I lived In Costa Rica for 6 years and I spent most of my time in the capital, San jose, which is what I am writing about now. The city itslef is quite small for a capital city but it makes it easyto navigate (up to a point!!). San Jose is located right in the middle of the country in what is called the 'central valley' although it isn't actually a valley. The airport is in the north west of the city, actually outside San Jose. Actually most of the decent hotels are outside the center too. I cannot really recommend and as I have not really used one but I did stay in the Hampton Inn once and it was fine.
Taxis Use them, they are cheap. A 30 minute drive could set you back the enourmous cost of £1.20!! They are red with a yellow triangle on the door. They are official but there are pirates around. Don't use them is my recommedation. Make sure the driver switches on the 'Maria' as the meters are called, and check to find out what the up to date start fee is. Sometimes they will put it on the night fare (which is 20% more) if they think you are clueless. It has been done to me and I just shout at them and they will make up some excuse!
Street names. Something I have to mention is that streets rarely have names in Costa Rica! In the center of San Jose, some streets have names (like 4) and the others have numbers but as soon as you go out of the direct center you have addresses like this one (which was mine): In San Francisco of two rivers, from the shell garage, 300/400 meters south, caramel coloured house with white railings, and a palm tree outside. That was a quite simple one.. the are ones which include: 200 M north, 100 west, 50 north, 25 east!! basicaly 100 m is a block to make things simple!!
Placed to visit. Well sincerely, San Jose is not my choice of place to visit in Costa Rica, I would much prefer to go to the mountains or beaches, but if you insist, then there is the Gold Museum in the Culture Square, which is puny compared to stuff I have seen Peru but netherless has some stuff in it. There is also a Jade Museum and you can even visit the National theatre. There is not much culture in San Jose really and it is all very americanised so if you are interested in culture look elsewhere. There is however, quite a good night life.
San Pedro: This is like the original Bar and Club area of San Jose, on the east of the City, there is one street which has something like 50 bars on it. There is a lot of drugs and violence there though so I wouldn't recommend it. A decent club is in the top of the San Pedro shopping mall, and on usual nights it costs £3 to get in, £1 for beer, £1.30 or so for other things.
Escazu: This is a more rural part of the city, in the west, and the bars are more far apart, but there are some very good scenes. La Patagonia is a really good bar, get there early or there will be no room.. Really, the queues go on for blocks!
Always be careful hanging around at night, there is crime and if you are not wary you will be in danger of being robbed. Just don't act stupid and you will be ok. Don't let that spoil you night out.
I would not recommend being in any part of the city center after midnight really.. there are many gangs and the redlight area spreads quite far.
If you want to know anything specific, email me!
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Great review, I loved reading it. I often wondered how I'd get on in Costa Rica if I'd been driving instead of relying on taxis and buses. I reckon with the lack of addresses and road signs I'd have been 100% lost all the time! Kat x
Rosemary1 28.04.2001 17:07
Hi, very interestingop, and I found the address problem quite funny :)
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Apr 28th, 2001
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