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Are there other cities that you can rent a car from other than San Jose? Like Jaco or Puntarenas or Orotina? Thank you in advance.
Check with your hotel as many hotels will arrange to have a car brought directly to the hotel for you. There are plenty of car rentals agencies in Liberia (near the airport) and I would highly recommend Toyota Rent a Car there from personal experience. I have rented with them seven times. Their vehicles are in great condition, the staff are excellent, and I even had an accident claim once which was handled swiftly and painlessly – the true test. Hope this helps.
If you do a Google search on “car rental + Costa Rica”, it’ll turn up a dozen companies’ sites. If you then poke around those sites, you’ll find out which ones have offices outside San Jose.
We have rented from Tri-Color, Avis and Payless, all in the San Jose area, and been treated well by all three.
Word of Caution: If you rent a car and pick it up at Juan Santamaria International Airport, the airport imposes a 15% surcharge on the whole rental. The airport in Liberia may do the same, and so might a hotel. At the airports, either the rental agencies will meet you or you can take a taxi to their office to pick up a car. The same would be true from a hotel. It’s worth checking.
Another word of caution: stick to the well known larger companies to avoid problems with less than reliable vehicles.
Yes, National, Hertz, Budget have a rental location at the Los Suenos Marina (near Jaco). One tip regarding rates at all rentals- The rates that are quoted don’t always include insurance which is no small item.
We rented from National for a rate I thought was approximately $54/day for a mid-sized SUV. Mandatory insurance tacked on another $35/day making the effective rate almost $90/day. There were also a few taxes on top of that!
John H.
Hello,
There are many rent-a-car business in Jaco. None that I know of in Orotina.
In Jaco the best I have found, for the price and quality is Zuma Rent-a-car.
They deliver at the airport if you need, an easy-quick transaction. They speak English/french/spanish
http://www.zumarentacar.com/
Hasta Luego
JoStill looking for a good rental car at a good price. As stated by others above dealing with the lower priced options have not worked out well. I just got back from just a ten day trip and went through three cars from a low priced option. Had bad experiences with another one of the 35 dollar a day deals. I have had great luck with National however as stated above they are expensive. I will pay the price though for longer trips around the country and continue to look for a good cheap option when not traveling too far from the Central Valley. Roads are tough on cars in CR but I have found that you do get what you pay for in Rental Cars in CR. I would be happy to hear from anyone that knows about a good cheap rental option for a good 4×4 that runs well. What I have done with National in the past is drive one way to the Osa Peninsula and drop the car off in Puerto Jimenez for a fee and fly back on Sansa. Worked out real well. Their people were right on time, easy to deal with and overall no problems at all with their vehicles after many years renting from them.
A friend has related that he’s renting a car (didn’t say what) from Avis in early September for about $200 per week. Ripple33 is right; the roads here can be tough on cars, but since what you’ll be driving isn’t *your* car, what do you care, as long as you don’t break a suspension component and disable the thing.
Remember, too, that if you charge your rental on most Platinum VISA cards, the VISA card covers the liabilities which would otherwise be covered by optional (read “expensive”) coverage provided by the rental company.
Also, don’t pick your rental car up at the airport or there’ll be a 15% surcharge.
David, Have you dealt with Avis in Costa Rica? 200 per week is not bad at all. I would be interested in what kind of vehicle was rented and what your experiences with this company are. It is not real fun breaking down in the middle of nowhere and trying to find somewhere to walk to that has a phone. Not that big of a deal when you break down near the city but if you are driving back dirt roads and break down this can be a major problem. Even if you rent a cell phone often there is no reception. Thanks for everyones input on this.
In April of 2005, we rented a Kia Sportage with a 1.6 liter diesel engine and a five-speed manual transmission. It was a delightful car to drive. Were it a little larger, we would have bought one when we moved here.
Avis was fine to do business with, as have been Tri-Color and Payless. They all spoke comprehensible English. The cars were all clean and mechanically sound. The paperwork was no worse than a rental in the U.S. And the staffs were all familiar with the insurance coverages that are included as a benefit to our Platinum VISA account, so we didn’t have to pay for additional coverage beyond what’s legally mandated.
The worst part of the rental experience was trying to get a taxi from the airport to the Avis office which is actually located quite nearby. No one at curbside had ever heard of “Avis”, which we found difficult to believe.
When Marcia finally pulled out the printout from our on-line reservation and the assembled crowd realized that we were looking for “Abis”, the fog cleared. Who knew that “V” is pronounced “B” in Espanol?
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