Customer Reviews

Costa Rica: Waterproof Travel Map of Costa Rica

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ok, so you might need a guide book and a bird book as well but this map goes a long way to provide a Costa Rica map and guide book wrapped into one. I would have paid $100 for this map twelve years ago just for the information about paved roads, something that most map makers are reluctant to include since those roads change so quickly in a place like Costa Rica. Indeed, I headed off to San Jose in March of 1993 with my bike in a box and only a vague idea of road quality around the country. My trip went fine and I discovered some pretty interesting unpaved roads as well. But you are always at an advantage when you have current information. And this map has it as of January 2005 (and should be good for 3-4 years). Besides current road quality and surface status Krueger-Koplin has included detailed listings and locations of beaches, parks, reserves and refuges, butterfly gardens, canopy tours, fresh water fishing locales, surfing and scuba schools and more. How many times have you found yourself trying to plot all these locations on a map from your guidebook? This already has it done for you. As far as I know no other Costa Rica map goes this far.
Headed out on your bike or bird watching in the cloud forest? Not to worry. The "polyart" (plastic) this map is printed on will withstand afternoon downpours, morning drizzles and bike grease as well. This map isn't perfect but I've not seen anything comparable for the active traveler to Costa Rica. Just wish I'd had it twelve years ago. . .

I went to Costa Rica with two maps in hand and hopes of backbacking around the Pacific Coast. Like Vermont, Costa Rica can be rather wet. Within two days of hiking, the first map was torn and soggy. The second map was like it was out of the box. I can't stress the importance and practicality of a waterproof map enough. I found this one to be accurate, detailed and above all, higher quality than I've ever experienced. It was a pleasure to order from Toucan guides as well and I've purchased an additional map for my brother.

Once in a while one comes across a product that really stands out. Something that tells you "someone really gave some thought to this." This map is one of them. It is a comprehensive and well designed map with more information than just highways of Costa Rica. Every time you unfold it, it shows you a complete section of information. Because of the material used, it always folds back correctly unlike paper maps. The map can even be used as a momentary rain shield during one of the many unpredictable rain showers that can come at any time in Costa Rica. Having seen many Costa Rica maps, this one in my opinion is the best one. Great use of detail, color and icons. A MUST if you are going to drive in Costa Rica. The maps from the rental companies lack detail or are non existent. I have been using mine for over a year and I would not go to Costa Rica without. It's the first thing I pack....

I hate to be the only person to not give this map 5 stars but I do have several critiques.
First the pluses.
Map has good scale. About 1 inch = 7 miles
Natural features as rivers and mountains are named.
Map is sturdy and mosture proof.

Now the minuses
No milage table between cities. I thought all road maps had this. Why this one does not is beyond me.
Symbol reference is on the reverse so you have to flip the map over to find out what the symbols mean. Very inconvenient.
No index to natural features as rivers, so if you are trying to find out where Rio Frio is, good luck.
Not all small towns are noted on the map.
A third of the map is devoted to tourist attractions. Well ok I guess I might be able to understand doing this. But I am more interested in finding Rio Frio.
One of the major land marks that I am aware of is not noted on the map--cerro de la muerte. It is at km 89 on Pan Am hyway and it does not show on the map.
Almost every map I have ever seen has a milage ruler at the bottom. This map show only that it is 18 km between grid marks.

I have lived in Costa Rica a few years ago and I have around 10 different maps of the country, but there is not one which is as good as this one!
It's a very detailed map and the structure (water proof) is very usefull when you are travelling there. In fact it is the most clear and detailed map of Costa Rica that I have ever seen!
A must have if you are going there!

Liesbeth - Belgium

I purchased the newest version of this map (2010) before my trip to Costa Rica. In addition, we had a GPS Costa Rican map (for a US Garmin) for our trip and brought several other maps that we had been loaned. This map is awesome. On our first night, we drove from San Jose to Arenal in the dark. Once we arrived, the loaned maps were re-packed. The GPS would sometime say we were off the road and on a different road, and we could easily find our location with this map. Not going to lie, we used the GPS most of the time, but whenever there was a question (which there frequently was) we could use logic to figure out our heading with this map. We did ask for directions twice, but that was not because of the map, but because the roads in Costa Rica are poorly labeled. I drove over 900km (~560 mi) over paved, unpaved, and 4x4 trails all over the country, and I have to say, without it we would have been lost several times. It was well worth the small price. The 12 liters of fuel you burn if you get lost in Costa Rica will more than pay for the price of the map. It is durable and easy to read. Bonus: I contacted the publishers with a question, and they immediately responded. Their website is packed with information that is referenced in the map. Buy yourself a copy before you go, whether you are driving or not -- the map also has up-to-date information about hotels, points of interest, etc.

We did not come across anyone with a map any better than this one. Costa Rica is known for NOT marking streets and NOT marking forks in the road. This map is very accurate when marking all paved/unpaved roads...we did not travel any seasonal roads. We traveled successfully from the airport in San Jose to Montezuma (Nicoya Peninsula), Montezuma to Monteverde, Monteverde to Volcano Arenal and Arenal to Alajuela via the Poas Volcano. Some roads were parked unpaved but have since been paved, which was a nice (although rare)surprise. Every fork we came to was on the map, although sometimes it was hard to determine if we were at a fork in the road or if one of the options was just a long driveway. Use your guide books for city maps, as this map will not allow you to navigate cities like Alajuela.

I thought this map was OK. But at times it was a little hard to read. It is very difficult to navigate the roads in San Jose so the map didn't help us much there. There are not many road signs and the map didn't tell you which road to take to get out of a town once you were driving through the town. We got lost numerous times and had to stop and ask for directions. It was good to get us pointed in the right direction so we knew we were headed in the right way, it was just a matter of if we were on the right road.

This is hands down, by a long shot the best map of Costa Rica. I live in Costa Rica and drive the country regularly due to my job. I have a Toucan Map in both of my vehicles and rely on it more often than my GPS, which is often mistaken in San Jose with one ways or wants to take me on the "most direct route", which often is wrong because most roads are unpaved.
The most important thing to consider when purchasing this map is to buy the current version, which is available when purchased from the seller. This is a developing country and new roads are being paved every day. On the flip side, land slides are known to take out stretches of roads, which can take years to be rebuilt.

This is an excellent map for travel and became indispensable heading to Arenal and Monteverde. It folds easily, is smaller than the gigantic maps other companies make, and has a great feature of showing on the map many tourist attractions that you'd like to go to such as canopy tours or surfing. The roads are accurate but not entirely correct - there has been paving in a couple places that the map does not reflect. The whole country is on one side of the map, and there is very little wasted space on ocean - the Osa Peninsula is put on a separate cut out making flipping unnecessary.

It would be nice to have slightly better understandings of speeds of travel on the roads and an updated version should be coming out shortly.