Looking for recomendations for rental car companies & necessary insurance out of San Jose airport. I currently have a reservation through Priceline with Payless, but recently read that the big US booking companies often seem to give the best prices because they don't include the mandatory insurance and fees, so there is often an unexpected mark up at the counter. Any advice would be appreciated!

We don't rent a car very often, but Alamo and Adobe are two of the more popular companies in Costa Rica.

Thanks!

Yes, you are correct that 3rd party booking sites usually don't include insurance, so your actual price will be much higher than your quoted price. Your quoted price is probably just for the rental itself. There are 2 types of insurance that you need:

* Liability (Third party waiver) - required by law, and you have to buy it from the car rental company.

* Collision (CDW) - required by rental companies because this is what covers the vehicle itself if you damage it. You can buy this from the car rental company or provide your own. If you provide your own, check with the rental company to determine what documentation you need to show you have sufficient insurance and that the insurance provides coverage in CR. If you don't have the necessary documentation, the rental company will require you to buy Collision insurance from them because they can't be certain that you are covered otherwise.

We have rented cars twice in Costa Rica. The first time there was a surprise at the rental counter because we weren't prepared for the insurance. The second time, we rented through Vamos and our quote included both insurance types so our total price paid was exactly the same as the quote. Liability and full collision insurance was $34/day for our 9 day rental. For comparison, our rental rate was $25/day.

november_moon Thanks very much - that is helpful information about the insurance!

We used Adobe in San Jose. Very smooth operation. They picked us up at the airport. We did have to get an Uber back to the airport when we dropped the car off, but it was very easy.