by Aleksandra McClain **As we began planning our whirlwind five-day tour of Costa Rica, it became clear that tourist mini-buses and leisurely day-trips were not going to be able to accommodate our ridiculous demands. We needed to be at Pods on Tuesday morning, in Monteverde by Tuesday evening, and in Jacó on Thursday, so only a rental car would do. But with three gringos (one driving) who had never been to Costa Rica before, and one mostly-gringa who still had white-knuckle memories of her Tica mom's driving, would we survive? Enter a Daihatsu Bego and Europcar's Garmin GPS system with EzFind software ($12/day).
San José – Poás - Monteverde
The first job of the GPS was to get us out of San José, through Alajuela, and on to Pods, which it managed in impressive style. We would never have been able to navigate this with just our conventional maps, which were far too large-scale to help with city streets.
The GPS even got us around a street closure in central Alajuela with no trouble. And the handy list of National Parks in the favorite locations menu meant that choosing our final destination was easy.
After a cloudy but rewarding visit to Pods, we were off to Monteverde by about 2:00 PM. We weren't as worried about getting lost on this leg of the trip, as after you're out of the cities, there are fewer roads to choose from. The most impressive aspect here was the GPS estimation of the journey time. We figured that the infamous Monteverde dirt road would con-found any accurate time predictions, but it only ended up being off by about 20 minutes in the end. And that's including a road encounter with some very friendly cows. We also encountered the GPS' first weakness—a tendency to lose satellite reception when in the middle of nowhere. However, most of the time it came back quickly, and once you're in the cloud forest; every road leads to Santa Elena eventually.
Monteverde – Jacó – Manuel Antonio
On Thursday afternoon, we headed out to the beach from Monteverde, and reached Jacó in 2.5 hours.
However, the lack of standardized street addresses in Costa Rica means that unless your hotel is listed in the GPS' pre-loaded locations; you will not be directed straight to your door.
Luckily, my cousin's schematic drawing and You Are Here arrow was enough to get us to the Hotel Amapola without having to stop and ask for directions. The GPS also took us down to Manuel Antonio National Park and back to Jacó with no trouble on Friday, but here too, the satellite reception was patchy when under heavy tree cover.
Jacó – San José
On Saturday morning, it was time to head back to the airport, and remarkably, to fill up our car with gas for the first time. The GPS was excellent for finding gas stations, offering us several choices within a few kilometers, and giving us the option to go to the gas station as a stopping point en route (or natives) nervous about getting lost in Costa Rica. It took a lot of the stress out of traveling, and accurate driving time predictions made planning the different stages of our trip much easier.
The windshield-suction holder didn't survive Monteverde's bumpy roads, so a lone driver might have trouble seeing the display if going off the pavement. But with a navigator to hold it in the passenger seat, you shouldn't have any problems. Americans and Europeans familiar with GPS will have to get used to the lack of address-finding options and road names, but EzFind's software makes driving in Costa Rica almost easy. So easy, in fact, that one particular passenger managed to sleep through most of the car trip.
Important to Know 
