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Costa Rica: what car, bird-friendly hotel San Jose (1 Viewer)

jurek

jurek

Well-known member
Can you help me?

What car to rent? A normal car, a high clearance car or a 4x4?

I will be going in January to Cerro de la Muerte, San Isidro, Carara, Tarcoles, Santa Elena (Monteverde, Santa Elena), Arenal Volcano, La Selva. I plan to take a taxi from the town of Santa Elena to the reserves of Monteverde and Santa Elena.

Second question: do you know a quiet hotel in San Jose near the airport with plenty of birds for a morning introduction? At best, relatively cheap.
 
Re jurek's Second question; see the thread "Birding for the elderly in Costa Rica" # 12 (Patrick O'Donnell's response to my enquiry about birding in San Jose).
 
With regards the car, high clearance is useful on some of the rougher roads but probably not essential. It may be worth getting if you can get a good deal on a high clearance vehicle but otherwise I'd probably go with a regular car. Car rental seems to be a bit complicated in Costa Rica in that there's usually a mandatory insurance charge on top of the quoted price and this is usually quite substantial. The pricing is generally not very transparent, unfortunately.

Not sure on the hotel but keep in mind that Carara is not that much of a drive from the airport in San Jose. Somewhere like Cerro Lodge is only about an hour's drive away if the traffic isn't too bad.
 
Hi Jurek,

Can't help you with the second question at all, but to first I would say: all the places you list are easily accessible in a low-clearance sedan-type car (I've driven to most of them) except Monteverde, which I don't know about (I did go there, but took the bus).

I remember the road up the mountain having large, unsorted gravel and being generally unpleasant, and the car rental guy (at the Alejuala airport) flatly refused to rent us a car if we were going to go there. Mind you, this information is (god help me!) 26 years old! I am given to understand, however, that the access has not been improved in all that time - at least, not up until 2010, which was the last time I checked.

I don't think the road beyond Santa Elena up to the reserve was nearly as bad - maybe it would be in wet season - so, if you do rent a small 4X4, you probably don't need the taxi.
 
Peter C. said:
Hi Jurek,


I remember the road up the mountain having large, unsorted gravel and being generally unpleasant, and the car rental guy (at the Alejuala airport) flatly refused to rent us a car if we were going to go there. Mind you, this information is (god help me!) 26 years old! I am given to understand, however, that the access has not been improved in all that time - at least, not up until 2010, which was the last time I checked.
Click to expand...

Rebuilding of road to Santa Elena was completed in 2015, so no longer a problem with low clearance vehicle.

If you have time while in Monteverde, also check out Curi-Cancha Reserva - it has become the favorite of my wife and I.

Dan
 
Dan Miller said:
Rebuilding of road to Santa Elena was completed in 2015, so no longer a problem with low clearance vehicle.

If you have time while in Monteverde, also check out Curi-Cancha Reserva - it has become the favorite of my wife and I.

Dan
Click to expand...

Thanks Dan! I hadn't really looked into it recently, so this is indeed news.

(I had some idea that the road was being maintained in poor condition on purpose, because some people wanted to keep the hordes out- but that was just a rumour. Now, if we could just persuade the Colombians to get working on that Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta road...)
 
R.E. car etc

we went last year found it quite reasonably getting a small 4x4 daihatsu bego i think, it got us every where we wanted including monteverde and we stayed at cerro but booked in advance through trivago and that was cheap also but we were out of season.
 
Dan Miller said:
If you have time while in Monteverde, also check out Curi-Cancha Reserva - it has become the favorite of my wife and I.

Dan
Click to expand...

Sorry to veer from the original topic, I'll be there in March for a month so checked out this Curi-Cancha res you mention, looks nice but damned expensive!

$60 per person for the bird tour $75 if you want it fully private plus $15 each to get in so that's a whopping $90 each, on a par with La Selva.........

Can anyone send me a bird list or tell me what the star birds are apart from the Quetzal, any day roosting Owls?


Thanks, Andy
 
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andyadcock said:
Sorry to veer from the original topic, I'll be there in March for a month so checked out this Curi-Cancha res you mention, looks nice but damned expensive!

$60 per person for the bird tour $75 if you want it fully private plus $15 each to get in so that's a whopping $90 each, on a par with La Selva.........

Can anyone send me a bird list or tell me what the star birds are apart from the Quetzal, any day roosting Owls?


Thanks, Andy
Click to expand...

We have a different style of birding, and have not used guides in CR (at least not yet). Without a guide, my recollection is that admission to Curi-Cancha is less. I'm not saying to go to C-C instead of the others, but in addition to. All are unique, at different altitudes, have different ecozones and habitats, are on one slope or the other, etc. C-C is less crowded than the others, especially later in the day.

Here is the eBird link to the Curi-Cancha list:
http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L1468729

and the bar chart showing seasonality:
http://ebird.org/ebird/GuideMe?cmd=decisionPage&getLocations=hotspots&hotspots=L1468729&yr=all&m=

Here is a hint for Curi-Cancha - we wanted to go multiple days, so they agreed we would pay tourista price first day ($15 each), pensianado price second day ($10 each) and tico price after that ($5 each).

Dan
 
Thanks Dan, I aim to fit a half day in that's all, I won't be paying $180 for the pair of us unless he can show me a dozen, dancing Bare-necked Umbrellabirds!

My wife is a photographer and I thought the more open habitat would be a nice change for her from struggling in the dark.

I now have a list from the reserve.

Cheers, Andy

Edit...just looked at ebird and note a sighting of Bare-shanked Screech Owl along with the word 'Durmiendo'. I checked it out and it means sleeping so a roosting bird? Would be nice if that was regular.

Edit to my Edit.....I see 'Durmiendo' attached to species like Summer Tanager so they must be sleeping birds on the night walk.
 
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jurek said:
Second question: do you know a quiet hotel in San Jose near the airport with plenty of birds for a morning introduction? At best, relatively cheap.
Click to expand...

Plenty of cheap places in Alajuela, which is just a few minutes from the airport. I stayed in a fairly good budget place which had a well-vegetated garden with birds (common species), but wherever you stay in Alajuela it is only a short stroll to neighbouring farmland with a good range of species to begin Costa Rican exploration.

My account of day one in Costa Rica, based in Alajuela:

So at last I arrived - 11.10 local time, bumping down into San Jose, towering volcano to the south, a few clouds overhead and the first birds - Great-tailed Grackles around the airport. No big plans for the first day, so headed off into the nearby Alajuela. Dumped my one bag at a hotel and had a quick look around their garden - Buff-throated Saltators, Blue-grey Tanagers, Clay-coloured Robins, Inca Doves and Common Ground-Doves, the birding had begun. Nice garden though it was, there was not enough to get me occupied for long, so off I went, seeking out an area of mixed farmland and scrub nearby. A good introduction to Costa Rican birds, this was splendid stuff - swarms of grackles and Bronzed Cowbirds, flocks of Black Vultures overhead. Soon I was bumping into species by the dozen - Eastern Meadowlarks in rough pasture, Northern Jacanas and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in a damp patch, a mass of Blue-and-white Swallows on wires and then three White-tailed Kites hovering over meadows. Also, noisy Orange-chinned Parakeets and, along an excellent wooded avenue, two Squirrel Cuckoos, both Hoffmann's and Lineated Woodpeckers and a migrant Yellow Warbler, all splendid birds. However, star of the day, and the only one recorded during the trip, one male Crested Bobwhite pottering across a field, an excellent bird for day one.

With three dozen species recorded, it was then back to the hotel - early to sleep, another flight planned for early next morning. Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl called in the hotel grounds.
 
Andrew Whitehouse said:
The pricing is generally not very transparent, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Jurek and Andrew -
On our last CR visit in spring of 2015, we used Wild Rider (http://wild-rider.com) and were very pleased with that choice. They were very upfront about all charges, no hidden costs and good communication. They delivered the car to the airport and picked it up there for a slight fee. They are (or were) a small company that started out renting motorcycles so their fleet is probably not very large. Thorsten is the person we dealt with. We rented their largest vehicle, a Hyundai Tucson, for our five person group. Photo taken at the Cinchona Cafe. It ran flawlessly but was a little slow on the steeper hills, possibly because of the fully packed interior!

Steve
 

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Truth be told, in our previous trips, the car rental has been the most expensive part. However, we really appreciate to go where we want, when we want. In our previous trips, we've had the AWD Hyundai or Kia SUV a couple times, and a 2WD SUV once - the only time we really wished for the four wheel dry was actually during dry season, when the road between Tilaran and Monteverde was washed out just before Vienta Fresca (where we had hoped to stop).

Just to give folks an idea, we've paid about $650US per week, including full insurance, during high season, and about half that during our one green season trip. We rent from Adobe on the recommendation of a friend of ours who is also an inversionista (investor visa) in CR.

My wife hates it when we get into an awkward driving situation (like the Monkey Trail out of Playas del Coco) and I just smile and say "Don't worry, we have full insurance! :t:
 
jurek said:
Can you help me?

What car to rent? A normal car, a high clearance car or a 4x4?

I will be going in January to Cerro de la Muerte, San Isidro, Carara, Tarcoles, Santa Elena (Monteverde, Santa Elena), Arenal Volcano, La Selva. I plan to take a taxi from the town of Santa Elena to the reserves of Monteverde and Santa Elena.

Second question: do you know a quiet hotel in San Jose near the airport with plenty of birds for a morning introduction? At best, relatively cheap.
Click to expand...

Hotel near airport with birds and cheap- maybe Rosa de America- not sure how cheap though. There are several cheap hotels within Alajuela city but most don't have gardens and are not near habitat (I wouldn't bird in the city parks, not worth it).

Yeah, a regular car can do all of that. The road up to Monteverde will be bumpy and slow but possible with any vehicle. A lot of work was done on it but they didn't do the entire thing and according to friends that live in Santa Elena, a lot of that grading work ended up being washed right back down the mountain after heavy rains. So, the rough road is back but it can still be done with a regular car.
 
Thanks everybody!

I rented a small 4WD because it was the same price as the normal car. I am happy with it, although I agree that a normal car would be perfectly doable. And yes, driving in Costa Rica is challenge.

Another issue would be: how to avoid overpaying car insurance. Car insurance agreement at Alamo had plenty of loopholes in a supposedly full coverage. Thrifty in Europe was not able to provide me a cost of full coverage before I book it, and only in Costa Rica I would get to know the full price of my car rental. Some insider info from a Costa Rican would be helpful.

I just decided that an agreement printed in Europe was binding when a loophole was not mentioned. I had no damage whatsoever so did not test it.
 
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