To find an address in San José, or any other other town in Costa Rica for that matter, can be a real challenge... You see: there aren't any house numbers in use, quite often not even street names, so all addresses refer in some weird way to a nearby landmark or popular building (which of course a tourist hardly ever knows about). Whenever you are going to a particular place you always have to allow at least an extra 20-30 minutes to find the place; even taxi drivers get frequently confused by this system, specially in a maize of one-way-streets.
The following address examples are taken from one tourist brochure advertising restaurants in and around San José:

• Los Yoses 100 oeste y 100 norte del ICE
  translated: Los Yoses (I assume is either a street or a suburb), 100 [meters] west and 100 [meters] north of ICE (whatever that is)
  
• Barrio Dent 250 mts norte de la agencia Datsun
  this one is a little easier to find if you know that NISSAN cars used to be called DATSUN, and that the local dealership is still called DATSUN. Plus you get told that the place is in the suburb (barrio) of Dent (which I assume is abbreviated) just 250 meters north from Datsun...
  
• I love this one: De la casa amarilla 100 este, 100 norte y 50 este
  translated: from the yellow house 100 [meter] east, 100 north and 50 east. (Don't forget your compass and better know what and where the "Yellow House" is.)
  
• Esazú kilometro y medio suroeste de Plaza paco
  by now you should be able to work it out... (Esazú 1½ kilometers southeast from Plaza Paco)
  

All above are real addresses - none has been made up or altered! It's never 40 meters or even more precisely 136 meters - always a round number so you can start your search in the vicinity.
 

If you're driving yourself check out our camping directory for Costa Rica! In Costa Rica you'll find nice free campsites (w/o services) at some beaches...

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