Driving in Costa Rica can be quite stressful and intimidating, especially if you have never driven in a foreign country, a big city, or over pothole ridden roads that sometimes wash away in rainstorms. Every country is unique in its obstacles and peculiar driving rules, so I’ve put together a list of tips for driving in Costa Rica based on over a year’s experience of driving daily in the Central Valley and all over the country.
1. Rent a 4WD
If you are vacationing in Costa Rica and plan on renting a car, make sure it’s a 4WD. It’s not necessary to get around most places in Costa Rica, but it sure will make life a lot easier and you will then have the option to drive down the roads less traveled. Bonus!
2. Use your horn and heed other’s horns
In the US, we are accustomed to only using the horn when we want to let someone know how pissed we are. In Costa Rica, the horn is used for a variety of reasons:
- to say hello
- to say thank you
- to kindly let someone know you are passing them
- to ask if it’s okay to pass
- to encourage someone to go at a stop sign or when the light changes or is about to change from red to green
- to protest idiocy or warn against impending danger
So basically, if you honk your horn all the time while you are driving, you will fit right in.
3. Use your emergency flashers to communicate
Use them to say thank you or if you are driving on the highway and the traffic suddenly slows down.
4. Stoplights beat stop signs
There are quite a few stoplights that have been installed to replace stop signs. The only issue is that the stop signs were never removed. If you see one of these stop sign/stoplight combos, know that stoplight trumps stop sign; don’t stop if the light is green!
5. Be extra careful around buses, taxis, and 18-wheelers
They all believe that they own the roads and they are not afraid to shove someone out of the way to get to where they are going. Let them pass, do not play chicken.
6. Watch out for motorcycles
They never stay in their lanes and speed up and down the roads in the tight spaces between cars. Also, car drivers in Costa Rica do not respect the motorcycles – when a motorcycle is in a lane and a car is approaching at a faster rate, the motorcycle is expected to move over.
7. Watch out for potholes
But don’t swerve into oncoming traffic in order to avoid them. Sure, that seems like common sense, but it is one of the most common causes of accidents in Costa Rica. Just drive slowly over them if you cannot avoid them.
8. Watch out for missing roads
Sometimes the heavy rains will wash parts of the road away and there is no warning — no big sign, no clearly marked warning tape or concrete barrier. You just have to keep an eye out for this type of thing yourself.
9. Watch out for animals crossing the roads
The dogs here are everywhere, but they are incredibly street smart. I see less dogs lying injured on the side of the road here than I did in the States. What you do need to watch out for are animals like sloths, iguanas, turtles and birds. They aren’t aware that they are crossing a road!
10. Be aware of pedestrians and bicycles
They don’t have the right away in Costa Rica, but they’re everywhere, so try not to run them over. I say be aware as opposed to watch out because you can’t treat them with too much respect without causing trouble. I HATE that I’m saying this, but I’ve run into several instances of giving a wide berth or trying to be patient for a pedestrian or bicyclist with the result being the person I was trying to help getting incredibly pissed at me and yelling at me to move on because they have more than enough space. OK. Excuse me.
11. Keep your eyes open and look in all directions at once
That sounds crazy, but I’m serious. In the States, we are accustomed to driving in an almost autopilot fashion — watching the car in front of us and that is about it. In Costa Rica, it’s important to keep your eyes peeled for obstacles coming from any direction — potholes from below, bikes people and cars from in front behind and sideways. Just be more alert. And don’t always assume the other cars will obey the traffic rules, chances are they probably won’t.
Side note: If you are renting a car, you need to be aware of a common scam here in Costa Rica in which a thief will slit the tire(s) of a rental car in the parking lot of a restaurant or anywhere the car pulls over. Once you start driving and realize the issue, you pull over and this is when the thief, who has been following you, robs you of your passport, money and any other valuables you have. In order to avoid this, do not immediately pull over with a flat tire — drive to the nearest service station or well populated area. Change the tire yourself or call the rental car company for assistance. Keep your valuables out of sight and well hidden at all times.
What are your foreign driving experiences? Do you have any frightening or funny tales to share?
Apart from the final paragraph I think I’d fit right in with my Turkey driving skills in Costa Rica! 🙂 I can relate to all of those things and take full part in the honking of horns, much to the shock of visiting English friends.
Julia
Whenever I go back to the States I feel so weird driving the old way, obeying all the rules and being so passive. I like the new way with the horns – it’s so much more interactive 🙂
really good set of tips — driving in Third World countries is almost universally horrible. One of the reasons that I insist on never being in the front of any bus. Got to be ultra-cautious driving as well.
Thanks Michael! You are so right – ultra-cautious. Can’t get distracted for even a second!
I love the freestyling way of tico driving… always enjoy that “Stop” is merely a suggestion. I would add that the second driver in a line of two is always obligated to pass. If not, the second driver must fall back to allow other passers to have a space to duck in because they will try to pass everybody.
Also a left hand turn signal flashing on a bus means: “I’m turning left.” or “You can pass” or “I’m stopped.”
haha Mark, thank you for the additions! It’s so true about the bus turn signal – driving here requires a sixth sense!
I was driving earlier today and thought of a few more myself:
1. Tailgating is a must-do. “falling back” as you mention above can be leaving just a few inches between cars.
2. If you are driving in Alajuela, it is mandatory to throw out your common sense and disobey all driving rules. To fit in, try your best to get in an accident. Seriously, driving in Alajuela is like bumper cars.
3. Train tracks! There are trains now, driving down the tracks, no warnings. To stop or not to stop, that is the question.
4. CEDA = yield. If you have the right away at a yield sign, proceed through while honking your horn to establish your dominance.
These sound like great rules for driving in any part of Latin America. Love the list of horn uses =)
Thanks Andrea 🙂
my tip would be get someone else to drive. wow, costa ricas roads are in pretty bad shape from what i remember. another one would be, keep your valuables out of sight, especially in san jose. love the horn one too!
LOL!
Good tip about hiding valuables in the car. Thanks!
No foreign driving experience here, but I do have New Jersey driving experience, and I was fairly certain when I moved her that it was only a matter of time before I would get into an accident. I can relate to the poor road conditions, the need to be constantly vigilant, and the poor signage. There are intersections here that are so confusing you could easily end up going the wrong way down the road. And some places you just have to know how to get to.
Coincidentally, there is a huge population of Ticos in New Jersey. hmmm
Uh oh – I’m a bad enough driver as it is, so I think I’d rather be a passenger if I’m ever in Costa Rica! Interesting that they use their horns in this way though – here in Los Angeles it’s mostly used as an obscene gesture. 😉
Sara
Where did you get your Samurai outfitted? The snorkel, the bull bar, the roof rack, etc. was that done in CR or in the USA? BTW, did you buy the car in CR or the USA? Your vehicle is really sharp looking, we have a house in Playa Hermosa outside of Jaco, we want to buy a 4WD, would prefer to buy in CR, but if we must we will ship one from the US, thoughts?
Hi Warren! Thanks, I’ll pass along the compliment to Julio. He is the one who designed the vehicle. He purchased the bare bones Samurai straight off the boat here in Costa Rica, and then outfitted it throughout the years with things bought from the States or things bought here in CR. All the welding was done by professionals specializing in off-road vehicles in Costa Rica. We found that the most cost-effective way of bringing some of the extras (e.g. roof rack) into Costa RIca was to pay the airline’s extra oversize fee and bring it on the plane on a trip from US to CR. This method avoids having to pay taxes on the items. I think I remember hearing about a new store that sells 4wd items for reasonable prices, though – let me ask him…
As far as shipping a vehicle, I just got through doing that and the entire process is intense if you choose to handle the paperwork yourself. Some of the companies charge about $2000 to ship your vehicle (compared to ~ $700 doing it yourself). I thought they were a rip-off until I went through the bureaucratic mess to get my car out of customs. And I had Julio, a Tico with friends in the bizz, helping me. It was a nightmare. The whole process spanned 6 months.
If you speak Spanish, can get a car in the US for a good deal, can pay the $2000 to ship it from door to door through a company that handles all the paperwork, can immediately pay the taxes (1/2 the Costa Rican value of the vehicle), and then sell it in the future to gain $$ – then definitely ship a vehicle. If you want to minimize your hassle, or you do the math and see that selling the vehicle in the future will result in a loss or only breaking even, then definitely buy a car in Costa Rica.
crautos.com is a good website for shopping for used cars (can get an idea of the prices, too – they are HIGH here).
Any advice on how to prevent or check if your tires have been slit before setting out? LOVE the horn advice, I’ll be sure to follow it. Also, I am driving from Monteverde to Playa Grande and I can’t decide if I should go North via Liberia or South via Nicoya – I kinda want to go via the Tempique(sp?) bridge but I’ll be there in October so I worry a little about the road conditions…any suggestions?
Thanks again for all these great tips!
It’s been awhile since I’ve driven from Monteverde to the Pacific, but I asked a couple people and they all said go through Nicoya. Since you are driving in October, you need to check La Nacion for road conditions. If you don’t read Spanish, I think Tico Times keeps a section or an article updated on road conditions/closings. It’s been raining here nonstop for about 5 or 6 days as I’m writing this and the roads are starting to fall apart. You need to be extremely careful – in Oct, potholes literally form throughout the day and overnight and parts of the roads wash away. Watch the car in front of you – follow their swerve pattern and slow down if they fall down or suddenly buck – you don’t want to pop a tire in a pothole on those roads in the rain!
When you have fair visibility, drive closer to the center of the lanes to avoid floods on the sides of the road. And watch out for 18 wheelers – they don’t care about running you off the road and I can’t even count how many times one has decided they would rather drive in my lane than theirs (while they were coming in the opposite direction!!!).
…checking for slit tires – well, I would look to see if any tires are flat. That would be a sure sign someone slit them.
Good luck and enjoy your time in Costa Rica!
it is very intertaining the way you picture driving in populated areas of Costa Rica and I agree it can be a headache and dangerous sometimes but if one worries too much about it then it is not an adventure. Common sense is always a must have and rural areas can give travelers the freedon to explore all this country has to offer withough too much hassle.
It’s true that driving in the city is very different from driving in the country. There is even a huge difference between driving in San Jose vs. driving in the rest of the Central Valley. …all of it is definitely an adventure… 🙂
Driving Conditions has changed in the past 20+ years no need to worry that much… always do your driving in the day as you never know what you could encounter at night.
Drive safe that’s the best advice.
Yeah it has changed and the traffic in the Central Valley is a PAIN now, you have to pay much more attention. Maybe since you’re in Liberia you don’t know. I don’t even like driving anywhere near San Jose anymore haha.
Simply wish to say your article is as surprising.
The clearness in your post is just spectacular and i can assume you are an expert on this subject.
Well with your permission let me to grab your
feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please keep up the enjoyable work.