Renting a GPS
 

I checked with my car rental company(Dollar) and they don't seem to have GPS units availble for rental. Does anyone know where I can rent one that covers CR before I go?

Thanks.

That's weird! We used Dollar last month and rented the GPS through them. Thank God as it was worth every penny. Wouldn't have made it without it!

Where did you travel to with your GPS? Was it very specific in really rural areas?

Thrifty did not have one either...I requested it and they came through. I also thought about buying one before the trip since for us $10 a day...and our trip was 10 days...but forget it.
Its totally specific to CR, gasoline stations, attractions, beaches, eateries...not just roads...and as you heard there are few signs (I believe there are close to NO signs) in CR. GPS; best investment on our trip...hands down.

Happy travels,
Ribota

I was wondering the same thing - how do you operate it without entering a specific address? Most of the places we stayed did not even have a street name. Did you just enter a city as a destination?

We rented a GPS from Tricolor last week (extra $11/day) - the GPS is not as good as the ones in the US, but it still saved us from getting lost at least 3 times during the week, so it was well worth it on balance. But I found it could not give directions to places unless they were within 10-20 miles (weird !!), did not understand one-way streets in La Fortuna and Alajuela, and sometimes led us to dirt roads instead of keeping us on the main road. Still, on balance it was worth renting the GPS.

You could search for hotels and restaurants by name on the GPS we rented (Los Lagos and Orqueidas Inn were both listed for example). But on the drive from Peace Lodge to O-Inn, the GPS told us to go off the main road and take several dirt roads before putting us back on the main road (which was weird). So we turned it off - and promptly got lost, and only found our way again when we turned it back on. SO its not as easy to use as the ones in the US - but still worth it on balance for us...


Sunil

We rented from Dollar and paid $8 per day for GPS. We drove from San Jose to Dominical to Arenal to Puerta Veijo (sp?) and the GPS saved us many times. We found very helpful and pretty accurate. Once the road thru one city was blocked which the GPS was unaware and we had to go around. We had no trouble with programing in destination of any distance. We would program Dominical thru Jaco and it would direct us that way. It helped us locate many restaurants and other attractions we were looking for. Forget street signs or town signs, we never saw any.

Definitely sounds like GPS is the way to go - thanks for the good information!

Tamararules-- We to are going to Dominical and renting from Solid which offers GPS for $7.00 per day.

Sounds like a great deal

So did anyone answer the question on how you program in your destination since there are no addresses? Do you just put in the town name? I am debating whether to rent one. We will be going from SJO airport to Cano Negro to Arenal to Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. Do you think we need to rent a GPS?

Thanks

>> So did anyone answer the question on how you program in your destination since there are no addresses?

I believe the GPS's are programmed with the placenames, such as "Lost Iguana Hotel", "Arenal Volcano", etc.)

I second tamararules about the GPS seeing as I was with her in the car and we all agreed it was the best investment. I have one for my personal vehicle also and the CR one was just as good. They aren't perfect but they are way better than a map especially since CR doesn't have any signs. We went from SJO to Dominical (thru Jaco),Dominical to Arenal (thru inland road), Arenal to Puerto Viejo, and finally back to SJO. As far as putting in an address - if you don't have a specific street name just put in the town but all of our hotels were in the system so it took us directly to them. Also it gave us directions to the nearest gas station (which in CR could be miles away) and restuarants. Get the GPS - worth every penny.

As to programming, yes we just entered names (eg, Si Como No Hotel, name of restaurant, etc)) and included addresses or highway numbers when we knew them.
Didn't have a problem with getting info.

And I also have to agree with ashta - ours did not work as well as the ones we've had in the US. DW is somewhat of an "expert" at these and we initially got directions from car rental location into some parts of San Jose that I wouldn't want to return to. Never did find out what happened or what we may have done "wrong". But overall, definitely worth it.