Making a road trip is one of the best ways to travel because you make the best of your time and can stop at each place that interests you. But a road trip in Costa Rica is an incredible experience since it allows you to get to know the country from one coast to another and enjoy all the natural wonders.
If you like biodiversity, raw and wild nature, exuberant landscapes, and the perfect mix between beaches and mountains… If you are looking for a safe country with friendly inhabitants and the best tourist destinations, Costa Rica is for you.
And there is no better way to get to know Costa Rica than making a road trip.
Some things to consider on your road trip through Costa Rica.
- The roads are in good condition, but they are usually only two lanes, so traffic is slow, and traffic jams may happen.
- In Costa Rica, people drive carefully. However, be careful with motorized vehicles as some can be totally reckless.
- Gasoline is quite accessible.
- Use traffic apps like Google Maps or Waze. GPS is also a good option.
And now, we start our car and hit the road as we talk about the best road trips in Costa Rica.
From San Jose to Puerto Viejo.
San José is the capital of Costa Rica and is a city noted for its colonial architecture. You can visit the National Theater of Costa Rica and appreciate its neoclassical style. You also can stop by the Plaza de la Cultura and the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, which has an exhibition of hundreds of gold artifacts.
Get your car and drive to Puerto Viejo, the Caribbean coast. Puerto Viejo is famous among surfers for its perfect waves and beautiful beaches like Playa Negra.
There is a Jaguar Rescue Center that rehabilitates lynxes and other animals in the area. Cahuita National Park guards an incredible coral reef, but you can dive and observe shipwrecks.
From Puerto Viejo to Manuel Antonio: the national park on the Pacific coast.
Manuel Antonio has an extensive jungle, dense and raw, with beaches of soft white sand and spectacular coral reefs.
It has a wide diversity of fauna and flora, with wild species typical of the tropics. There you can find sloths and white-faced capuchin monkeys, an endangered species.
Manuel Antonio National Park has a vast expanse of land with trails for trekking and excursions to walk from the coast until the top of the mountains.
From Manuel Antonio to Tamarindo.
Tamarindo is a town located in the province of Guanacaste, known for its beaches and biodiversity parks.
Tamarindo has beaches with strong waves, such as Playa Tamarindo and Playa Langosta, ideal for surfing and other extreme sports.
To the north of Tamarindo is Playa Grande, a nesting space for enormous leatherback turtles.
The Tamarindo Wildlife Refuge is responsible for protecting animals such as howler monkeys and crocodiles.
These are some of all the road trips you can do in Costa Rica, exploring from the Caribbean coast to the Pacific coast, you have so many other options. On this kind of road trip, you’ll experience the freedom of the road.
Discover the wonders of Costa Rica with Budget vehicles and travel safely.