We are going to CR in April, flying into Liberia, renting a car from Tri-Color.

We will be in Potrero/Flamingo beach area from Saturday 4/5 until Thursday after my last class at CPI and then we are going to Rincon de la Vieja and staying at Buena Vista Lodge Thursday night through Saturday when we fly back from Liberia.

I was planning on just buying a phone card there, which is what I usually do on my international travels, until reading about rental car tire scams and such.

Finally we are getting to my question. We can either rent a cell phone in Costa Rica or get an AT&T pay as you go 'world' phone that they say works in Costa Rica. What do any of you experience travelers recommend? Or should I just go with my original plan and not have a cell phone at all?

Unless you really need a cell phone, I wouldn't bother. You can purchase the international calling cards in Costa Rica for $10 for about 30 minutes to the U.S. You can use them from your hotel phone or any pay phone(jut don't use those blue phones). The blue strange looking phones charge a fortune! I don't know anything about the rates for the 2 ways you mention. I know friends who have taken their cell phones and they worked fine in Costa Rica. If you take your own phone just talk to your carrier about the calling plan from using it in Costa Rica. Maybe someone else has advice on the other options.

I think it depends on what you will need to call back home for and how often you will need to be on the phone. I used my own cell phone, with tmobile - signed up for their international roaming, which is no additional charge to have. But you have to have a phone that can be used internationally. My phone already was, and I think many of the newer cell phones are. I am self employed and it was critical for me to be able to be reached by my employees as needed - so in my case that was the best option for me. It gave me piece of mind in leaving my business for 10 days. However, the calls are expensive, about $1.99/minute. Reception was great in most places. However, no reception at BDC, which I expected. A calling card wouldn't have worked for me because I needed my staff to be able to call me when they needed to. Also, it was nice to be able to call home to check on the kids etc when we wanted to.

If you're calling home at set times, and don't expect people to need to call you - then I would think the calling cards you can get in CR woud be great.

The only reason I would want a cell phone would be if we were in the rental car and needed to call someone for help, ie flat tire scam, car breaks down, hopelessly lost etc, more of an emergency use.

I plan on giving my adult kids the numbers of the hotels and schools we will be at and if I want to call home I would just use a phone card.

So I guess what I am asking is to those of you who rent cars in CR have you ever wished that you had a phone it the car?

I have never been to CR, but i can
tell you that you will need some
basic skills when renting a car, to
help yourself.

While in Belize and about 30kms
in the woods on real bad roads on
our way back from the mayan ruins
of Caracol, we had a flat tire.
I was able to change it and move on.

There was no cell phone coverage in
this spot. What can one do? Would
have had to flag down other vehicles
that ply that road not too often or
walked to the next village.

To be prepared is good.
My verizon CDMA
phone had signal in Guatemala and
Belize. However on hind sight, a
cheap GSM unlocked phone from ebay
would have been very helpful to
have. Just purchasing the sim cards
in each country.

Just go for it.
Krish