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I send money regularly to C.R. from Canada using Western Union. It’s expensive at $75 per pop. I gave my daughter a bank card and she uses that in C.R. I have never added up the charges but I think it might be less expensive than the Western Union option.
This company claims to have a detailed gps (garmin) map of C.R. but I have not used it nor do I know anyone who has. Also, when I was at the Best Western Irazu in San Jose I noticed the car rental company rents gps units with what they claim are detailed gps maps made for the C.R. market. There is a website somewhere where one can buy a gps with this map. *I do not know if this is on the up and up or not. I just bought a micro bus for my daughter and son-in-law for their business and decided against buying a gps and map for now, because he knows his way around pretty well. But I’d love to hear if anyone has this so called detailed gps map of C.R.
Sergio Vargas
IT Manager
RSGPS S.A.
(This is the guy I emailed with but he’s slow to reply.)Feel free to quote me anywhere you like. The latest I heard from my daughter is that the guy wants to write a letter to immigration explaining the mistake. (Probably for an extra fee of course) Somehow I don’t think that’s going to work. She’s still married to some guy who doesn’t exist.
I heard some people take the two 90 day periods and then sell the car in Panama where the import taxes are much less and the prices are good. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I have an 04 Dodge pick up with less than 10,000 k on it. I only use it to tow my travel trailer a couple of trips a year. I was going to ship it down and give it to my daughter and son-in-law but I found out it was pretty much worthless in Costa Rica because it has a big motor, automatic and runs on gas. The shipping company guy told me that, so there are some good honest Costa Rican business people out there who are looking out for their customers. Scott, can I mention the company name here?
My daughter just got married to a Costa Rican. They used a lawyer in Limon to do the paper work. He somehow put the first name of my son-in-law and the last name of the best man down as the husband when he filed the papers. Now he won’t do anything to help sort it out. My son in law doesn’t know if he’s married or not. My daughter doesn’t know who she’s married to. And now she can’t proceed with her residency. I wish they would have used one of the lawyers recommended here but they wanted to save me a few bucks – God bless them. So we’re not sure what we’re going to do now.
I never get bit at home in Canada, and we have some 4 wheel drive saucy ones flying around here. I swear I can sometimes hear the Costa Rican ones laughing in Spanish as they mount their nightly offensive! Nothing seems to work 100% of the time for me, but deet sprays help a lot. Someone told me I should eat a lot of garlic while in C.R., because that helps but I’ve never tried it. I really think diet must have something to do with. They just don’t eat Costa Rican’s like they seem to eat me.
Hi Bob:
I don’t live in Costa Rica but I go 3 or 4 times a year.
About a year ago I was in San Pedro (I think it’s called) Mall up on the 3rd level and all of a sudden everything started rumbling and shaking. It only lasted a few seconds but it was loud and scary.
The locals hardly missed a beat. They stopped for a second and then resumed shopping. I on the other hand would like to report that I saved the mall from collapse by quickly removing my 320lbs from the 3rd level and out the door to where the taxis park. No thanks needed from the mall and the President. Just trying to do my part.I saw a Costa Rican man putting sugar on termit trails. He claimed sugar is what they use in Costa Rica to keep the termits down when they infest a house. Does anyone know if this works?
I use TDCantrust, Pres. Choice and Royal bank cards. I have trouble with Pres. Choice only. I think you want to be sure your BMO card is on both the main networks. Pres. Choice is only on one of the two main networks. It’s part of CIBC so I assumed it would be on both. But it’s not. So I would assume (but do not KNOW) that CIBC cards might have a wee bit of trouble there.
I can’t recall if the bank machine offers a choice of US dollars or Costa Rican colones when I use one of my debit cards in C.R. I don’t think it does so you’d have to withdraw Costa Rican Colones. If the machines do offer a choice, as I see it, you’d be paying exchange from Can. $ to US $ and then spending them in C.R. I don’t know that you’d be gaining anything by not exchanging Can $ for Costa Rican Colones. Or do you know something I don’t?
I’ll be back in C.R. this weekend. I’ll see if the machines offer a choice of US or Colones and report back if no one else clears that up for you.
Rick from Vancouver here. Helping my daughter and her Costa Rican husband get a tourist business going. I wouldn’t say I’m anywhere near an expert in doing business in Costa Rica. Have Canadian business experience though.
Nice to meet you
Another word of caution: stick to the well known larger companies to avoid problems with less than reliable vehicles.
Are you sure it’s the airlines? Or is the immigration in C.R.? I can’t see how the airlines would care. One way is a better deal for them a lot of the times.
Immigration has never checked to see if anyone in my family has return tickets. I have a daughter who just got married to a Costa Rican and they live in C.R. She flys back and forth with return tics out of C.R. with no trouble even though she has just started the process of becoming legal there. I’ve met a few Americans who are living there as tourists who do the same thing.
I don’t think anyone will check and you’d sure have a good reason not to have a return tic. If they did hassle you I guess you’d have to go over to the counter and buy a return ticket back to the US and use it for your next visit home.
I rented once from this company about 6 months ago and would never rent from them again. The car was in very poor condition and delivered not as promised. It was the worst rental experience I’ve ever had. Anywhere!
To be fair, when I complained there was an offer on the table to give me a few days free rental next time I would rent from them. However when I told them I would not rent from them again but would like a few days out of the 10 (I think it was 10 days) refunded, there was no further communications from them and I didn’t get any money refunded.
Since then I’ve rented from the larger well known companies with no problems and just a little more money.
For me it comes down to do I want the extra worry and stress just to save a hundred bucks over 10 days? I’d rather cough it up and have a worry free visit.
Hi Sammy:
Are you driving an RV or pulling a camping unit or are you staying in hotels? I was going to drive down (from Canada) in the summer but if someone else was going I might wait and hook up for added safety. Are you interested in getting a caravan together or do you prefer to go it alone?
I once rented from a low cost all inclusive 4 by 4 guy who can’t be named in person on this website for some reason and got a total junker that was a pain in the butt. I would stick to the big well known companies in Costa Rica. At least you’ll get a decent car even if it does cost a few bucks a day more.
