If you plan to visit La Fortuna as your first destination and want to get there right away after landing, a question you may have is “Can I drive to La Fortuna after landing?” or “Can I drive to La Fortuna at night?”
In this post, we’ll help you figure out if you should drive to La Fortuna after landing from your flight or if you should wait until the next day.
Renting a car for your trip to Costa Rica? Read our Renting a car in Costa Rica post for detailed tips and advice and save some $$ with our Costa Rica car rental discount.
There are affiliate links in this post.
Should You Drive to La Fortuna After Landing? It Depends on The Time You Land and the Time of Year You’re Visiting
The drive to La Fortuna from both Guanacaste Airport and San Jose International Airport is around 3 hours.
The two key factors that will affect your decision to drive to La Fortuna after landing are 1. what time you land and 2. what time of year you’re visiting. This is because of the weather and the road conditions during the dry and rainy seasons.
For a stress free trip, we recommend to drive to La Fortuna during the day in the daylight as much as possible. We don’t recommend to drive cross country routes at night (routes 2+ hours).
If you do not think you are up for another 4-5 hours of travel including 3 hours of driving after your travel flying day, then we recommend to stay the night near the airport.
Quick Info About Costa Rica Weather
Costa Rica has two seasons: dry and rainy season. Dry season is from December through April, rainy is May through November. The rainiest month is October for Guanacaste, La Fortuna and San Jose.
A typical rainy season day is intermittent rain in the afternoons, evenings and nights with cloudy but dry mornings. However, when there are tropical storms, depressions and waves, it can pour rain intermittently throughout the day.
Read more about Costa Rica weather and Costa Rica rainy season in these links.
Do I Have Enough Time to Drive to La Fortuna After Landing?
We will break this down by international airport. Costa Rica has two main international airports: Guanacaste Airport and Juan Santamaria International Airport (San Jose International Airport).
Important Things to Know to be Prepared
Sunrise and sunset time is around 530 AM and 530 PM all year round. The sun rises around 6 AM with first light around 530 AM. The sun sets around 530 PM with last light by 6 PM. This only changes around 15 minutes or so throughout the year.
Christmas, New Years, Holy Week and Spring Break: These are peak tourism seasons. For these weeks, expect immigration and customs and picking up your rental car to take much longer. From San Jose International Airport, it can take up 2-3 hours for the entire process. From Guanacaste Airport, it can be around 1-2 hours until you can be on your way to La Fortuna.
Download Whatsapp: Whatsapp is the main communication app in Costa Rica. If you have any delays or run into problems with your rental car, you can Whatsapp the company for assistance. Or give your hotel a heads up that you’re going to be late.
Get a prepaid SIM card. That way, you will have a local Costa Rican phone number. This is useful as a back up in case you don’t have internet service on your phone and need to call for emergencies. If you’d rather get an international data plan, check with your home provider or get an eSIM if your phone supports it. Check out Airalo and get 10% off with our promo code Mytanfeet.
Use Waze as your GPS app. Google Maps works too, but Waze is more commonly used among locals. Download Google Maps to use offline as a backup.
DO NOT TAKE ANY DETOURS. Google Maps and Waze may ask you if you want to take an alternative route or detour to “save 10 minutes.” Do not accept it. Many times, these Google Maps detours are unpaved farm roads.. Always stay on the main road. In Waze, there is an option to select allow, don’t allow or avoid long ones for unpaved roads.
A 4×4 is not required from neither Guanacaste or San Jose International Airport. But if you are visiting during the rainy season time (May to December), we strongly recommend a high clearance 4×2 SUV or 4×4 SUV.
Check out our Driving in Costa Rica blog post with tips, local advice and recommendations on staying safe on the road and knowing what to expect.
Guanacaste Airport to La Fortuna Route
The Guanacaste Airport is in the Guanacaste province. The airport code is LIR.
Driving time from Guanacaste Airport to La Fortuna is approximately 3 hours. If you stop multiple times for food/supermarket/views or if there is a lot of traffic, expect to add at least 1 hour to your drive.
See the main Google Maps route here. We also have our own driving from Guanacaste to La Fortuna guide to see our recommended driving route and stops.
4×4 is not required. **There is one unpaved steep hill about half a mile (~<1 km). In the rainiest months like September and October, you should have a high clearance SUV or a 4×4. If not, then take the route through Tilaran. More details about this part of the road in our driving guide above.^^^**.
Route condition: The Interamericana highway 1 is the first part of the drive, a fully paved highway. Once you exit and get past Tilaran, the road gets extremely curvy around Lake Arenal. Take anti nausea medicine if you get car sick! Especially kids. There are no painted lines or street lights. It is not a steep mountainous road, but it is curvy.
Full services along the way such as gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets and pharmacies.
Morning Driving to La Fortuna (Before 12 PM)
You can drive to La Fortuna from Guanacaste Airport if you land at the airport before 12 PM. This applies for any time of the year, even the rainiest month of October as mornings are generally still dry and cloudy.
However, if there is a strong tropical wave, storm or even hurricane, then be prepared to drive in the rain. It may not rain during the entire drive, but it can rain on and off incredibly hard.
In case you are concerned about this, we highly recommend to find a place to stay halfway such as Lucky Bug B&B, Gingerbread House or Agua Inn. All under 1.5 hours drive from Guanacaste Airport and 1-1.5 hours to La Fortuna.
October is the slowest tourism month of the year so you won’t need to worry about long lines at immigration and customs or delays in picking up your rental car.
Even in the busiest times of the year that’ll take longer to get through the airport and pick up your car, you’ll be able to drive to La Fortuna during the day with light if you’re landing before noon.
Early Afternoon Landing Time (1-3 PM)
You can drive straight to La Fortuna, even if you’re visiting December through April, the high tourism season. Even if you land at 2-3 PM and it takes you 1.5 hours to get onto the road, you will be able to drive most of your route in the light, except maybe the last 30 minutes or so.
In the rainiest month of October, it is still possible to drive to La Fortuna after landing right away. Immigration and customs will be quick. Just be prepared to drive in some rain so go slow and drive carefully.
Late Afternoon Landing Time (3-6 PM)
If you’re arriving between 3-4 PM, you can stay somewhere halfway or drive all the way. In high season, you may not get on the road until about 5-6 PM, but at least it won’t be raining. If you’re coming with young kids or seniors, we highly recommend staying somewhere halfway after a long travel day.
If you are visiting during the latter half of September or anytime in October, we recommend to stay in Liberia or halfway for 5-6 PM arrivals. We don’t recommend to drive all the way as it can rain very hard and you’ll have to drive very slow. You will most likely end up driving most of the time in the pitch black dark and with those curvy roads, it won’t be very fun.
There are several hotels in Liberia city which is 12 km (7.5 miles) from Guanacaste Airport. Some options are Best Western El Sitio, Hotel Villa Hermosa and Hotel Las Espuelas Liberia. Check our full list of recommended hotels near Guanacaste Airport.
Evening and Night Time Driving to La Fortuna (After 6 PM)
If you are landing at night, we recommend to stay the night by Guanacaste Airport, especially with kids or seniors. After 6 PM, it’s completely dark. It’ll be better to be well rested for the drive the next day. Then you can really enjoy the mini road trip as this is a gorgeous drive with lots of lovely places to stop. This is for any time of the year.
If you are landing during the dry season and won’t have a crazy travel day, then you can drive to La Fortuna that same night. Confirm with your hotel that you can check in late as smaller hotels usually do not accept late check ins.
Also there are not really any late night or 24 hour services in Costa Rica. Most supermarkets in Costa Rica close by 8-9 PM and most restaurants close by 9 PM. Only the bars will be open late night. Gas stations in Costa Rica are 24 hours, but convenience stores are not.
Juan Santamaria International Airport (San Jose International Airport) to La Fortuna Route
The Juan Santamaria International Airport or San Jose International Airport is in the Alajuela province. It is about a 30 minute drive from downtown San Jose. The airport code is SJO.
The driving time from San Jose International Airport to La Fortuna is approximately 3 hours. From San Jose downtown, it is about 3.5 hours. Check the main Google Maps driving route here (the one that goes via Route 702). Also read our driving from San Jose to La Fortuna post for more details.
If you are leaving the airport during rush hour on a weekday, expect a lot of traffic. If you stop multiple times, expect to add at the very least 1-2 hours to the drive time.
4×4 is not required via Route 702 in dry season. However, there is one section of unpaved/road up in the cloud forest mountains near San Ramon that gets extremely foggy in the evenings and nights. It is also very curvy for a good amount of time. There are no street lights in this area. It can also rain quite hard so we recommend to rent a 4×4 for May through December. There are some big potholes during parts of this route.
Full services along the way (gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, bathrooms).
Morning Landing (Before 12 PM)
You can drive all the way to La Fortuna if you’re landing before 12 PM, at any time of the year. Just know that there may be chances of rain during the months of September and October, even in the morning.
If you are getting off a red eye, I’d recommend staying near the airport your first night to avoid driving and traveling 4+ hours while sleep deprived, especially with kids. Some options are Villa San Ignacio, Hotel La Rosa de America and Uruka Lodge. These are closer to the route to La Fortuna. Check out our list of recommended hotels near San Jose International Airport for more ideas.
Early Afternoon Landing Time (1-3 PM)
For the early afternoon landings, you can drive to La Fortuna after landing. If visiting in the high tourism season, you will probably run into a good amount of traffic and long immigration lines, so it can take a few hours before you hit the road. If you’re landing closer to 1 PM, you may hit the road around 3-4 PM and drive a short bit in the dark.
For those landing closer to 3 PM, there is a good chance you may not hit the road until past 5 PM. Then you will have to drive in the dark for the last half. In the dry season, the weather is generally fine. In rainy season, go slow. Immigration shouldn’t take long in the slower months of September and October.
Late Afternoon Landing Time (3-6 PM)
If you’re visiting during the slow months and landing closer to 3 PM, you can drive to La Fortuna after landing. You’ll get through the airport and pick up your rental car quickly.
Although you’ll probably hit some traffic and have to drive through some rain, go slow and use Waze. But if you had a crazy travel day and want to avoid the stress of driving in the rain, especially the cloud forest mountain part, it will be better to stay the night by the airport, especially if you have young kids.
If you’re visiting during the very busy times of the year, it may very well take you anywhere up to 4 hours to go through immigration and customs, pick up your rental car and get out of the airport traffic. If you don’t feel like dealing with so much travel in one day, stay a night by the airport instead. This is especially true for the week of Christmas, New Years and Holy Week.
If you’re landing closer to 5-6 PM in the rainy season, we recommend to stay near the airport your first night to avoid driving the entire time in the dark.
For those visiting during the dry season, you can drive to La Fortuna after landing, but let your hotel know beforehand you’ll be arriving in the evening.
Evening and Night Time Driving to La Fortuna (After 6 PM)
For flights landing after 6 PM, we recommend to stay a night by the airport, regardless the time of year. It’ll be better to get a good nights sleep and be well rested for the drive, especially if you had a long travel day and are with kids.
You can leave early the next morning and enjoy the drive in the daylight, because it is a beautiful one.
More Resources to Plan Your Trip to La Fortuna
Where to Stay in La Fortuna: Hotel and neighborhood recommendations
Best Things to Do in La Fortuna: Half and full day tour recommendations from La Fortuna. Includes our La Fortuna tours discount!
Best Things to Do in La Fortuna with Kids: Tours are broken down by age, so you can see what tours your kids can join
Best La Fortuna hot springs: Recommendations on which hot spring resort to visit with prices included.
5 Days Monteverde and La Fortuna itinerary: Where to stay, what to do and how to spend 5 days in Monteverde and La Fortuna
2 week itinerary: La Fortuna, Monteverde, Santa Teresa and Playas del Coco
8 Days itinerary: La Fortuna & Playas del Coco
Costa Rica Vacation Checklist
- First time to Costa Rica? Read our First Time in Costa Rica guide.
- Not sure how to move around Costa Rica? Read our How to Get Around Costa Rica guide to find the best transportation method for you.
- Click the link to get our detailed Costa Rica Packing List so you know what essential items to bring.
- Check our Costa Rica destinations map and Costa Rica restaurant map
- Do not forget to purchase Travel Insurance for your trip to Costa Rica.
- Stay connected by purchasing a prepaid SIM Card in Costa Rica. Get 10% off your Airalo eSIM package with our promo code “mytanfeet”
- Save money with Mytanfeet Deals for tours and hotels and our Costa Rica Car Rental Discount.
Leave a Reply