Car Hire in Costa Rica

stewie_griffin

Hi

We're going to Costa Rica at the beginning of April and we decided that to make the most of the holiday we would hire a car.

We ended up opting for Service Car Rental as they're local and seem to get mostly positive reviews. The cost includes TPL Mandatory "Third Party Liability" insurance but I declined both
SLI "Supplemental Liability" and CDW as it would have cost another $20 per day. I know these are both required in Costa Rica so I'm getting them through a third party in the UK (MoneyMaxim) and this will cost less than £50.

I just want to make sure that I've not missed anything as I don't want to get to the hire car place and end up having to pay another $2-300. Has anyone got experience of hiring a car in Costa Rica and if so have I missed anything??

Thanks

eDicky

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Has anyone got experience of hiring a car in Costa Rica and if so have I missed anything??

Not personally, but you should probably check that the separate insurance you are buying is for the full CDW cover, and not just the excess on the hire firm's own CDW that you are not (so far) buying.

stewie_griffin

eDicky wrote: »

Not personally, but you should probably check that the separate insurance you are buying is for the full CDW cover, and not just the excess on the hire firm's own CDW that you are not (so far) buying.

I've looked through the insurance policy wording and it appears to covers the excess or repair cost. https://www.bettersafe.com/Documents/CHCDWSLI_Insurance_Policy.pdf

I've not bought the insurance yet so open to any suggestions of other companies that people have had good experience with.

stewie_griffin

EDIT

MoneyMaxim (as per my original post) are a comparison site mainly for car hire excess insurance. The actual company I'm looking at buying from is Bettersafe Products. They have the option to include CDW and SLI as well as excess insurance with their worldwide policies:

https://www.bettersafe.com/Products/Car-Hire-Excess-Insurance-Protection

I think I've ended up answering my own questions but if anyone has any first hand experience feel free to share!

Alikay

From what I remember from our trip to CR 2 years ago, if you don't take out the hire company's CDW, you have to pay a deposit (think it was something like £1000) which is refunded on return. The money is taken from, and returned back to your credit card, so there will be some currency conversion cost to you. If you take out their CDW policy, no deposit is needed. We took it out for peace of mind as the roads in CR particularly around Arenal and Monteverde are appalling - not so much dirt tracks as lunar landscape....a 4 wheel drive car and full insurance cover is vital IMO.

stewie_griffin

I knew I would have to give my credit card details but thought the money was set aside rather than an actual deposit. I'll contact the rental company to check their process.


If I take the insurance separately then it's over £100 cheaper so even with potential currency conversion fee I would have thought this would still be cheaper.

stewie_griffin

I've heard some of the roads are a bit dodgy so I have gone for a 4x4.

Esmie.P

Are you able to advise how you got along in the end? I'm trying to arrange a car in Cr and its a nightmare! Many thanks

stewie_griffin

Hi Esmie

It was no where as bad as I'd been led to believe so don't panic. First of all Service Car Rental https://www.servicecarrental.com/index2.php were excellent and I'd highly recommend them. We landed fairly late so we stayed at a hotel near the airport the first night and the following morning around 8.30 they arrived at the hotel with my car. I took out the insurance above and checked in advance with them that they'd accept this. I had to 'pay' a deposit of about £1000 on credit card but all they did was take an imprint of my card and then handed this back at the end.

The biggest thing on the first day for me was getting used to driving on the right as I'd only done this once before (in Europe) but after half a day I was alright with this. The roads to me were a very mixed bag. Some were absolutely fie whereas others were basically unsurfaced dirt tracks so getting a 4x4 is a must. There are some toll roads but if I were you I wouldn't avoid these as they were cheap and much better quality. Some of the local driving is interesting (or plain suicidal) but if you take your time you'll be fine.

One thing that I did notice is that it took me a lot longer to get to places than I first thought as even the better roads were very hilly and windy so somewhere that was 30km as the crow flies could be more than double that on the road. Also if you get stuck behind a lorry doing 20kph you might not be able to (safely) overtake for a very long time. I'd also highly recommend hiring a sat nav as ours was invaluable.

We stayed in a fairly non-touristy part of CR (near Sarchi) and most of the roads were fairly quiet however we did venture to San Jose one and the traffic round there was a nightmare (especially on the way back as it was rush hour) so again just give yourself plenty of time.

The only incident we encountered is that our car broke down, although this was near the end of our holiday and we'd covered some serious miles (and roads) in this time including the infamous road (route 606) up to Monteverde. We phoned our rep and it took them just over an hour to get out to us but considering in was pitch black and we were miles from anywhere this was quite impressive. He took us back to our hotel (about 50 minutes away) and then dropped off a new car the following morning, which was bigger and better so technically a free upgrade for the last couple of days.

I'd recommend choosing automatic transmission over manual even if it's something you're not used to as in my opinion it made the driving much easier and more relaxing. You'll have so much to concentrate on so not having to think about changing gear is a bonus.

We did a lot of driving so had to fill up at petrol stations many times. This isn't automated like in the UK but even with the language barrier I didn't find it a problem and the attendants were always friendly (they would even clean your windscreen and check the air in your tyres for free). I know the exchange rate and oil price has probably changed since we were there but at the time it cost the equivalent of about 70p per litre and that was for the 'premium' unleaded.

One finally bit of advice is watch out for pot holes (craters!) and speed bumps and quite often they appeared from nowhere with zero warning.

Don't panic, take your time and I'm sure you'll have a fantastic journey.