|
|
|
 Costa Rica Travel Tips:
* Always wear your seatbelt, don’t speed, and drive carefully! Traffic fines can be excessive. * Some roads in Costa Rica can be poorly marked and maintained. *
Drivers can sometimes be aggressive and careless, often passing at
blind curves and intersections. Driving at night is strongly
discouraged. * In the summer months
there’s often heavy rains in the afternoons and early evenings, so
it’s best to travel in the early mornings. * The trip into
Nosara, Costa Rica can be quite beautiful, but anticipate the
possibility of difficult driving conditions and rough roads.
* The actual town of Nosara, Costa Rica, is a few more kilometers
further inland from the Beaches of Nosara - If you continue past
Playa Guiones, through some more twists and turns for about another 5
km you will come to Nosara Centro, the business district, where you
will find grocery stores, a pharmacy, post office, airport and a few
restaurants and limited shopping.
Original Driving Route - San Jose to Nosara (about 5-6 hours): Driving
from San Jose to Nosara, you will take the main Interamerican Highway
(Carretera Interamericana) north out of San Jose (past the large
international Juan Santamaria airport). This highway travels north
and west toward Guanacaste Province. While in San
Jose, be sure to have a couple hundred dollars changed into colones
for "road-trip" money. It's easier for gas stations, sodas and
restaurant purchases. Once you get to Nosara (or other tourist and
beach areas) dollars are generally accepted.
- Depart the “Juan Santamaria” San Jose airport on the Pan American Highway, headed west to Punterenas.
- Continue past the exit for Punteranas, north towards Liberia.
- In
about an hour you will reach an intersection which will intersect the
road which leads to the “Puenta de Armistad” bridge which
crosses the Tempisque River. There will be signs for Nosara
and Liberia, a gas station and restaurant. Turn left.
- Follow
this road for about an hour, across the bridge to the intersection for
Nicoya/Liberia. Turn right, and continue north to Nicoya.
(Note Just past the turn to Nicoya there’s a “Maxi Bodega”,
similar to a Walmart, which is a good place to stock up on food
and supplies).
- Drive
straight through Nicoya and follow the signs for Nosara/Garza/Samara.
After about 20 minutes you will reach “Caimital” where
there’s a “T” in the road with a stop sign. Turn right.
- In about 30 minutes,
there will be a Samara gas station on your left. Gas up if
you need to, otherwise we have a full service station in Nosara, about
45 minutes away. Just past the gas station, across from the
“ferreteria (hardware store), the road continues left to
Samara with a gravel road forking off to the right and signs
for Nosara. Turn right on this unpaved road.
- Go
slow, as this rough road winds through the countryside, passing through
many small villages and there are a lot of people and
animals. Go slow and enjoy the scenery!
- In
about 30 minutes, you’ll arrive at another “T" in Barco Quebrada. There
will be a lot of signs and billboards in front of you here.
Turn right.
- In
about 20 minutes you’ll pass the the beautiful bay and fishing village
of Garza. Most sport fishing boats are based here. Soon, you
will pass Esperanza where there’s a good convenience store,
“Dos Lorenos”, then a school (please go slow).
- Continue
a couple minutes more and you pass through Playa Guiones, with “Café de
Paris” on the left and “Coconut Harry’s Surf Shop” on the
right.
- Continue
about 5 minutes further through a series of curves and you will see
Hotel L’aqua Viva on the left. About 50 meters beyond, around
another curve (and just before going down the steep hill)
there will be a small side road on the right and a sign for
“Buena Vista Villas”. Turn right here, and in just a couple minutes you
will arrive at our parking entrance on the right!
New Driving Route - San Jose to Nosara (about 4 hours):
There is a new superhighway toll road in Costa Rica, called
“Autopistos del Sol”, which can save about an hour of drive time and
the aggravation of slow moving vehicles in the mountain passes on the
the original highway. The only downside, depending on your arrival
time at the airport, can be encountering rush hour San Jose, which
could make this route’s value debatable.
-
Depart the San Jose airport towards San Jose, headed for
“Escazu”. You will pass through the center of San Jose, and
make a right at the corner of “Sabana Park”.
- Continue
to follow the signs for Escazu, and take the 2nd Escazu exit, which
enters the Autopista del Sol, bound for Puntarenas. There
will be several tolls, and in about an hour you’ll be in
Puntarenas.
- From
there, head towards Liberia / Nicoya, and turn at the intersection for
Puenta de Armistad bridge which crosses the Tempisque River.
There will be signs for Nosara and Liberia, a gas station and
restaurant. Turn left.
- Follow
this road for about an hour, across the bridge to the intersection for
Nicoya/Liberia. Turn right, and continue north to Nicoya.
(Note Just past the turn to Nicoya there’s a “Maxi Bodega”,
similar to a Walmart, which is a good place to stock up on food
and supplies).
- Drive
straight through Nicoya and follow the signs for Nosara/Garza/Samara.
After about 20 minutes you will reach “Caimital” where
there’s a “T” in the road with a stop sign. Turn right.
- In about 30 minutes,
there will be a Samara gas station on your left. Gas up if
you need to, otherwise we have a full service station in Nosara, about
45 minutes away. Just past the gas station, across from the
“ferreteria (hardware store), the road continues left to
Samara with a gravel road forking off to the right and signs
for Nosara. Turn right on this unpaved road.
- Go
slow, as this rough road winds through the countryside, passing through
many small villages and there are a lot of people and
animals. Go slow and enjoy the scenery!
- In
about 30 minutes you’ll arrive at another “T" in Barco Quebrada. There
will be a lot of signs and billboards in front of you here.
Turn right.
- In
about 20 minutes you’ll pass the the beautiful bay and fishing village
of Garza. Most sport fishing boats are based here. Soon, you
will pass Esperanza where there’s a good convenience store,
“Dos Lorenos”, then a school (please go slow).
- Continue
a couple minutes more and you pass through Playa Guiones, with “Café de
Paris” on the left and “Coconut Harry’s Surf Shop” on the
right.
- Continue
about 5 minutes further through a series of curves and you will see
Hotel L’aqua Viva on the left. About 50 meters beyond, around
another curve (and just before going down the steep hill)
there will be a small side road on the right and a sign for
“Buena Vista Villas”. Turn right here, and in just a couple minutes you
will arrive at our parking entrance on the right!
Liberia’s Airport (Daniel Oduber) to Nosara (about 3 Hours):
- Depart
the airport and take a right. Follow this road about 50 kilometers to
get to the town of Nicoya. Just before you reach the flashing
light at the intersection for Nicoya you'll see a Maxi Bodega (a type
of Walmart) store on the left. This is a great place to buy groceries
and things you may have forgotten to bring! You'll then turn right at
the intersection and drive straight through the town of Nicoya on the
"main road", no turns. Drive slowly, as there are a lot of
pedestrians in this bustling town. You will eventually exit
town on the other side. Continue driving southward on pavement
approximately 30 kilometers or about 45 minutes, through some
twists and turns. Be sure to stay on the main, paved highway.
- Eventually you will see the Samara gas
station and a little "soda" cafe for snacks and drinks on your left.
Stop here and get gas - it's your last chance on the way to
Nosara.
- Right after you
leave the gas station, the concrete highway makes a sharp curve
to the left. At the apex of that curve, across from the hardware
store, you will notice a small dirt road turning off to the
right, downhill. That is the road to Nosara.
- This
dirt road is about 25 kilometers long and about 45 minutes from Nosara.
Drive slowly as there are sometimes dogs, children, horses and cows in
the road! Stay on the main road through the twists and turns.
There are occasional signs that tell you how many kilometers
are remaining. You will pass through many small towns and
villages. There is a T-intersection in the small village called Barco
Quebrada, turn right (there will be signs there pointing to
Nosara, and the main road should be wider and appear more
travelled).
- The people along
the way are very friendly, so if you aren't positive that you are
still on the main road, you can stop and ask a local where Nosara
is in Spanish: "¿Dondé es Nosara?". Most people will at least
be able to point in the right direction. When you get to the
beaches of Nosara, it will be very obvious that you have found
the tourist services - There are signs, surf shops, restaurants and
hotels in Playa Guiones.
- Keep
driving past the Playa Guiones area for another 5 minutes. You will
pass “Hotel L’AquaViva” on the left. Continue through this
“S” curve. On the right side, (just before a steep, dusty
hill) you will see a small road and a sign
for “Buena Vista Villas”. Turn right and follow this beautiful jungle
road uphill for about 3-4 minutes where you'll see a sign on
the right for Buena Vista’s parking lot. Park the car, kick
off your shoes, enjoy the awesome breezes and amazing views because
you’re there!
|
|
|
|
|
|
