Santa Barbara de Heredia, Costa Rica - The perfect Costa Rica mountains "bed and breakfast / vacation rental" is Casa Cielo. It's a newly renovated, light and airy 700sf private master suite with king bed, full bath, well-equipped kitchenette, elliptical exerciser, WiFi, outdoor deck with table and chairs, 32" TV for DVD-viewing, loaner cell phone or GPS, and more. Its furniture is custom-made by Costa Rica's finest woodworkers, and its walls are decorated with Costa Rican crafts.
Casa Cielo is a gated mini-resort, 4,000 feet above sea level with a fabulous 50-mile view. Temperatures are consistently refreshing year-round: 74-82F daytime and 62-68F at night, usually with low humidity. There's just one guest suite, $99/day. It's part of a beautiful 20-year-old home in Costa Rica's mountains, loaded with amenities you will appreciate.
You'll enjoy high-speed Internet at your large personal office desk and at the pool, free evening use of a USA/Canada phone line, a secure parking space, our pool-side full bathroom, outdoor kitchen and grill, and more. A sauna is available at extra cost. Your hosts are bilingual permanent residents Erin and Fabian, their newborn son Max, housekeeper Ligia (Lee'-hee-ya), gardener Don Carlos, and two cats.
Located just 25 minutes from Costa Rica's San Jose (SJO) Airport in a distinctly tropical setting, Casa Cielo's views of the Costa Rica mountains and its Central Valley are unmatched. The 2.5-acre (one hectare) property is beautifully landscaped and is criss-crossed by new walking trails. Casa Cielo includes a 16' x 40' swimming pool, herb and vegetable gardens, fruit trees - and
a pool-side view that includes two volcanoes, the city lights of Costa Rica's four largest cities, the national soccer stadium, and occasional fireworks displays. Next door is one of Central America's largest herb farms. Across the road is a working coffee farm.
It's an easy one-mile downhill walk to the small town of Santa Barbara - where you'll find friendly, helpful people and nearly everything you need: groceries, restaurants, bakeries, pharmacies, office supplies, clothing and shoes, the central park and Catholic Church, medical clinic, and Saturday's farmers' market (the "feria"). The uphill return trip from the feria to Casa Cielo with a large load of bargain-priced fresh fruit and vegetables makes the $2 taxi fare a good choice.
From Casa Cielo, there's easy access by car, taxi, or chauffeured "turismo" van to active and dormant volcanoes, national parks, stunning waterfalls, a zoo, butterfly farm, orchid garden, coffee plantations, and and Costa Rica's capital San Jose. Resident Costa Rican travel experts Fabian and Erin can provide sightseeing advice, rent you a car, and book day trips or overnight excursions for you anywhere in Costa Rica.
This is the real Costa Rica, the green ecotourism destination you've heard about, not an isolated beach resort that looks just like something you can find near home. But if you want to enjoy popular beaches, they're just 90 minutes away.
If you speak some Spanish, housekeeper Ligia can tell you the very best sources for whatever you need in Santa Barbara or nearby. Gardener Don Carlos will share his fresh plantains, limes, passion fruit, herbs, lettuce, hot and sweet peppers, corn, onions, and more - whatever's in season.
Casa Cielo is owned by Americans who love Costa Rica. We are committed to sustainable practices and to maintaining a low energy footprint at Casa Cielo. Fallen trees become rustic outdoor furniture and reinforce steps on walking trails that connect to the guest deck. Lighting uses low-energy CFLs. A tankless hot water heater conserves power. A solar powered pool ionizer reduces chlorine use, and a solar blanket heats the pool. Solar panels, coming soon, will nearly eliminate our use of Costa Rica's hydropower.
San Jose's airport (SJO) is just 25 minutes southwest. San Jose itself is 45 minutes southeast. The Pacific Ocean is a day trip southwest; the Caribbean (including popular Puerto Viejo) is a 3-4 hour drive southeast. Arenal Volcano and the Monteverde Cloud Forest are 3-4 hours northwest.
Your stay at Casa Cielo will be your best Costa Rica vacation ever. Casa Cielo's guest suite is the perfect vacation rental for honeymooners, business travelers, and empty nesters looking for something unique that's off Costa Rica's beaten path.
Rates: 
Our rate is $99/night year-round, with no minimum stay and no cleaning fee. One week (seven consecutive nights) is $599. Add 13% tax. Rates include Continental Breakfast, plus free use of a cell phone or GPS (with a damage deposit). Maximum occupancy is two adults. We accept Visa/Mastercard.
Deposits: A 50% deposit, including tax, is required at the time you reserve your stay, with the balance due 10 days before you arrive. Cancellations: If you cancel at least 30 days prior to your check-in date, you will receive a full refund. If you cancel 11 to 29 days in advance, we will refund your deposit minus a cancellation fee equal to the first night's lodging (including tax). If you cancel less than 10 days prior to check-in, you will receive no refund. No-shows pay full price, including tax.
Extras: Sauna use is $1/hour. Wine is available for $15/bottle. If you do not rent a car, an airport taxi is about $10 each way.
Amenities Summary: The complete modern master suite totals 700+ square feet plus deck. The master bedroom includes a king bed with orthopedic mattress, blanket for cool nights, full bath with hot-water tub and shower, reading lights, rocking chair, clothes tree, large custom-crafted armoire, 8'x14' outdoor deck with table for two to enjoy your morning coffee, two umbrellas, two walking sticks for the trails, a tripod that's suitable for your lightweight camera, a hair dryer, and an alarm clock/radio. Just outside the master bedroom there's a 
kitchenette with refrigerator, a bar stocked with red and white wine ($15/bottle extra), microwave, toaster oven coffee maker, dishes and flatware, game table, games, sofa, 32" TV and DVD player, powder room, a shelf full of books about travel and wildlife in Costa Rica - plus shared office space and a shared elliptical exerciser. Outside you'll enjoy walking trails, productive herb and vegetable gardens, beautiful flowers and fruit trees, swimming pool, pool bathroom and hot shower, sauna, gas grill, one guest parking space, and more.
Please make your reservation with your Visa or Mastercard, but please do not book a reservation at Casa Cielo if you are allergic to cats - or young children.
Special Events: To rent the grounds at Casa Cielo for a wedding or other special event, please contact us to discuss your needs, including catering.
Large Groups: If you need a much larger rental, we highly recommend and can book a spectacular luxury villa nearby that will accommodate more than a dozen guests.
Travel Agents: We welcome your clients. Please call!
Pictured from left to right:
Ligia - Housekeeper: Ligia keeps everything running smoothly at Casa Cielo. She cleans the house and pool, launders bedding and linens, supervises workers, and knows who to contact for everything we - and you - need.
Don Carlos - Gardener: Don Carlos grooms the grounds at Casa Cielo, tends two gardens, manages our walking trails, keeps everything watered, and harvests fruits, vegetables, and herbs when they're ready for Casa Cielo's staff and guests to eat.
Erin, Fabian, and Max - Your Hosts: This fortunate family lives year-round at Casa Cielo. Erin and Fabian are bilingual (Spanish and English). Both are work-at-home Costa Rican travel experts. Max is a dual citizen of Costa Rica and the USA.
Brian and Lisa - Frequent Visitors: Max's fortunate grandparents from Virginia live here part-time. We bought the property in 2011 and have been improving Casa Cielo and its 2.5 acres ever since. We're learning Spanish by "immersion". If we're lucky, we'll be here when you arrive.
A Delightful Small TownSanta Barbara (see map) is a small, rural, typical, friendly town in Heredia, one of Costa Rica's seven provinces. It's located in Costa Rica's mountains in the cool "Central Valley", a very large plateau in the center of the country that's home to half of its 4,000,000 citizens. As in most of Costa Rica, there are no street addresses here, and no postal delivery. A local supermarket's address might be "50 metros este de la Iglesia Catholica" or "50 meters east of the Catholic Church". The phrase "100 meters" equals one block, which can actually be considerably more or less than 100 meters.
Unless you are among the few Santa Barbara residents with a private local delivery box that's similar to a post office box in the USA, you have 
never received a bill by mail, or a piece of junk mail. Residents pay all their bills in cash, by Internet bank transfer, or at the local supermarket. If you don't pay your monthly electric bill or phone bill on time, your service will eventually be cut off. Each month, you check online or at the supermarket to find out how much you owe.
Nearly every Costa Rican town has a "parque central" - central park - with a Catholic Church on its east side, plus a bus stop and an army of taxi drivers awaiting your orders. Santa Barbara is no exception. The central park is surrounded by stores, and by a few entrepreneurs selling fruits and vegetables from their cars or trucks on the street. The central park is the center of life in Santa Barbara. Teenagers hold hands in the park, adults crisscross it to reach the stores, and occasionally there is a concert in its central pavilion.
The stores and other buildings surrounding Santa Barbara's park and the next block or two in each direction offer nearly everything you would expect. Aside from the municipal building and elementary school, you'll find banks with ATMs, a doctor and dentist, freshly baked breads and pastries, groceries, clothing and shoes, office supplies, appliances and electronics, hardware, a hair stylist and barber, $1 DVD movie rentals, fast food, and inexpensive sit-down restaurants called "sodas" that serve a typical Costa Rican dinner for about $5. If you're driving, you can usually find a free parking space very close to the central park.
Every Saturday morning - except for frequent religious and secular holidays - a farmer's market or "feria" offers fresh fruits and vegetables at prices so low that you won't believe them. Nearly every town has its own feria; some cover several blocks while others cover less than one. In Santa Barbara's feria, you can find bananas for three cents each, strawberries or blackberries for 75 cents/pint, potatoes or tomatoes for 25-50 cents/pound, plus a dozen fruits and vegetables that you've never seen before. You could live on a healthy diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, and rice - as many Costa Ricans do - for less than $2/day.
From Casa Cielo, Santa Barbara's parque central is a 15-minute downhill walk or a 5-minute drive down a rough gravel road and paved but narrow residential streets. You can call a taxi (about $2) if you need one.
These nearby sights and services are arranged roughly in order of their distance from Casa Cielo. Also check our Day Trips section below, featuring sights that are a 15-90 minute drive by car!
Bird Watching: Casa Cielo will delight you if you want to see a few of Costa Rica's nearly 900 species of birds. Just open your window to hear them and step outside on your deck to see them, starting at sunrise. Frequent visitors include colorful mot-mots and oropendolas, noisy parrots (called parakeets here), flycatchers, woodpeckers, swifts, clay robins - the national bird, several of Costa Rica's 58 species of hummingbirds, and more. Every elevation in Costa Rica reveals different bird species, so be sure to take your camera wherever you go. There's a tripod suitable for small cameras in your master suite, and we have a comprehensive Costa Rican bird book to help you identify them.
Exercise: Casa Cielo's walking trails (under construction) start at the edge of your outdoor deck; it takes moderate effort to complete the full circuit. Inside there's an iPod-compatible elliptical exerciser with 14 programs. The swimming pool is a 40-yard walk from your master suite. And in downtown Santa Barbara, there's a small gymnasium that you can use for $5/visit. The one-mile downhill walk to the center of Santa Barbara is easy. The considerably more difficult return trip includes a 170-foot rise in elevation.
Herb/Lettuce Farm: Casa Cielo's neighbor is The Ark Herb Farm, where you'll find one of the best collections of medicinal plants in Costa Rica. They also have some of the best lettuces, spinach, and herbs you'll ever find, at reasonable prices. It's a 3 minute walk from Casa Cielo. You can visit informally (and buy some of their products) with Casa Cielo's housekeeper Ligia, or she can arrange an official tour for you.
Healthcare: Costa Rica has a national healthcare system that is universal and effective. Life expectancy here is about the same as it is the USA. There is a local medical clinic in Santa Barbara, part of Costa Rica's "Caja" or national healthcare system, that can handle most medical emergencies. It's a 5-minute drive from Casa Cielo. A new $85 million-dollar hospital, 20 minutes away in nearby Heredia, handles major trauma - and delivered Max, son of your hosts. Costa Rica's abundant pharmacies each have a doctor on staff who can diagnose simple ailments on the spot, determine what you need at no cost, and sell it to you. Only narcotics and antibiotics require a prescription. If you need more complex non-emergency care, there is a clinic in Heredia that will see you for $20 on one or two day's notice - and prescribe whatever you need. The cost of private dental and medical care is 
60%-75% less than similar private care in the USA. Costa Rica is rapidly developing as a destination for medical and dental tourism.
Amusements: Aside from a dance hall, an occasional concert in the central park, and some bars in downtown Santa Barbara, you won't find many amusements nearby. But within an hour, you'll find many sights to keep you busy between the 5:30 AM sunrises and 5:30 PM sunsets at Casa Cielo. Because we're just 10 degrees north of the equator, we get 11.5 to 12.5 hours of daylight year-round to complement our perfect temperatures, also year-round. At Casa Cielo, it's "early to bed, early to rise". We're in bed by 8:30 PM, give or take an hour.
Churches: The only nearby church is the Catholic Church located a few minutes away in Santa Barbara's central park. Services are offered only in Spanish. If you wish to attend a Protestant church or Jewish Synagogue or a Catholic Church where English is spoken, you must drive 30-60 minutes to Escazu or San Jose. Try searching online for "costa rica baptist church english" or something similar.
Learning Spanish: It helps to know some Spanish when you travel around Costa Rica. Our staff all speak Spanish fluently, and they can speak Spanish with you exclusively if you wish - that's called "immersion". If you prefer formal instruction, you can take a $.75 25-minute bus ride to Heredia, the capital of Heredia province, where the excellent Intercultura Language School and Cultural Center provides private instruction for $22/hour, or 20 hours of group instruction in five days for $300.
Looking for restaurants - or inexpensive "sodas" - in Santa Barbara? You'll find friendly sit-down restaurants, plus a few that serve "fast food". Many are closed on holidays; call to confirm hours.
Santa Barbara RestaurantsRestaurants are listed alphabetically; those with $$$$ are most expensive:
Nearby Fine and Gourmet RestaurantsYou'll need a car and 15-90 minutes to reach these destinations. The sun sets here at 5:30 PM, so we recommend that you always depart early in the morning. Also check our Overnight Trips section below! These popular sights are arranged roughly in order of their distance from Casa Cielo. Entrance fees apply to most sights and were last checked by us on 2/20/2012; please check the websites or call for current rates. We've added these destinations to our loaner GPS for your convenience.
Coffee Plantation Tour #1: Coffee is practically a religion here, and Cafe Britt is Costa Rica's #1 export coffee. The Cafe Britt Coffee Lovers Tour is a half-day theatrical show and luncheon that you won't forget. We recommend that you take home a few pounds of their Terrazu variety. $49. 15 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Horseback Riding: Ask us about nearby stables that offer horseback riding at all experience levels, starting at $50. Wear a jacket, and expect expansive views of Costa Rica mountains - and the "Central Valley" - at elevations 1,000 to 2,000 feet above Casa Cielo. 15 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Volcano - Dormant: The nearest inactive volcano is Barva, in the Braulio Carrillo National Park. Barva Volcano is 9,700 feet above sea level - more than a mile higher in elevation than Casa Cielo, so be sure to take a jacket. You should also take the loaner umbrellas from your master suite at Casa Cielo - plus food and plenty of water. $8. 25 minute drive from Casa Cielo, plus a three-hour hike each way if you want to reach the lagoon at the summit.
Golf: The Cariari Country Club offers a George Fazio designed course. $60-$100. 25 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Zoo: In Costa Rica, it's illegal to keep most wild animals and birds as pets. The non-profit Zoo Ave Wildlife Rescue Center rehabilitates injured birds and animals, and provides a permanent home to those that have been confiscated from private citizens. It takes 2-3 hours to see the rare macaws and other birds, jaguarundis and other big cats, iguanas, turtles, Costa Rica's five types of monkeys, kinkajous, coatimundis, and more. Admission is $15. (Ave is pronounced "ah'vay" and it means bird.) $15. 25 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, near the Butterfly Farm and the Botanical Orchid Garden.
Toucans: The privately run Toucan Rescue Ranch focuses on the care, rehabilitation and study of all five species of Costa Rican Toucans. They receive confiscated, sick, and injured birds, give them a loving home, and when possible rehabilitate and return them to the wild. You can "adopt a toucan" to help with its care. $Donation. 30 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, in San Isidro de Heredia.
Introduction to Costa Rica: INBioparque is a one-stop introduction to all of Costa Rica, offering an interactive experience through its ecological park. The park aims to bring you into closer contact with Costa Rica's natural resources. Guided tour: $23. 30 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Orchids: The Botanical Orchid Garden in nearby Alajuela hosts flora and fauna representative of the tropical dry forest, including hundreds of varieties of orchids. The orchid flowers range from tiny to very large, and they're beautiful. Don't forget your camera. $12. 30 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, near Zoo Ave and the Butterfly Farm.
Butterflies: In nearby Alajuela you'll find The Butterfly Farm, open every day for two-hour tours. It's one of the country's largest and most popular butterfly ("mariposa") farms. Guided tour: $19. 30 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, near Zoo Ave and the Botanical Orchid Garden.
Coffee Plantation Tour #2: The coffee from Doka Estate is Erin's favorite. She gets special pricing on large quantities; ask her first if you want to take home ten pounds or more for your friends. Doka Estate is located on the slopes of the Poas Volcano, so you can combine a visit to Poas Volcano or La Paz Waterfall Gardens (morning) with a Doka Estate tour (afternoon). Tours are available that include breakfast or lunch. Coffee picking is also an option. $Call. 30 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Waterfalls: Because of Costa Rica's steep mountains, waterfalls are abundant. You'll find some of the country's most spectacular waterfalls near Casa Cielo. La Paz Waterfall Gardens includes five waterfalls, plus beautiful gardens and hundreds of animals - including monkeys, big cats, snakes, hummingbirds, toucans that will walk on your arms, and poison dart frogs. You can combine a trip to Poas Volcano (morning) and La Paz Waterfall Gardens (afternoon). $35. 35 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, plus a moderate 2-hour hike if you choose to see all the waterfalls.
Volcano - Active: The nearest active volcano is Poas, in the Poas Volcano National Park. At 8,900 feet above sea level, Poas Volcano is nearly a mile higher in elevation than Casa Cielo. It gets cold there, so take a jacket. You should also take the loaner umbrellas from your master suite at Casa Cielo. The fog usually lifts magically from the crater lake between 11AM and 2PM, so try to be there during those hours. $10. 40 minutes by car from Casa Cielo, plus an easy 10-minute walk to the crater.
San Jose: There are several sights that we recommend you see in San Jose. Driving to San Jose can be a confusing and harrowing experience for the uninitiated, so we suggest that you take the bus ($1.50 including a bus change in Heredia) or a taxi ($20-$25) from Santa Barbara's Central Park. Once you reach the center of San Jose, we recommend the Gold Museum (Museo de Oro, $11), the National Museum (Museo National de Costa Rica, $Call), the Jade Museum (Museo de Jade, $7), the National Theater (Teatro Nacional), and souvenirs (see below).
Souvenirs: For the very best prices and selection of authentic Costa Rican souvenirs, go to the Plaza de la Democracia in San Jose, adjoining the National Museum. There, you will find several dozen vendors in a covered outdoor market offering Costa Rican crafts for sale. Everything is negotiable, with discounts of 10%-35% possible on large purchases from a single vendor - if you pay in cash. Many of the vendors speak some English. We recommend that you first walk the straight line past all of the vendors' stalls without buying anything - to see what's available. On your return pass, buy what you like. We especially like the wide variety of souvenirs made of a combination of five popular Costa Rican woods, including coco bolo (rosewood). There are some great bargains here even if you pay full price, and they're guaranteed to please your family and friends. Most of the vendors are friendly and polite, even when you politely say "no, gracias". Outside of commuting hours - and if you get lucky - it's as little as 45 minutes by car from Casa Cielo to San Jose. But we highly recommend the bus or taxi instead (see San Jose, above).
Fine Furniture Tour: Casa Cielo is furnished almost exclusively with custom-made furniture ("muebles") crafted in the beautiful hardwoods "guanacaste" and "cenicero". It was all made in the nearby town of Sarchi, where you'll find more than two dozen stores featuring Costa Rica's finest furniture. If you enjoy the wood and leather rocker or the clothes tree in your master suite, you can buy either in Sarchi for less than $100. $FREE. Sarchi's stores cover more than a mile of the road, and start 50 minutes by car from Casa Cielo. On the way, stop to see the beautiful, unusual church in Grecia; its walls are made of metal.
Topiary: CostaRica.com says of the extraordinary topiary gardens at Zarcero: "Wavy arches carved from conifer cypress invite visitors to explore artist-landscaper Evangelisto Blanco's latest inventions. Shrubs and trees manifest as dancing animals, stylized creatures and other unique abstractions." Expect mist until Noon; take the loaner umbrellas from your master suite at Casa Cielo. There's also a nearby cheese factory, waterfall, and Juan Castro Blanco National Park, so you can make a full day of it. The topiary is free to visit, although donations are appreciated by the artist (we suggest $4-$5/person). 55 minutes by car from Casa Cielo.
Braulio Carrillo National Park: A rainforest, waterfalls, aerial tram, zip lines, jungle near sea level and cloud forest at 9,500 feet all await you at Costa Rica's second largest parque nacional, Braulio Carrillo National Park. For a full day of activities, check out the "eco-pass" (listed in the "attractions" section) at Rainforest Adventures. $10 for park admission, or $99 for an eco-pass. It's 60 minutes by car from Casa Cielo to the park entrance; the aerial rainforest tram and zip lines take another 15 minutes to reach.
Lankester Botanical Gardens ("Jardín Botanico Lankester"): You'll find a stunning 800 varieties of beautiful orchids at Lankester Botanical Gardens. $5. 60-75 minutes by car from Casa Cielo. Can be combined with Irazu Volcano, as an overnight trip.
Pacific Beach at Puntarenas: Because of its close proximity to San Jose, its airport, and much of Costa Rica's Central Valley, Puntarenas is a popular beach destination for Costa Ricans and tourists alike. It's 90+ minutes by car from Casa Cielo via a new toll road ($2 each way), depending on traffic and your map-following expertise. A GPS helps!
Pacific Beach at Jaco: Also close to San Jose and the Central Valley, Jaco is a popular beach destination. It's 90+ minutes by car from Casa Cielo. The new toll road gets you there quickly, but the older mountainous route with challenging switchbacks and many typical small towns is an enjoyable alternative - if you have an extra 60-90 minutes. The older, more scenic route can burn up your brakes if you don't downshift on the steepest declines.
You'll need a car and 1-4 hours to reach these popular destinations. We recommend that you plan to spend at least one night at any of these, but it is possible to make a day trip of the closest ones. Fabian can arrange hotels in whatever price range you prefer, and can arrange private or semi-private transportation if you wish. These overnight trips are listed roughly in order of their distance from Casa Cielo. Entrance fees apply to most sights. The Costa Rica travel books at Casa Cielo provide further details. We've added these destinations to our loaner GPS for your convenience. We'll hold your suite at Casa Cielo for half-price (two nights maximum, paid in advance) while you are away on an overnight trip.
La Selva Biological Station: 1.0-1.5 hours by car from Casa Cielo. Great birding and nature walks.
Manuel Antonio National Park: 3-4 hours by car from Casa Cielo. Beautiful beaches and trails, but watch your food and belongings or the white-faced capuchin monkeys and raccoons will steal them.
A small 4WD SUV will cost you at least $60/day with the minimum required amount of insurance. We recommend that you check pricing at Fox Rent A Car (San Jose Airport location). Avoid Budget in Alajuela near the airport; their representative added unwanted, costly options to our Spanish-language rental contract. (We complained to American Express, but they said tough luck, since we had signed the contract.) In any case, be sure to check every fee on the rental contract before you sign it. Check your car very carefully, note all damage, and be certain that all safety equipment works - lights, turn signals, seat belts, locks, etc. To save money, take a taxi to Casa Cielo from the airport ($10) and Fabian will arrange the delivery of a rental car one or two days later. That will save you one or two days' rental expense (minus the taxi fare), and Fabian's company will earn a commission.
Gasoline costs about $5/gallon; diesel is 5% less. Costa Rica is the size of West Virginia, so you probably won't drive more than a few hundred miles a week.
Most rural roads and streets in Costa Rica are poorly maintained - and many are just wide enough for two large SUVs to pass each other. Some are so bad that you dare not drive even 15 kilometers/hour (that's 10mph). Deep potholes and tall speed bumps are frequent, often unmarked - and bone-jarring. But most major roads and highways are in pretty good shape, and every so often you'll find a road that makes you think you're back home. We recommend that you rent a 4WD vehicle that sits high off the ground. Big wheels add to your comfort and help to prevent flat tires, because big, fat SUV tires may not sink entirely into the largest potholes.
Most roads and streets in Costa Rica have no names and no visible route numbers. And most businesses and residences have no numbered street address. Addresses read like this: "200 meters north of the police station, and 350 meters east of the Catholic Church". This is changing, but for now a good map - and a good sense of east, south, west, and north - are essential in Costa Rica.
Road maps that rental car companies provide are incomplete - and nearly useless if you plan to visit Costa Rica's many extraordinary sights. So what's a tourist to do? You won't find many maps for sale outside of San Jose. So before you come, we suggest that you buy the Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica. With your $12 purchase they will also include a free PDF-format road atlas of Costa Rica. Their map and atlas both have far more detail than you will find anywhere else. The free atlas is not available in print, so you'll need a computer to study it, and possibly to print out a few key pages. If you buy the map through Amazon, you can download the atlas if you take the dashes out of your Amazon order number and use it here.
Now that you have a good map, a travel partner who happens to be a expert navigator can read the map, so that you won't have to stop at every intersection when you're looking for your next turn. In addition to your printed map and human navigator, we highly recommended a GPS. It will save you time and frustration, and usually will help you to avoid getting lost. As in the USA, the GPS maps are not 100% accurate, but they sure beat nothing. With few road names and numbers, you'll use landmarks instead of addresses in your GPS. You'll search for "Poas" to find the Poas Volcano National Park, or "Santa Barbara" to find Casa Cielo's home town, and check the fast food section of "restaurants" to find, yes, the nearest McDonalds, Taco Bell, KFC, or Quiznos.
If you need driving directions, ask a taxi driver. They know how to drive everywhere and many speak English. Costa Rica has cheap public buses that go everywhere in the country, so many Costa Ricans have never driven a car. Because someone else does all the driving, they often cannot provide accurate directions. But if you ask for driving directions, they will usually be polite and give you their best guess, right or wrong.
Drive defensively! Traffic law enforcement is minimal and tickets are rare, so many drivers simply ignore the traffic laws. Costa Ricans are usually very polite and friendly. But when they get behind the wheels of their cars, many are aggressive, unyielding, and rude. Motorcyclists are worse, squeezing between cars where there is literally just inches of clearance. Drivers often pay for their dangerous driving with their lives - or pedestrians' lives. There are even some bus stops where the only possible way for a pedestrian (and her toddler) to get there is to cross a busy four-lane highway. When you see a large yellow heart painted on the road with a box around it, someone has died there. 
So be careful, and enjoy Costa Rica's beautiful sights!
I'm Brian and I wrote the this section. My wife Lisa says I exaggerate, and insists that I add "We spent our first four years traveling in Costa Rica, a few weeks each year, without a GPS - and we never had an accident or damaged a rental car due to bad roads." She is an expert navigator and reads maps like a geography major, so I admit to that. But she rarely agrees to drive here. So I stand by my recommendations to use a GPS and to drive defensively! Maybe someone in Costa Rica's government will read this - and will work to improve both the roads and traffic law enforcement.
If you don't want to rent a car in Costa Rica, here are some alternatives that you can mix and match:
In Costa Rica, the theft of private property is fairly common and rarely punished. Your best defense is to make yourself an unappealing target for theft. Do not wear jewelry, expensive clothes or expensive shoes. Never display your electronics in public - computer or tablet, music player, cellphone, etc. Never leave anything in your car that might tempt a thief to break in. Conceal your cash in a money belt. And whenever you must leave valuables unattended, secure or hide them as well as you can.
We will provide specific driving directions (English and Spanish) to Casa Cielo after you book your stay, including precise GPS coordinates and a link to Casa Cielo for viewing on Google Earth. The blue pointer on the Google map below identifies the bus stop in downtown Santa Barbara, one mile from Casa Cielo. You can zoom in or out and re-center the map to see our location in more or less detail. Costa Rica's San Jose Airport (SJO, 25 minutes from Casa Cielo) is located in the lower left (sourhwest) portion of the map, in the town of Alajuela.
Casa Cielo is 10 degrees north of the equator, and 84 degrees west of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in the UK - the international zero-longitude reference line or "Prime Meridian". If you've read this far, you probably know that Costa Rica is not an island. It's part of Central America, bounded both by the Atlantic (Caribbean) and Pacific Oceans - and by Nicaragua on its north and Panama on its south. It's possible to drive here from the USA, but impractical!
For more information about tourism and sightseeing in Costa Rica, start with these websites:
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Website Created Feb/17/2012;
Last Updated Apr/06/2012.