Our recent trip to Costa Rica was quite nice, interesting, and fun. Our arrangements for flights, hotel, and car all worked flawlessly.
However, we have one concern that needs to be pointed out to those contemplating driving from Arenal to Monteverde....it may be more of a challenge than the average traveller wants....!
A good bit of the road to Arenal and then on to Monteverde is fine. However, enough of the road is SO BAD that we had strong concern for our personal safety and that of the vehicle... A significant portion of the driving was treacherous....hazardous, unsafe, frightening....the road is often 1.5 lanes wide for two cars or the frequent delivery trucks. There are no guardrails. The unpaved section of road is dirt, plus full of large rocks. Potholes and numerous rocks litter the road making it very easy to damage the vehicle. Our speed was often 10 miles per hour or less, driving in low or 2nd gear...at one point two vehicles rounded a curve head on into us, we had to stop and back up so they could come around. There were many vehicles coming at us where the passing was extremely close. Another couple we encountered traveling the same route came upon a landslide that had just occurred, they had to wait for road services to come clear the road. Add to this the cloud cover (remember, you're going to a cloud forest) and your visibility is often very limited.
Sorry Luis Road Advisor, we cannot recommend this drive for the average tourist...way too much danger and chance for accident.
And, there is NO GAS STATION in the Monteverde area. It so happened that we were able to make it to the gas station after our treacherous descent, to a station near the coastline, but we had no foreknowledge that gasoline would not be available. We met a tourist who gratefully paid black market prices for bootlegged gas in Monteverde, poured from a gas can in some local resident's front yard.
