www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I will be traveling with 2 friends and would like to rent a car and travel to Jaco and a little sight seeing . I have rented a car 4 times in Dominican Republic and have visited San Jose approximately 10 times . I am not concerned about the crazy driving . If I drove into the Gulch for a few days and then to Jaco ,is there any GPS available and is it accurate .

Thanks

I rented a car from Thrifty downtown in November. I did not opt for the GPS, though, which was available for $10/ day extra.

If you have a smart phone (iPhone) and download the free navigation program "WAZE" onto your iphone and get it set up while in the US, and then if you get a Kolbi SIM at the airrport in San Jose for your phone, you will have the best navigation GPS system for Costa Rica. Several of my friends who live in CR say it's better than Google Maps.

In my opinion, having a rental car in CR is more of a hassle than a convenience. It just works out better for me to hire a driver with a van for longer trips and take taxis when in town. The rental agreements in CR are very one sided if you have problems, even if you pay all the extra for full coverage insurance. When I've added it up, I could have used a limo driver for less than having a rental car and I didn't have to deal with parking, etc.

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My tico cousin uses WAZE in CR. I saw it in action, and it works well. WAZE came in handy when we were stuck in traffic on the road to Uruca. If I had a fancy cell phone, I probably would use WAZE myself. I guess I'm still old-fashioned, I use a cell phone for phone calls... and nothing else.

Jf you are looking for maps of CR to use with a traditional GPS unit (Garmin, not a cellphone) then the EZ Find maps from NavsatCR is the best choice.

http://www.navsat.com/tienda/

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western

I learned my lesson the hard way with CR rent a cars.

I strongly suggest renting an SUV.

Potholes are common, although the roads have gotten much better thru the years.

I once blew a tire and bent the rim on a Toyota yaris. There went half they day dealing with that repair. What fiasco. There was no way the temp spare was going last long.

I then had a front bumper cover issue with a Nissan tienda. Backing out of a parking space on to a main road, caught the front right lower corner of the bumper cover.

Spend the extra on an SUV and the insurance.

The durability and higher ride are worth every penny!

Remember you get what you pay for.

Highly recommend the GPS and would reserve that in advance if you have the option when making the reservations.

Renting an SUV or car is expensive but I enjoy the adventure, freedom, etc it's well worth the expense.

This last Feburary drove up to Arenal and then over to Playa Flamingo.

I encountered several checkpoints and was stopped twice at checkpoints. No biggie.

The first checkpoint stop was a super simple and very quick 1 question 1 answer carry on. Total Bien? Si Total bien. Adelante.

The 2nd random checkpoint stop they wanted ID from both my Girl and myself. I had a copy of my passport and her cedulla handy and quickly produced both. They quickly glanced at the IDs and asked where we where headed and where we came from. It was also a quick interaction, maybe 2 mins tops.

I feel like they are looking for suspicious behavior (drug traffickers) and drunks. They rarely seem to stop Touristas in rent a cars.

The only advice I have about renting a car is do it oNLy if you are going out of town. It's a complete waste of time and money just to drive around San Jose. Fot a small or standard SUV, it'll be like $60/day with insurance and airport taxes, plus gas ($5/gal) + parking. That's about $75/day. It would take 30 taxi rides across all of downtown to equal $75.

If going to the beach or mountains/volcanoes/etc, definitely a good option. Love the freedom and not having to follow schedules and be stuffed into a van or bus. Stop when and for how long you want to, be able to stop at a roadside market/restuarant. Good stuff.

I've read about these rental places trying to charge for bogus damage. Personally, I have rented about 10 times mostly from Economy and once from Toyota, and no issues with that.

Use your phone's camera or take a digital camera with you when you go to pick-up the renal car. Take photos of the front, rear, both sides and close-ups of any existing damage. It will make it much more difficult for them to try to dick with you when you bring the car back.

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Women are like beers. I've never had one that I didn't like. Just some that I like more than others! --Western