www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Cyrano

I ws in Tamarindo last week. I rented a manual transmission car from Dollar at the Liberia Airport for $417 for 5 days. The quote rate was $256, but by the time I bought the pre-paid gas, and maximum insuranc the cost escalated. That is normal, but in CR, I prefer to pay more for a zero financial risk on a possible collision. Road from Liberia is smooth but approach roads are very washboarded and bumpy. I got along OK, and roads are dry and dusty. A SUV i nice though and gives higher ground clearance. I think that guanacaste has few delas in condos now. Prices are moving up close to California level. I think other parts of CR offer better deals. Actually, I think Guanacaste during dry season is hot, windy and dusty. I much perfer the green season in 'Gonacostu" province.
PS be advised that prolonged road work is going on near Tamarindo and that you may be shunted off into unmarked detours. Otherwise, the main roads are well marked.

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Providing humanitarian assistance to self employed chicas, one cash grant at a time.

There are Rental Car companies along the main road in Tamarindo. I don't remember exactly which companies are there, but you can arrange a taxi to meet you at the Tamarindo air strip, and bring you into town. It's only about a 10 minute drive from the air strip into town. A 4 x 4 is not necessary for trips around town, or to other beach towns, but I always rent one, simply because it sits higher than a small car, and it helps when you hit some of those potholes. But if you want to drive the "Monkey Trail", you DEFINITELY need a 4 x 4. Otherwise, not necessary.

IMHO, you don't need a GPS. There's only one main road in and out of town, and not many side streets to get lost on. And, once you drive out of Tamarindo, there are clearly marked directional signs at all intersections, telling you which way to turn for other surrounding towns.

You (and your chica) MUST have proper ID at the Sansa counter. If she's a Tica, she'll have to show her card, and if she's anything else, she'll have to show her cedula or official ID from her home country. You, of course, will need your passport.

Getting a ticket the day before the flight is always a crap shoot. But there are at least 4 or 5 flights daily, from SJO to Tamarindo, so if you just "show up", you might get on a flight within the hour, or you might have to wait a couple hours. If you buy an extra ticket ahead of time (for a chica), they charge $15 to change the name on the ticket. I was not aware that their site says that tickets are "non transferrable".

I fly Sansa every month, and I buy my tickets online ( www.flysansa.com ). I always buy an extra ticket for a chica, but seldom know who it'll be. I just use any random name, and pay the $15 for the name change at the Sansa counter. Keep in mind, it always takes about an extra 1/2 hour at the airport for them to remove the old name from the system, put in your chica's name, and re-print the round trip tix for her. So make sure that you're at the Sansa counter about 90 minutes before your flight (if you have to change the name on the chica's ticket).



There's no doubt about it, it's definitely cheaper to drive from SJO to Tamarindo, but I won't ever do it again. That's a call that you'll have to make.

Hope this helps, and have a great trip.

Mucho Gusto

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

MG, the $15 name change for the ticket was what I was hoping for. We will be flying!

Since I can't get Tamarindo to come up for the rental car search, how should I go about getting the Tamarindo rental car reservation? (I presume the rental people can arrange the taxi for me.) Expedia was no hlep, but OneTravel did have some National offerings.

Is there a good web site to find CR rentals?

Thanks!

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"Ah, if only I had brought a cigar with me! This would have established my identity." - Charles Dickens

Unfortunately, I can't help you there. I ALWAYS use the same rental car company in Guanacaste (Economy Auto Rental). I normally fly into Liberia Airport (Airport code: LIR), and jump in their shuttle for the ride to their office. Their office is off-site, about 3 or 4 miles East of the airport. I've used them on more than 20 trips to the coast, and NEVER had a problem.

But Tamarindo is a different animal. It's not an airport, per se. It's nothing more than an old asphalt strip, with grass growing through it, and cows grazing along the fence. You actually have to drive through a small river bed to get to the waiting area. There are no big check-in counters, or ATM's, or bars, or kiosks, or immigration, etc.... It's basically an over-sized tool shed on the side of a field. I just flew in and out of there this past weekend.

You can try a couple different things:
Either have your hotel (in Tamarindo) arrange your pick-up at the Tamarindo Airport, and once you get checked into your hotel, you can go directly to a rental car office on the main strip in Tamarindo. Or.....

Do a internet search on "Costa Rica Auto Rental". You'll get over 4 million hits with that search. Remember, that Tamarindo is not like Las Vegas. You won't have as many choices in rental car companies, but they are there. It might be easier to just wait, and get the rental car once you get in town.

There's also a couple different car rental companies in Flamingo (about 25 minutes from Tamarindo) and Brasilito (about 20 minutes from Tamarindo) and Huacas (about 15 minutes from Tamarindo). I don't remember the names of these companies, but I've seen their office signs as I have driven by in the past. If all else fails, you might find a company in one of these outlying towns that'll bring the car to you. Just another possible option.

Here's a website where you might be able to get your Tamarindo car reservations. Let me know how it goes.

http://www.1costaricalink.com/eng/trans ... nt-car.htm

Good luck,
MG

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I did both the Interbus and the flight there. I'll tell you that I will never do the drive again. The roads SUCK in some parts, but aren't too bad for the most part. I chose to take Interbus because I'd save some money and see the country. There's not much to see, and the time wasted is worth much more than the difference in price of bus and flight.

It took 5 hours to get there by Interbus. It's a comfortable ride with a stop or two, and if you need to stop, the driver will. The trip back was 7.5 hours. It was raining hard and the traffic got BAD near San Jose. We were supposed to fly back but I didn't pre-book the flight and when we got to Tamarindo "airport", they said ALL the flights are booked, but if we wait they "may" be able to get us on a flight sometime that day. No thanks, so we had no options and had to pay $200 for a taxi to SJ. It was me another CRT and 2 chicas, so it wasn't too bad.

The flight is about 40 minutes total. The flight isn't scary or anything. As long as they clear the mountains, there should be no problem. JUST KIDDING!!! The roads seems much more dangerous in my opinion. We had a couple close calls coming back, while trying to pass trucks on a one lane slippery/wet road. We prayed a lot.

When I flew out of the Tamarindo airport, an employee of NatureAir asked what I liked to drink about twenty minutes before the flight time. He came back 15 minutes later with three cans of ice cold beer and handed them to me while boarding the aircraft. The flight is not scary at all once you accept the fact that there will be a lot of up and down motion and side to side motion. These are small planes and it seemed incredible that we took off from the Tamarindo airstrip while going relatively slow. It was so cool.

The Tamarindo airport is only 5-10 minutes from all of Tamarindo. I took a bus into Tamarindo from San Jose (5+ hours) and the roads approaching Tamarindo totally suck. The road would go from paved to gravel multiple times. I guess it tested my new 80GB Ipod. My Ipod did not skip a beat on these terrible roads. What a music/video player!

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

Little planes don't bother me. My brother is a pilot, and has crashed three times - never with me in the plane so far. Besides, I'll bet these planes have more than one engine!

Thanks for all the help guys! If you are there when we are, the beer is on me.

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"Ah, if only I had brought a cigar with me! This would have established my identity." - Charles Dickens

Nope. Sansa flies single engine planes!
MG

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

I usually have a parachute on. People look at me and laugh, but if something happens, I'll be the only one laughing.

I thought I read somewhere, that NatureAir has twin engine planes. But I've never flown with them, so I can't confirm. I'm pretty sure that their prices are in line with Sansa's prices though, but they fly out of the airport in Paos (or Pavas - something like that).
MG

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Well, you are limited to 27 pounds including carry-ons, so how much does the 'cute weigh? Do they search it and make you repack it?

( )

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"Ah, if only I had brought a cigar with me! This would have established my identity." - Charles Dickens

NatureAir flies the safe two engine otter airplanes. The cost is about the same as Sansa. I think the piece of mind of an extra engine is worth over a million dollars when you are at 10,000 feet in the sky!

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

Cyrano illustrates a good point, the little planes can glide to safety on an engine out and generally do not end up in fatalities, i.e. his brother crashed 3 times and is still alive...... interesting enough the thing pilots are scared about the most is malfunction in the wing lifts and the tail steering... NOT THE ENGINE GOING OUT BECAUSE THEY CAN GLIDE TO SAFETY IN THE SMALL PLANES, such as the alaska a flight which was doomed when the steering/tail went out. Most accidents actually occur during takeoff do to wing problems not the engine. I fly puddle jumpers all the time and consider it much safer than driving in CR and the economics are basically a wash.

That was a nice tip. http://www.natureair.com/ Thanks! (The savings in paracutes alone will be worth it!! ) Since we will bracket the Tamarindo flights with time in SJ, the different airport should be no problem. Might even be easier if the flights from that strip are all domestic.

Does anyone know if they are as flexible as Sansa on passenger name change? (Presumably @ $20pp.)

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"Ah, if only I had brought a cigar with me! This would have established my identity." - Charles Dickens

Fly for sure, even though they crash on the average of at least 1x a year, but in my unofficial tally of crashes say over the past ten years, Nature Air, which changed its name about 4 years ago to change its image after a bad string of downers, has gone down alot more than Sansa flights. But I think driving is statistically worse. A recent article I read claimed CR has one of the highest per capita motorist death rates in the whole world, a problem CR govt is now trying to address if you have noticed in various ways. Never thought about the parachute idea, may be a winner if u have the time. There was one flight a few years back, 22 year old captain, flew smack into the side of the volcano in zero visibility conditions. I don't think it would work in those scenarios.