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Costa Rica Travel Guide and Tips – Taking a Taxi in Costa Rica
Taking a Taxi in Costa Rica
Taking a taxi in Costa Rica can prove to be quite the tricky task. Firstly, since their are no street names anywhere in Costa Rica, your driver can basically take you anywhere he likes if you are not familiar with Costa Rica, and you will have no way of knowing. It’s not like you can tell your driver to take Main Street.
Secondly, most taxi drivers in Costa Rica don’t speak any language other than Spanish, so you will have to find a way to communicate where you actually want to go. What is helpful is to have a friend write down the directions for you. The best thing to do is to find a landmark close to your destination and tell him to go there. I say him, because there are almost no women who drive taxis in Costa Rica. Also, try to look confident, so that your driver doesn’t think you don’t live here.
Probably the bet advice I can give when taking a taxi in Costa Rica is to ask them to please turn the Maria on. This is the machine they use to track your trip and price. Sometime a driver will tell you they can’t and will give you reasons like:
1. We don’t use the Maria at the airport, they are flat rates (not true)
2. We don’t use the Maria after a certain time, it is a flat rate (also not true)
When your driver doesn’t want to use his Maria is because he is planning on charging you more than you should be paying. Kindly get out of the cab if he insists.
Airport taxis are the last area we need to discuss in our Taking Taxis in Costa Rica Tips. When you arrive at the airport you will see orange taxis lined up outside. These are the designated airport taxis. They are also the most expensive taxis in the country often charging double and sometimes triple the standard rate. If you want to save some money when taking a taxi in Costa, just walk to the street (30 second walk) and take a regular cab that will use the Maria.
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[...] Continued here: Travel Guide and Tips for Costa Rica – Part 2 [...]
[...] Costa Rica Blog placed an interesting blog post on Travel Guide and Tips for Costa Rica – Part 2Here’s a brief overviewTaking a Taxi in Costa Rica Taking a taxi in Costa Rica can prove to be quite the tricky task. Firstly, since their are no street names anywhere in Costa Rica, your driver can basically take you anywhere he likes if you are not familiar with Costa Rica, and you will have no way of knowing. It’s not like you can tell your driver to take Main Street. Secondly, most taxi drivers in Costa Rica don’t speak any language other than Spanish, so you will have to find a way to communicate where y [...]
Great Tip. What do you think the normal taxi fare is from the airport to the hotel district?
Last time I took a cab to Best Western Irazu and it cost me $8 USD. Should not cost you more than $10 to get downtown San Jose, unless you are going there during the peak driving hours.
Great, thanks!
Thanks, I enjoyed your post immensely. It’s nice to see someone writing something worth reading.
Great advice here! One more thing to do to ensure your arent being given the scenic route to your destination: (providing you can speak Spanish that is) try to ask a local what they think should be the price of your trip or how long it is, then hail a cab and ask the gentlemen what he figures it should cost. Then use some good judgement as whether what he is saying makes sense in light of what you have found out regarding the distance and supposed the price. Then yes for sure make sure they turn on the Maria!
Why do they call it a Maria btw?
Thanks for the good advice,,this will definetely be useful next time in Costa Rica…I was always surprised at how cheap the cost is for a taxi in Costa Rica..Then I realized how busy they were because of this fact..The distances for the locals traveling is usually from the grocery store to home and the likes…The trips are short and cheap and make for a thriving taxi business…I never felt in danger of whatever in a cab