If part of your vacation is to drive through our country, we recommend for you to get your hands on a good, detailed road map and study it before taking the roads. Costa Rica’s rugged terrain makes distances seem deceiving: road conditions and weather can affect your driving times. Most main roads and highways are paved, but if you drive outside of these, particularly in rural areas, you’ll find yourself driving on gravel or dirt roads with many potholes.

This map will give you a general overview of the country’s lay out. Most roads in Costa Rica will weave up and down mountains, through pastures or plantations and wind through forest, so drive carefully and watch your speed, which even out on highways shouldn’t exceed 60 km/h.

More Driving Information