Costa Rica on an Indian Licence — The Side Switch & One-Lane Bridges

Costa Rica is a popular self-drive escape for Indian travellers — compact, scenic, and far easier with your own car than by bus. The licence side is simple. What needs real attention is the switch in driving side and the character of the roads themselves.

The first thing to internalise: Costa Rica drives on the right, where India drives on the left. The open road is rarely the problem; the reflexes are. Roundabouts flow the opposite way, you exit a petrol station onto the other lane, and the instinct to look right-then-left flips. Give yourself a quiet first hour and treat every junction deliberately until it stops feeling backwards.

Then the roads. Beyond the Ruta 1 and San José, much of the country is narrow mountain road, potholed, with single-lane bridges where a ceda el paso sign decides who waits. Heavy rain from May to November softens unpaved stretches and lifts river levels, so a 4x4 is the sensible rental for anything past the main towns. Speeds match the terrain: 40 km/h in towns, 60 rural, 100 on the few motorway sections.

Documents are the easy part. Your Indian licence needs no IDP for a tourist visit — carry it with your passport and you are legal. The Driving Permit Checker confirms it. The alcohol limit is 0.05, a touch looser than India’s 0.03, but police checks are routine and drink-driving penalties heavy, so the honest rule stays zero before driving.

Speed cameras and roadside checks handle enforcement; a serious overspeed of roughly 20 km/h over costs about CRC 53,000 (around EUR 95), which the Speeding Fine Calculator will estimate. Fuel is around $1.28/litre, 911 covers all emergencies, and offline maps matter where the hills and coast lose signal. The full guide is at driving in Costa Rica.