San Jose People & Culture

Flying Busses

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get from place to place while in Costa Rica check out the internal flights. Air travel, on prop planes, is almost equivalent to bus travel in the country. It’s relatively inexpensive and much faster than driving. You have a choice of two commercial airlines that fly domestically and flights can be chartered to more remote locations with ease. Nature Air is one of the two commercial airlines in the country. As with Sansa, their competitor, the planes are small prop planes that seat about15 to 20 people. Their flight record is great as is the service. Most flights average a half hour to 45 minutes in duration as the country is so small. Nature Air features a more user friendly website, and although their flights average about $10 US more per flight than Sansa, they are the only carbon neutral airline in the skies and they have more choices when it comes to direct flights. We chose Nature Air because it was easier to navigate their website, book flights online and they had better connections and flight options than Sansa. The staff was friendly and helpful and we really enjoyed our flights. Because these are smaller planes be aware that there is a weight limit for both checked luggage and carry-ons. Passengers are allowed ONE checked bag with a maximum 30 lbs weight limit and one carry-on with a 10 lbs weight limit. Checked luggage is weighed at check in and they will charge you if you are over the 30 lbs limit. The carry on is weighed along with you, so if you’re not overweight you can probably get by with a little over the 10 lbs limit.

Sample Prices: We booked a last minute, one way flight from San Jose to Puerto Jimenez for $99 US and one was from Puerto Jimenez to Quepos for the same price. If we had booked earlier there were better deals.

Phone: 800 235 9272 Website: www.natureair.com

Flying Busses Pt. 2

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get from place to place while in Costa Rica check out the internal flights. Air travel, on prop planes, is almost equivalent to bus travel in the country. It’s relatively inexpensive and much faster than driving. You have a choice of two commercial airlines that fly domestically and flights can be chartered to more remote locations with ease. Sansa Air is one of the two commercial airlines in the country. As with Nature Air, their competitor, the planes are small prop planes that seat about 15 to 20 people. Their flight record is great as is the service. Most flights average a half hour to 45 minutes in duration as the country is so small. Their prices tend to run about $10 US less per flight than Nature Air and they also feature one and two week “Air Passes” (although I am not quite sure how the passes work) that supposedly allow you to fly unlimited around the country. The drawbacks: their website is difficult to navigate and book flights. In fact it was impossible for me to book one way flights on their site. And most of their flights originate out of San Jose so if you want to get from Point A to Point B (and neither is San Jose) you’ll have to connect through San Jose and pay for both legs of your trip separately.

Phone: 877-767-2672 Website: www.flysansa.com