Drive San Jose Dominical | New Highway

Everyone is going to want to take a trip on the new Autopista del Sol that will be inaugurated by central government officials Wednesday 27th of January 2010.

The trip from La Sabana to Caldera will cost 1,930 colons for a passenger car. A motorist will face four toll stations: Escazú, Alajuela, Atenas and Orotina. There also are toll stations at several exits.

This is the highway that has been nearly 40 years in the making. It is designed to cut about an hour off a car trip to the Pacific. The bridges have been in place for more than four years, but the central government finally got a concession approved so that a private company would front the money and then collect the tolls.

Developers and tourism operators are counting on the new highway to be a boon to their industries. The highway works in the other direction, too, so Pacific coast residents will have a quicker access to the Central Valley for shopping and government and entertainment activities.

And the new route is a magnet for Sunday drivers who will just want to see the countryside. The highway has been completed sooner than expected. But President Óscar Arias Sánchez appears to want to officially open the highway before voters decide the future of his former vice president. So some last-minute work still is to be done.