Do I need to rent a 4x4?
 

I am going to CR in late Feb and would like to rent a car. Looking at rates, it would be much less to rent a normal economy or midsize car than a 4x4 because I don't drive manual transmission. Do I need 4x4 due to potholes/ground clearance/etc? I am going from SJO to Arenal to Monteverde to Manuel Antonio back to SJO. Thanks

The last 10 kilometeres of the drive from Arenal to Monteverde the road is like driving up a steep, dry river bed. Holes up to a foot deep and four feet across, large rocks sticking up out of the road bed. For a long stretch I never got out of first gear.

Keith

If you are planning on driving yourself to Monteverde, you definately need a 4X4. We went last October and bottomed out on the road to Monteverde in our little Diatsu Terios 4x4, never making it to the top. We are planning to go back in April and plan to attempt Monteverde again, but are planning on taking a bus from the bottom of the mountain. On the other hand, bottoming out was not an all together horrible experience as we waited for 5 hours at a little restaraunt half way down, playing cards with the owner who taught us games in Spanish!

Thanks for the advice, I will ditch any plans of a small car. Any recommendations for specific rental companies? Again, I cannot drive manual transmission so hopefully they offer automatic 4x4's at a decent rate. Also, it sounds like I have to take the mandatory government insurance?

When we went to Monteverde
we rented a Toyota Rav 4 automatic from Toyota Rental near the Hampton Inn 5 mins from SJO airport. It served us well.

We've never returned to Monteverde so we've always rented a Corolla on our other trips to CR and that has gotten us up some steep and rocky roads and around and over plenty of potholes.

Best to have high clearance for Monteverde.

Visa will often cover CDW insurance
so check with your credit card company. It can save you some $$.

Happy travels.

Tricolor has been highly recomended on this forum. I just used them and was pleased with both price and service.

When I was picking up the car, the rep said, "Your daily rate included the basic insurance. Because you are using a Capital One Credit Card, they provide additional coverage and there is no reason for you to purchase additional coverage."

Never had a rental company do that before.

Keith

I would have recommended you Wild Rider, but I think they don't offer cars with automatic transmission, so I advice you to rent from Tricolor, too.

Auto transmission is not easy to come by in CR. The driving conditions are more geared toward a standard transmission and getting them worked on is a problem (as it was explained to us) and very expensive.

So glad you had a good experience with Tricolor, Keith. It's always been the same for us. We've decided to quit using our credit card insurance because it tends to be a hassle and saves only $2 per day off the rental price. Seems more worth it not to have to deal with filing the claim (have done it, fairly time consuming).

Good luck!