car rentals
 

was thinking of renting a car in costa rica but am a little afraid of the roads. what are the roads like from san jose to Jaco? and then from Jaco to Manuel San Antonio. any tips/recommendations of car rental places and or transfer companies. TIA!

We're renting from Dollar this Saturday. They offered us the best price four our 17 day rental. I'll post a report when we get back. I've heard the roads to Jaco and MA are in decent shape.

The road winds quite alot as you lose elevation to the coast and is narrow relative to what you're probably used to, but it's paved, marked, and signed. There are relatively few potholes and as long as you don't drive at night you should be fine.

Dollar has consitently low rates and good reports.

I don't know where you are from, but the roads are like driving on old country roads, narrow, hilly, pot holes here and there because the city or town doesn't have the money for repairs, and most side streets are either dirt or in really bad shape, but any suv can easily handle them.

We've rented small SUVs from both Elegante and Adobe and got good service from both those companies. We've not driven from SJ to Jaco to MA, but in opposite directions (SJ to Monteverde, then Arenal and SJ to San Isidro and down to Dominical. My husband enjoys driving. As other poster said it's like driving in the old days (well . . . if you're old enough to remember back that far) -- fairly narrow two lane roads -- some in pretty decent conditions, others with frequent potholes. There's not much traffic beyond SJ on the roads. Just drive carefully and not at night and you'll be fine and probably really enjoy it -- we do!