Nikki Solano

Hey Stephanie!

You’re correct! The drive is just a little bit more than an hour. The two most popular shared shuttle service providers are Interbus and Grayline, and both cover the route between Liberia and Tamarindo.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Michael!

Glad we could help. Happy travels! 🙂

Pura vida!

Hey alongourway!

Good point! Umbrellas aren’t great to use in a few different scenarios, but if you’re in town and get caught in a downpour, they can be helpful. Thanks for adding this tip! 🙂

Pura vida!

Hey wakitipu!

You make some great points! I’m sorry our article came across that way. It wasn’t my intention to suggest that all Costa Rican companies that could be considered highballers could also be considered scam artists. My intention was to inform travelers that several Costa Rican travel agencies (unbeknownst to many travelers) charge rates for vacation items that are higher than the actual value of the vacation item. It isn’t sketchy if a company wants to charge more for their service, and it’s okay if a traveler decides that a particular service is worth paying more for, but where highballers cross the line (in our opinion) is when they aren’t upfront about the extra costs. When highballers imply that the rates they charge are the same as the regular rates that the tour operators, hotels, or transportation service providers themselves charge, or when they aren’t transparent about the surcharges they’ve added for their own service, to us, that’s a red flag. In your example about buying groceries and being able to cook a meal for less versus paying more to eat a skillfully prepared meal at a restaurant, of course it wouldn’t be considered a scam if you were tempted into buying the restaurant’s meal. Lots of things are worth paying more for. But if you were considering eating out at that restaurant and three others in town, and you were tempted by the first restaurant to eat at their establishment because they said that their meals cost the same as the meals at the other restaurants (which you believed but wasn’t true), or you weren’t informed in advance that there’s a cover charge to eat at the first restaurant (which may have swayed your decision), that’s where the snakey behavior slithers in.

Pura vida!