Originally Posted by
JBord
Well, I wish I had seen all this new information before my refund deadline of 12/30. We're staying at El Mangroove regardless now.
Last weekend I was trying to decide if we should rent a car for the whole time, or just as needed from the on-site Avis. I know from experience how expensive rental cars can be in Central America, so prefer not to rent one for the whole 5 nights. We'll do at least a same day rental, maybe to drive down to Tamarindo or to one of the parks -- still figuring out exactly what we want to do off-property.
But we'd also like to check out Playa Hermosa or Playa Coco one day, maybe lunch there and a couple hours on the beach. Is it reasonable to ride bikes to Playa Hermosa? If not, any ideas on what we could expect to pay for a taxi?
I don't think you should plan on a bike ride to Playa Hermosa.
I *think* we paid $40 for the hotel car service to get to & from Playa Hermosa. Seemed expensive, but definitely cheaper than a car rental! On this upcoming trip we are renting for 9 days from Adobe and the price was reasonable - a small 4wd SUV to carry 4 passengers and suitcases for about $450 including the required liability insurance. But we reserved a while back; prices are much higher now.
$40 isn't a lot when looking at a vacation as a whole. But we have traveled a lot in Latin America - mostly Peru and Mexico - and found taxis and ride hailing apps to be extremely cheap. Maybe you can figure out how to call for an actual taxi and that would save you some $. Like I mentioned upthread, that's what we thought we were doing the first time when we asked the concierge about a taxi. The second time, we just wanted to go to dinner and my husband didn't want to waste time pushing back and saying "we want a taxi, not your over-priced car service."