If you’re not from Costa Rica and you plan on driving in Costa Rica without a GPS navigational unit, you will probably find that it’s easier to drive in Costa Rica than you may think. Here are a few things you should know off the bat:

  1. Costa Rica, for the most part, does not have street names.  Not only are there not known official street names, people rarely refer to a street even with a colloquial name.  Often, directions are given by the use of a landmark.  If you don’t know local landmarks, you’ll have trouble getting around.  However, on the drive out to Manuel Antonio, that won’t be a problem.  For the most part, it’s the same road the whole way.
  2. Drivers in Costa Rica don’t usually follow the rules.  You’ll see people stopping on the highway with their car halfway in the lane, no one will use turn signals and people will rarely get out of your way if they’re blocking you in the left lane.  It’s the Costa Rican driving culture, so you have to adapt.
  3. Mileage markers in Costa Rica are not correct. On your drive, you will often encounter a situation like seeing a sign for Jaco that says 68km followed by a sign for Jaco that says 75km and in the process you drove for 10 minutes in the direction that you believed should be taking you to Jaco. That’s perfectly normal, so don’t be alarmed because you aren’t going the wrong way. Most things to do with Costa Rican road infrastructure — highways, entrances/exits, signage, street names, mileage markers, etc — are worse than the infrastructure in the United States.

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s how to get to Manuel Antonio from San Jose:

First, get onto the Panamerican Highway going west as you leave the airport.  This isn’t really easy to do, it’s actually the hardest maneuver you’ll need to figure out.  Here’s a general screenshot of what you should be doing:

Assuming you rented a car at the airport, this is how you get going in the right direction.  When you exit the airport, you’ll be on the yellow line closest to the bottom of the image.  It snakes around the airport and leads you out to the main highway into San Jose.  The problem is that you need to turn around because you actually want to be on Highway 1 headed west (the one that heads out the left side of the picture).  Take the first sign that you see to Alajuela.  The road will come back towards the airport. Then the road will split and one sign will say “San Ramon” and the other will say “Alajuela”. This time, you must take the San Ramon option — ie, stay to the left. If you make a wrong turn here, it can be very confusing and difficult to get back on the highway. Be sure to not take the Alajuela option when you see the San Ramon sign. By the way, if you’re coming from downtown San Jose, this step is super easy. Go to the airport and just after you would have taken the left exit into the airport, follow the sign to San Ramon.

Okay, now you should be safely on Highway 1. Proceed for about 10 km, or 6 miles. You will be exiting on the right at the sign for Atenas. Shortly before you get off the Highway, you will see a large Dos Pinos factory on the other side of the highway — you can’t miss it. If you haven’t seen the Dos Pinos factory, then you haven’t gone far enough. If you see it and you don’t get off soon after, then you missed the exit. Be careful — exiting in Costa Rica is not as well-marked and as well-planned as highways in the United States.

When you get off the highway, follow the signs for Atenas. Technically, you will be on Route 3, but the signs won’t indicate that you’re on Route 3. This is the general idea of the first 10 miles or so of your trip:

You’re taking Highway 1 west to Route 3. Then you stay on Route 3 for a little while. You’ll go through some small towns and about 30 minutes later, you’ll find yourself in Atenas. You might not realize you’re in Atenas though – it’s a small town and it isn’t really marked well. The good news is, you don’t have to turn. Just keep going until you get to Orotina, which is your next turn. In terms of mileage, Orotina is about 40 km, or 25 miles, past the Atenas exit from Highway 1. That means a total of about 50km, or 30 miles, from the start of your drive. However, it’s hard to miss Orotina. You’ll see a large gas station on the left and a large sign for a store called “Super Bateria” shortly after the gas station. Very soon after you go by the gas station, you’ll see a sign for Jaco that looks like a real highway entrance sign and it will lead you to the right. Take this highway entrance.

This is a large overview of what you’ll be doing in Orotina (you’ll be following Route 3 from the top right to the bottom left):

However, that can be hard to see, so this is a closer screenshot. Once again, you’re following the sign to Jaco and you want to stay on the yellow line marked as Route 3 and you’ll be traveling from top to bottom-left.

Very soon after this highway entrance, you’ll see another sign for Jaco. Take this exit as well. This is what it looks like and it has red lines on it to show your direction of travel:

Congrats, you’ve basically made it.  You’re now on Route 34 and you’ll be on that for the next 90 minutes or so.  Some landmarks include:

  1. Signs for Jaco on your right — you’ll get to these about 30 minutes after Orotina.  You’ll also see Plaza Herradura on your right which contains an Auto Mercado (the best grocery store in Costa Rica), Inka Grill, Samurai Sushi and some other good restaurants.  This is a good place to stop and eat if you’re hungry.
  2. Shortly after Jaco, you’ll go by the famous Playa Hermosa, which is a top surfing beach.
  3. About 40 minutes after Jaco, you’ll go through a town called Parrita.  One of the joys of crossing through Parrita is that there’s a one-lane bridge over a river.  While there is a new bridge being built (you’ll see the new bridge under construction) it is a little ways away.

About 20 minutes after Parrita, you’ll cross a very small one lane bridge into the beach town of Quepos.  Just after the bridge, the road will look like it’s splitting, stay to the left.  If you go to the right, you’ll just be forced to turn around because the road on the right will force you to miss the turn.  Go straight and then make a left.  Here’s a screenshot of Quepos:

That shows you entering town across the bridge, dipping to the left, turning left at the end of the town (there will be a sign for Manuel Antonio) driving through the southern end of town and taking a right at the end of the street.  Once again, there will be a sign for Manuel Antonio.

You’ve now reached the “Main Road” of Manuel Antonio.  About 5 minutes up the road (and a few steep hills), you’ll be in “downtown” Manuel Antonio.