I could see.

Tiki - where are you staying? Tambor Tropical is expensive ($$/night) but totally awesome.[/quote]