www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Yeah....that public bus deal is hard to beat, but I don't think it would work for me. I pack a large suitcase and a carry-on, plus a laptop, for a 30 day stay.

I'm always amazed when I see some guys come for a THREE MONTH STAY.......and all they packed was a carry-on.

I just measured it on Google Earth and, unless the driver really "takes you for a ride" by taking some weird route to jack up his fare, it is just under 19km from the exit door at SJO to the front door at the SL, including all twists and turns and normal convulations due to one way streets. That comes out to 10,665c which is just under $20 at the current rate of exchange (I'd probably be a sport and let him keep the extra 335 colones as a tip ). And I THOUGHT that is about "all" it had been costing recently (not sure where ID's $26 came from - had it really gone up that much? )

Incidentally, just for comparison the regular cab rates are 420 for the 1st km, 380 for ea add'l km, 2275/hr por espera and 3800/hr por demora. I'm not sure exactly what the difference in CR is between waiting and delays. Does any one else? In the US, these rates are normally charged per minute not per hour because on a typical cab ride they would not add up to more than justa few minutes. And waiting would be like when you actually ask a cabbie to wait somewhere (like if you take a cab up to Ram Luna and ask the taxista to wait while you have dinner so that you'll have a ride home) and delays are when you're actually at a complete stop due to traffic. CR rules can be so screwy, who really knows how it works there? Perhaps waiting is for complete stops due to traffic whether requested or not and delays rack up even if you're still moving albeit slowly? But then how much would you have to be slowed down to qualify as a delay? That all seems very problematic. I'd THINK it would have to work like it does in the US. And in CR, rush hour delays on the way into SJ where you're actually at a complete standstill rarely add up to more than just a few minutes if that. So even if it takes you 15 minutes longer than usual to get into town, probably no more than 5 of that is due to complete non-movement, which would add less than a buck on to your fare.

RE: paying in colones. This is rarely a problem for me because I usually keep some leftover colones for my next trip. But then I usually only need about 70 cents worth because I usually take the bus. Even if I don't have enough colones, its no big deal to go upstairs to the bank booths and exchange some US dollars for colones at decent rates. I do NOT use ATM's that early in my trip because of the fees involved (regardless of which ATM you use). Still I think this new policy about paying in colones will really mess up the more typical gringo tourist and unofficially exchanging dollars to colones at poor rates in order to pay the fare will probably become a favored way for these cabbies to make a little extra profit on each trip.

Making tourists pay airport taxis with colones must be the stupidest thing I've heard all day, but I'm sure the Tico brain trust will come up with something even more stupid in the news manana.

_________________

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"Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: Re: From SJO to Gulch, cab fare?
________________________________________
Pierre6242483 wrote:
What can I expect to pay for cab fare from SJO to the gulch? How much should I tip?


The past 2 trips I have been charged $25 straight-up at the window at SJO to go to the Sportsmens Lodge.

SR

ChiTownGino
_______________________________________
paid 25.00 to the SL 8/5 paid at the window in the airport like i always do."

Recently spoke to a guy and he said he was charged $26.00



You must be referring to fees charged by your bank as the Red Total network (Scotia, BAC-San Jose and others) do not charge any fees. Scotia has ATM's through out the airport.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

ID,

Leave it you to correct me. On nitpicking points for that matter

Re: what the old fare was. If you had bothered to notice, I never said you were actually wrong about the $26 rate, only that I was not so sure about it having REALLY gotten that high. That was no mere accident. I carefully worded it that way. Frankly, as that line also suggested I have not personally taken a cab from the airport in a while (have YOU?) so I will readily admit I don't really know firsthand what they've been charging recently (again, do you?). Ever since they started charging different amounts for different destinations in SJ rather than one flat rate, the amounts reported have really been all over the map. I suppose I could dig up some other quotes contemporaneous with the ones you posted that would show much lower amounts. Even one of the quotes that you used showed that at the very least "official" pricing has become inconsistent.

Moving BEYOND all that, this aspect of the fare pricing shows a few more things.

First of all, if the rates really had gotten up as high as $26, then there has been good reason why so many of us have turned to other much cheaper ways to get to downtown. For us, these changes on airport taxis are basically irrelevant, since we've already completely given up on airport taxis anyway. For others, who had been continuing to use airport taxis, it might be the last straw, that makes them join the rest of us (at which point what the cabbies do becomes irrelevant for them as well).

Secondly, if the rates that different cabbies and ticket window clerks were sometimes gouging some guys for had really gotten up that high, maybe that is PRECISELY the reason ARESEP is now making everyone use meters (because, as I calculated it with a meter, the fare should really have only been coming out to $20 or perhaps $21 if there are some traffic delays). Ironically, if guys had been balking at taking cabs because they thought the rate was up to $26 or had even gotten stuck with that on their last trip, some might return to taking cabs if they believe the meter will keep their fare down to "only" $20 (still way too high for me). BTW, these new meter rates do not really represent a decrease from the old "official" rates. If you go to the ARESEP website, you'll find that these rates actually represent a 9.8% increase on the 1st km and a 13.3% increase on subsequent kms and/or delays versus the rates that were in force before (ARESEP document on airport taxi fares see page 5).

Re: ATM fees. On your second correction, we've been over this several times before, so apparently you just don't get it. You keep ignoring the fact that most of us do NOT live in CR fulltime as you do (probably even more so if we're taking cabs from the airport and needing to get CR currency each time we arrive) and we do NOT do most of our banking in CR. We do NOT choose our banks based just on what it will save us on a one week trip a few times a year and our bank account's native currency is NOT in colones. And, even if we did and it was, "perfect" options like Scotia or BAC-San Jose simply do NOT exist where we live. ScotiaBank may be really big in CR (and Canada of course) but I'm pretty sure they do NOT have any branches in Florida let alone Tampa. Redbanc may be really big in South America but I'm willing to bet most of us here in the US have NOT even heard of it. Most banks in the US use multiregional networks like Cirrus, Maestro or PLUS and/or one or more of the more common North American networks such as Honor, Presto or STAR (which can also sometimes be found in CR). What you fail to realize is that, if your situation were more like the rest of us, you'd more or less be forced to use an ATM not owned by your home bank and most likely have to rely on one of these other interbank networks. You'd also have to do some sort of foreign exchange since your home account would be denominated in US dollars and the whole point of this exercise was to get local currency. In those situations, there is nearly always some charge that the bank passes on to us for the "foreign transaction" (in this case "foreign" meaning just any other bank) PLUS probably more charges for withdrawals denominated in a currency foreign to our US dollar based accounts.

MY point, which was probably lost in the ensuing discussion, was that the need here is simply to get colones for the cab, not to take money out of your bank account, and bringing dollars to exchange (which you should have plenty of anyway this early in your trip) completely eliminates any possibility of getting hit with any extra bank fees REGARDLESS of which bank you use.

Prolijo,
The last time I was in CR in May, the taxi fare started at 465. Did it decrease recently?

The other thing to keep in mind is that MANY taxi meters in SJ are "fixed" in my opinion. They are a "little" fast, but since nobody regulates or oversees this stuff why wouldn't they be... I have had 100 trips from my apartment to Ave Central and the fare is almost always much different. I don't mean 10-20 colones, I'm talking about 575¢ one trip and 850¢ another, under similar traffic conditions. Another CRT told me that they have noticed this too.

Btw, Interbus is STILL $7 from the airport to any downtown hotel, right to the front door, just like the taxi.

:lol:







:

Hate to nitpick but i do "get it". When I use an ATM in Costa Rica, using a Scotia, HSBC, BCR, BN or other ATM, it is with my Florida Credit Union card. No need to have a Scotia, HSBC, BCR, BN or some other account your home bank will work just find. Most ATM's in CR are members of one of the major networks.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Orange,

I'm sure you and both would strongly doubt that any taxi rate could really have gone DOWN.

I'm too lazy right now to look up the date of those fares on ARESEP. Everything on that site is in spanish and buried in bureacratic gobbledygook (you should see their complex algorhythms for calculating what the fares should be). Those 2 factors are a double whammy making it harder for this barely spanish literate gringo to find out the exact info. To their credit the sites does seem to be kept updated with their latest pronouncements, but they also seem to leave everything up making it that much harder to figure what is the latest info.

Perhaps the fare you got in May was some special higher "Evening" fare? Perhaps the meter was doctored? Or perhaps I really did get it wrong. My point was that the standard meter fares on airport cabs is significantly more than it has been on regular cabs, which I guess is to be expected.

Re: most taxi meters in SJ being fixed, that is an excellent point. In fact, I think it is really more than just your opinion. I seem to recall some study that was done that found some absurdly large percentage of cab meters were messed up as you suggested. That just makes the idea of their requiring the use of meters on airport cabs as a means of cracking down on abuse of tourists a pointless one (absent any enforced regulation of those meters). For getting around town, a few extra colones per km (or a few extra fractions of a km than was really driven) doesn't really add up to that much and there isn't really all that much we could do about it any way (other than to walk or take buses which is not always safe or practical). So we pretty much just have to accept it, like the ticos do. Taking a cab from the airport is another story. A few extra colones per km can add up to a few extra bucks when the kms involved are as far as it is from the airport rather than the just 1-3 that it takes on downtown hops. Add to that there are other other cheaper alternatives (using Interbus or the public buses as you or I do respectively) and it just doesn't make much sense to chance it with the airport taxis (and their meters) any more.

Yep, it will be interesting when the fare from the airport is $21 one trip and $29 the next, and $25 the next.

ID,
I hate to nitpick but apparently you still DON'T get it.

I just looked it up. Unless you keep more than $2500 in your checking account, FLCU only allows 8 free ATM transactions per month. After that it is $1 per transaction. And that is even for THEIR ATM's. Since they only have 8 branches and they're way up in the Gainseville/Ocala area, you pretty much HAVE to use other bank's ATM's. Their website goes on to say that all FLCU accounts can get cash from any "nationwide network ATM with no machine surcharges" but you "Must submit receipts within 90 days of surcharge for rebate to be processed." FLCU will also "rebate other bank’s ATM fees if you access your FCU account at an out-of-network ATM.**FCU transaction fees may apply.""Submit your ATM receipts showing the surcharges you’ve paid, and we’ll deposit your refund directly into your checking account within 10 business days. Mail your receipts showing the ATM surcharges, along with your name, address and your account number to:....(yada yada)". WTF!!! That sounds really great . I couldn't find out whether or not they charged additional fees for foreign currency exchange over and above any basic ATM charges, but I did see a whole variety of charges for many other more typical bank transactions, so one really needs to look at the total package and not just what they think they might save in CR.

BTW, what does most ATM's in CR being members of one of the major networks (and Redlink(?) is NOT one of the major ones), have to do with anything. No one was saying one couldn't access their accounts through a CR ATM. The issue is what fees would be involved, charged by those networks to the banks and usually passed on (or even added to) by the banks involved on either or both ends.

But whatever FLCU charges for ATM withdrawals is still really completely beside the point. Again, my REAL points are:

A) Most guys pick their bank on a whole variety of factors other than whether it saves them a buck or two on an ATM charge 2-3 times per trip that they take 2-3 times per year. I'm guessing most other guys who spend most of our time in the US, don't really give a damn how cheap you think your Florida cracker bank is for taking cash out in CR. Particularly since, unlike you, most of us only go to CR for a week or two at a time and can easily just bring most of the cash we need and not use any ATM's at all, which brings me to my 2nd LARGER point.

B) REGARDLESS of which bank you use, there is really no need to use ANY ATM at all just to get $20 worth of colones for a cab ride (or to change to a particular bank just because it supposedly doesn't charge for foreign ATM's), when changing money upstairs at the bank booths is as easy as it is and we still have plenty of cash already in our pockets (albeit in dollars). IMHO, unless you live in CR and HAVE to turn to ATM's eventually, the ATM's are for much later in your trip when and IF you run out of the cash you brought with you.

You can nitpick about your Florida Cracker Union and why you think it is so much "better" all you want, but addressing these real issues would be much more to the point when we're discussing the need to get colones to pay for a cab right after arriving in CR

I am not going to carry this on after this post.

I did not say I was member of FLCU. I said MY Florida credit union which is not FLCU. I only used it as an example to clear up your misconception that one had to have a CR based bank ATM card. Kabbish????

The only one who has used "Redlink" in this thread is you. I referred to RED TOTAL ATM MACHINES which are part of the Cirrus network.

Now if you would like to continue this nonsense use the back channel.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Going to the airport from the Amistad yesterday I got a taxi myself instead of having one set up (just forgot). Got an old guy whose hand was shaking. He used the meter, came to 7500 colones. 6000 colones plus 3 1-dollar bills did the trick, only other bills I had were 20s.