kellylevy asked 9 years ago
Hey guys! Just wondering your thoughts as to whether or not a 4×4 is recommended /required for our trip. We are planning 17 days in CR with the following itinerary : San Jose – Arenal – Santa Teresa/ Mal Pais – Manuel Antonio – Drake Bay(time permitting) – back to SJ. We would like to rent a car the whole time mostly for convenience but are also open to suggestions about returning the car somewhere along the way if it’s not longer required (ie. for Drake Bay).
Mostly, we are wondering how necessary the 4×4 is – since it’s double or more the price of a compact car with most companies. Not sure how much off road exploring we intend to do, but we also have no idea what to expect…
Thanks in advance!!
Kelly
Thank you Jenn & Matt!Your response is beyond helpful!!! I think we’re going to return the car in Quepos/MA as you suggested, seems it will be less stressful and cheaper that way as we are only 2 people traveling. Do you recommend using a specific shuttle service from MA to Sierpe? Or, as an alternative, do the local buses offer convenient service as an option? And lastly, is it easy to coordinate the shuttle/bus schedules with the water taxi schedules (if I understood correctly, there is only 1 early morning and 1 afternoon water taxi?)Thanks again for all your help, also really enjoyed the posts – super helpful !!!
Hi Kelly,
The bus is a little tricky because you have to take a few different ones to even get close to Sierpe so a shuttle is your best bet. Monkey Ride (http://www.monkeyridecr.com/images/pdf/mr-destinations-rates-021714.pdf) has one that is $40 if they have 2 other people traveling that day (4 person min.), otherwise it’s $160. Easy Ride is another company that makes that trip but we don’t recommend them because we’ve heard about them not showing up more than once. What you could do is contact Monkey Ride to let them know you’re interested on X date, and if they get 2 more people, go with them. If they don’t, you could always wait and figure out transport by talking to your hotel when you get to Manuel Antonio. Hotel owners always have lots of connections and this is a frequently traveled route. And as for coordinating with the boat in Sierpe, everybody knows when the boats leave so schedules are always based on that.