How do I get around San José?

Uber runs well here, and it's the right answer for most trips within the city. Download it before you clear customs at Juan Santamaría: airport Wi-Fi is spotty, and you don't want to be fumbling with app downloads in the arrivals hall while taxi drivers crowd around you. A ride from the airport to downtown hotels near Barrio Amón or Parque La Sabana runs roughly 5,000–8,000 colones (about $9–15 USD), with the fare locked in before you confirm. DiDi also operates and sometimes undercuts Uber by a few hundred colones. Worth noting: Uber drivers in San José will often ask you to sit in the front seat. It's not a scam: it's how they avoid being flagged as rideshare by traffic police, since the legal standing of ride-hail apps has been shifting for years. Don't overthink it, just get in.

Official red taxis are the backup. Every licensed cab has a yellow triangle on the door and a meter locals call 'la maría': if the driver doesn't flip it on when you climb in, say 'la maría, por favor' or get out. Flagfall sits at about 680 colones (around $1.25), and a cross-town ride from Barrio Escalante to La Sabana runs maybe 3,000–4,000 colones. After 10 PM there's a legal 20% night surcharge. Pirate taxis (unmarked sedans, often white or silver, idling near bus terminals) are common and best skipped. No meters, no insurance, no recourse. That said, if you're leaving a restaurant at midnight and Uber shows a 15-minute wait, a red cab at the curb with a visible triangle is fine.

San José's bus network covers the metro area and reaches the Central Valley towns (Heredia, Alajuela, Cartago) for under 500 colones a ride. The problem is legibility. Routes follow no logical numbering system. Stops are sometimes a painted post, sometimes a cluster of people standing on a curb with no marker at all. The destination scrawled on the windshield assumes you already know the barrio. For a first-time visitor, the one route worth learning is the bus along Avenida 2 through downtown, connecting the Mercado Central to the university district. Beyond that, you'll spend more time puzzling out connections than you save over a 2,000-colón Uber. The commuter train, Tren Interurbano, runs limited service to Heredia, Pavas, and Cartago at around 500 colones, but schedules are thin and stations sit far from most things visitors care about.

Walking works in exactly two places. The pedestrian stretch of Avenida Central, running roughly from the Mercado Central west past the Banco Central, is car-free and tiled: street vendors selling mango slices dusted with chili powder, the sharp smell of fresh coffee drifting from corner sodas, accordion buskers setting up outside the Teatro Nacional on weekend mornings. Barrio Amón, just north of Parque España, has the city's best-preserved Victorian-era houses and sidewalks that still hold together. Everywhere else, brace yourself. Sidewalks narrow without warning, drop off into open storm drains, or simply end: dumping you into traffic on streets where drivers treat crosswalks as decorative paint. The afternoon downpour, which rolls in daily from May through November and tends to hit around 2 PM, turns cracked pavement into ankle-deep streams within minutes. Carry a compact umbrella and wear shoes you don't mind soaking through.