Giving your address or going to a given address in Costa Rica is a real hunting game. There are street names but no numbers on houses or buildings which means that the address is actually the route you have to follow.

Our address in San Jose – Costa Rica

It took us a week to figure out how to give our address in San Jose for a delivery. The only address we had was the one given by our host to find the rental.

ESCAZÚ CENTRO. From El Mundo del Pan Bakery, go 300m south. When you reach a sign indicating Hulera Costarricense on the left, go straight for 175 m then cross to the left. Penultimate large wooden portal on the left, with fuchia columns.

We really thought it was to make it easier for us to arrive.

No, this is our real address. When we walked down the street looking for a door number we actually found nothing. So, the conclusion is that to come and see us, you have to know where the famous bakery is.

I did my research.

The bakery’s address is: 200m east of the Catholic Church in Escazú. It sounds simple, except that… there are many churches!

But I guess everyone here knows the main church because our order has been delivered 🤣

And yet, the method for assigning the name of the roads is very simple.

City map

• Imagine a grid of straight roads.
• The streets / Calle go from North to South.
• The avenues / Avenida run from East to West.
• In the center a “Calle Central” and “Avenida Central”. The main Catholic Church and the central market are usually located here.
• The Streets / Calle are numbered from the “Calle Central”:
  • To the West they will have even numbers, and to the East odd numbers.
• The avenues / Avenida are numbered from the “Avenida Central”:
  • To the North the Avenida have odd numbers, and to the South even numbers.

To conclude

When you understood the logic, a route makes perfect sense to give an address in Costa Rica. As I have a bad sense of direction, I know that if I have to go North or South, I have to follow a Calle. If I have to go East or West, an Avenida. All that remains is to know which way to go… 😁But with the road numbers, I think I would be able to sort it out.