Landing at Juan Santamaria International Airport

What SJO is like

Costa Rica's main airport sits in Alajuela rather than in San Jose itself, and a good share of arrivals never spend a night in the capital at all. The popular destinations are the volcano country to the north, the cloud forest along the ridges, and beaches on both coasts, each of which means hours more driving. The country looks small on a map, but the roads climb and wind, so journey times run well beyond what the distance suggests. Planning the onward leg is therefore the real work of the arrival.

On arrival

Bring the line up before the wheels touch and use the immigration queue to confirm things with a driver or the rental company, because the arrivals hall here is compact and fills quickly. Outside the doors there are people offering transport; if you have booked, walk straight to whoever is holding your name. Hire car customers take a shuttle out to the company's lot, a step that eats more time than most people allow for. If you land in the evening, think about daylight as well, because a mountain road after dark is a different proposition from the same road at noon. That decision is easier to make with a working phone in your hand.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

Free Wi-Fi is available behind a sign-in page and is fine for a message or a quick look at mail while the bags come round, though the hall is not large and fills in bursts, so the speed sags easily. The bigger issue is what lies beyond the airport: the routes into the mountains and out to the coasts have stretches where the signal genuinely weakens. Downloading offline maps and your accommodation details while you are still in the terminal is a habit that pays for itself in this country. Treat the Wi-Fi as the moment to prepare, not as the connection you will travel on.

Getting into town

Everything leaves by road, and the first question is whether you are staying nearby or driving on immediately. San Jose is not far when the traffic is kind, but heading north to the volcano country or across to the Pacific side is a run of several hours on winding roads. The choices are a private transfer, a shared shuttle van, or a hire car, which many people take precisely because they want to stop along the way. In the car the data goes mostly on the map, and on the mountain sections an offline copy is what keeps you from pulling over to wait for a bar of signal.

What people ask about this airport

• Count the daylight — If you land in the evening and your destination is up a mountain, a night near the airport is usually easier than the drive in the dark.
• Rental lots are off-site — A company shuttle takes you out to the lot, so build that leg in rather than assuming you have a car the moment you leave the doors.
• Download the mountain route — Routes to the cloud forest and the volcanoes have weak stretches, and an offline map means no guessing when you reach a junction.