julierae

I am looking for a cheap car rental company -4*4 - for a week or more in CR. Thanks!

KristeninDenver

I haven't been to Costa Rica for a while but I hear that Tricolor is very good and reasonably priced.

kthyrn

We recently rented a Terios (small SUV type thing) from ALamo/National and had a good experience. They delivered the car to us at the hotel and we dropped off at SJ airport 6 days later. Cost was ~$50/ day with no hidden charges.

glover

I don't know that you'll find "cheap" car rental in Costa Rica. We've rented baby 4 x 4s from both Elegante and Adobe without any problems.

shillmac

We've booked both a Terios and a Suzuki Ignus with Tricolor numerous times. Usually runs about $280 for one week. Best prices we've ever come across. We truly enjoyed our experience with Dollar, but Tricolor beats their prices and we've had no problem with them. I think most companies are very good and choosing one won't be a problem for you!

ardie514

In September we booked a Toyota Rav4 from Mapache through centralamerica.com. We paid about $440 for a week, including insurance and we picked up the car in Tamarindo and dropped off in Liberia at our hotel. They will come door-to-door pretty much anywhere in the country to pick up or drop off. I think the Dahaitsu was less expensive but we needed the interior space of the RAV 4 for surfboards. Paula at centralamerica.com was very, very helpful and responsive.

vancouvergirl

We're going to CR next week and after extensive emails and research, I found Tricolor gave me the best rate. We're renting a 4x4 for 10 days for $350US including everything. (we do have credit card coverage but that's only a discount of $2 a day)
Also, it will make a different if you are picking up and dropping off in San Jose. There are other rental companies that offer free drop offs in other locations, or no-charge one-way fees. If you are not renting in San Jose, some of the other companies might end up being better.

CaliNurse

Avanti Rental Car. They have a toll free number from the USA, listed on their web site. Anyone who answered spoke English and was quite helpful. www.avantirentacar.com.
They advertise that they'll beat any price--didn't test it though, as my son ended up needing an automatic SUV which they did not have. But the service rep there called and found an agency that did have one apparently the last automatic SUV nr SJO around Christmas time
One thing we learned from that : booking/confirmation in CR is different than in USA, where once you make the res, even months before, you don't have to give a cc number til arrival. In CR, they wanted a CC number in advance, to hold the car. Just want you to not lose out on getting the vehicle you want!

Canadian_Traveler

Just a little warning (be prepared)...my husband and I showed up to pick up our rental at Alamo on Christmas Day. I had made the reservation moths in advance and received a faxed reconforimation (just in case) two days before arriving. When we got there, around 1pm they told us they had NO cars left but that we could be put on the waiting list (they would likely have something for us the following day). We had hotel reservations in Arenal that night so we ended up taking a taxi. None of the other car rental companies had cars either and the last tourist bus had departed for the day.

It was a bit frustrating (and expensive!!!) but we laughed it off as a small (of many to come) hiccups during our trip. After all, now we have some great stories to tell.

I just thought it might be good to have a back-up plan!