wanatrvl

For our family of 5 it looks like we will have to pay over $600 (including insurance)for a 4x4 for 7 days. Is this the going rate or am I just looking in the wrong places? Any suggestions?

A_Traveller

Hard to give you any advice without knowing where are you planning to go. Rental rates vary greatly from country to country and city to city.

wanatrvl

Oops! I posted under the Costa Rica forum so I assumed the country was obvious though I forgot it also goes under the general category as well. However, I neglected to specify Arenal, MA and Monteverde. I think I just found a good rate at Tricolor so suggestions are not needed afterall. Thanks anyway.

dncee11

One additional word of advice, be sure to get a complete list of all the charges, including any mandatory insurance, and the name of the person you are speaking or writing to. Having copies of e-mails can help as well. Some credit cards will cover portions of needed insurance coverages; check with the card issuer.

sean420

We rented from Tricolor on our trip to CR earlier this month. We paid $350 for a Dihatsu Terios 4x4 for 10 days. I imagine you would need something bigger that would cost more but Tricolor had the best rates when I was shopping around.

thoid

The price sounds right for the size of 4x4 you will need. We had quite an experience with thrifty. They didn't have the cars we asked for when we got there and we needed to wait a few hours until 1 came in.

shillmac

Tricolor just gave us a rate of $1200 for 4 weeks on a Mitsubishi Montero. The length of time earned us a slight discount, but we've never found anyone to beat Tricolor prices. Also, we've never had a problem with extra charges or misplaced reservations. I do, however, always do as dnc11 advised: take a print-out of the rental agreement and the confirmation number. Not just for the rental vehicle, but for all reservations. Good luck!

Iza

We rented large 4x4s from Dollar (Nissan Pathfinder and Nissan XTerra) for less than $500 per week (2-3 years ago in the green season). We were very happy with Dollar's service.

wanatrvl

Thanks everyone. We got a suzuki xl7 from tricolor for $456 with all taxes and insurance. I'm pretty happy about this and I've heard lots of good reports about Tricolor! I'll be sure to report back after our trip.

Melissa5

Wanatryl, we just returned last night from costa rica and rented a Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7 4-wheel drive from Tricolor. They were very good to deal with. This vehicle made it up to Monteverde for us too.

But even though it does have seats for 7 people, we felt crowded on the longer drives with 5 people and luggage. Our "kids" are young adults and the 5th person, who has to sit in the very back seat, is always surrounded by suitcases and complaining they can't see much out the window!

There is a roof rack but we were glad we didn't try to use it...it rains part of every day in June and our luggage would have been soaked!

If you have any kids I suggest you have them rotate as far as who has to sit in the very back, and maybe even offer some sort of bribe for riding without complaining!

As far as luggage goes, we each had 1 rolling carry-on, and one 18-inch duffle bag (medium sized duffle.) We had 5 people too.

Tricolor is a good company. I would definitely use them again. I just think that the Suzuki Grand Vitara XL7 is very comfortable for 4 people with luggage, but gets crowded for 5 or more people with luggage.

Have a great trip!

wanatrvl

Melissa, thanks for the info. My kids are younger (7,12, 15) so I'm hoping it will work better for us. I was hoping it was about the size of our Ford Explorer. Many of the rental companies were advertising much smaller vehicles such as Toyota RAV4 as big enough for 5 people plus tons of luggage. I think the traveling is going to really test us but hopefully we'll get thru it and enjoy our destinations. Can't wait to see your full report! We all know with all your research and attention to details, it will be great!

dariow

If you do not have travel insurance, I suugest getting the extra rental insurance. I was just involved in an accident wherein I totaled my vehicle. The mandatory insurance has a $2,000 deductible if you total the car. My travel insurance will cover that.

wanatrvl

Good point Dariow. Glad you were ok.

curtdo

Just don't do what I did. Slipped on my selection when booking on the Internet. My reservation was in San Jose California! Ended up getting a car, but it took a while.

wanatrvl

curtdo: that is pretty funny. I bet you can laugh about it now but probably not at the time!