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I will be coming for a 10 day trip to CR in December, driving from San Jose to Nosara, and then from Nosara to Jaco area, then back to San Jose. Can anyone recommend the best road maps for these areas and where to obtain them on the internet.
Thanks in advance,
rich
southern californiaHello Rich
This website will give you the best online PDF format map available:
http://www.costa-rica-guide.com
This is the online secure order page:
https://www.mapcr.com/You can order his map in the mail, also.
I use a map purchased at MAPSCO.
Insight Map Costa Rica FlexiMap ISBN 0-84162-085-7Pura Vida
Bill MaesThe National Geographic Explorer Map of Costa Rica is very good. It is soft and designed to be folded and is water proof as well. I ordered maps from 3 sources (other than NG) and they all took several months to arrive. They came a month AFTER my first trip to CR. All four maps of CR I ended up with were identical in most details. The NG map is the easiest to use.
While maps can help you navigate in Costa Rica be forwarned that there are almost no road signs and often you cannot tell what town or village you just passed through. If there IS a sign it will be on a little telephone sign with the name of the village. Also note that almost ANYWHERE that has a church is a place and many are not on the maps. If you are looking at land in a rural area then you will want a topographic map as these are the only maps that have all the small rural roads.
Once I HAD a map I was surprised at how little good one does when you are entirely lost. We are used to the road signs in the US that are so good you can travel the entire country without a map and not get lost. It takes both signs and a map to keep from getting lost.
You may want to invest in one of those hand held GPS units such as made by Magellen and get a global map to upload the Central America portion.
You may also want a copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Costa Rica. Although it is not perfect it DID help us find a place to stay one night when we were getting desperate.
GPS:
Note that you do not necessarily need the map for the GPS system. If you understand longitude and latitude and how to read a map or use a scale on the map then you do not need the digitized map which will only have the mail roads and the biggest cities and towns.
I am not sure about road maps but I am going to tell you that if you miss the Nicoya peninsula, Montezuma, and Curu you will be missing some of the best places in Costa Rica. I have been all over Costa Rica and those places are amazing
I have done the same route a few times and it is quite easy, I bought a very good CR map at a Barnes & Noble and traveled the whole country with it. To bad you couldn’t fly into Liberia, but from San Jose just head towards Nicoya when you turn off for Nosara buckle up because here is where it gets fun! Then your next choice will be whether to go back out to the Pan American highway or drive down the nicoya coast to the ferry to Punterenas. It may be to wet when you go and the rivers will be to deep to cross, ask the locals. This route is fun and beautiful but will require a medium size 4X4. Then Jaco to San Jose is less than 2 hours and quite scenic over the mountains a very easy ride on good roads, although the mountain crossing is a bit hairy…but fun!
National Geographic Explorer is the best overall map I have found. If you want local topographic maps, try http://www.omnimap.com.
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. It really helps to be able to go to the source for folks who have, or are in, Costa Rica.
Best map I have found is Berndtson. Waterproof and much more detail than many others. I have four other maps but this is the best.
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