How Not To Fall For Costa Rica Car Rental Scams

Hey Seth!

No problem! We don’t mention them in the article above in order to keep the article generic and not swaying in any one agency’s direction, but I’m happy to point you to a different article on our blog where we share the name of the agency we use. Please see this article: This Is The Costa Rica Car Rental Agency We Rent Through.

Pura vida! 🙂

Thank you for commenting, Costa Rica Rent A Car, and for throwing your business into the mix! 😉

Pura vida!

Hi Jessica!

Oh no! Our information isn’t intended to scare you out of renting, so I’m sorry if it did that! We simply aim to make travelers more informed renters. 🙂

As for our recommended Costa Rica car rental agency, we didn’t name them in the article above because we wanted the article to be impartial, but we do talk about them elsewhere on our blog. Please see our article This Is The Costa Rica Car Rental Agency We Rent Through for details.

Pura vida!

Thank you for reading and commenting, Charlie! 🙂

Pura vida!

Hi Ana!

Great questions! If you plan to travel to/from the SJO Airport and La Fortuna/Arenal only, a 4×4 isn’t required. If you plan to visit Monteverde, it would be a good idea to rent a 4×4. For more information about driving around La Fortuna and Monteverde, don’t miss our related blog posts:

Driving To La Fortuna / Arenal: Photos, Road Conditions, Routes, Drive Times, And More!
Driving To Monteverde: Photos, Road Conditions, Routes, Drive Times, And More!

As for which car rental company we recommend, please see our blog post This Is The Costa Rica Car Rental Agency We Rent Through.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Patrick!

Thank you so much for checking! 🙂 Yes, the car rental agency is the same; we purposely don’t list the company’s name in the article above because we didn’t want the piece to sound like it was pushing any one rental agency over another. This being said, we have written about car rentals elsewhere on our blog, and in one of those writings (our related blog post This Is The Costa Rica Car Rental Agency We Rent Cars Through) we name our preferred rental agency.

Pura vida!

Hey lisa!

It isn’t required to have a 4×4 SUV to drive between Arenal and the RIU Guanacaste because the roads are paved. You may prefer to have one if you decide to explore away from the resort’s grounds, but if you’re just making the drive direct, it isn’t necessary to have a 4×4. If you decide to upgrade to an SUV, I’d do that as soon as you make that decision. If you wait until you pick up the vehicle, there may not be an SUV available, and if there is, you’ll have to pay whatever price the rental agency gives you at that time for it. With respect to gas, the current rate is about $1.15 per liter. You can pay in cash or by credit card. Cash tends to be best, to avoid extra fees charged by your credit card provider for out-of-country purchases or purchases made in foreign currencies.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Lauren!

Thanks so much for checking in about the legitimacy of this! I can confirm that it’s common practice and not a scam. When a Costa Rica car rental agency (whether it be the one we recommend or a different agency) allows drivers to decline part insurance, the refundable deposit required to rent the vehicle increases significantly, often upwards of $4000-$5000 USD. With respect to the rental rate increase, this is also common practice because (as stated on our promo code page) our rental promo code/discount—which reduces the car rental rate—only applies to car rentals that include both parts of mandatory insurance. (The promo code/discount does not apply to rentals where part of the mandatory insurance has been declined.) So, in your chat with the rental agency representative, when you requested to decline part of the mandatory insurance to use your credit card insurance instead, that act nullified the promotion code/discount. (That’s why the rental price shot up by around 50%, because our promo code/discount is equal to roughly 50%.) In moving forward, if you decide to add both parts of the mandatory insurance back into the quote from the car rental agency, the promotion code/discount would apply once again and the car rental rate would drop by the 50% again. 🙂 In case you’re interested in learning more about rental car insurance and how your decision to add or decline insurances can affect the rental deposit amount and other things, don’t miss our blog post Costa Rica Car Rental Insurance Information.

Pura vida! 🙂

Hey Felix!

This is a really great question. In general, car rental agencies are more concerned with damage than dirt. With respect to the interior, if your car is simply messy (say, with some sand and/or food crumbs around the seats/floor or some mud caked onto the plastic floor mats), but that mess can be cleaned (say, with a vacuum or a wipe of a cloth), you should be fine. If there are stains or cuts on/in the fabric seats or anything worse, though, you could be charged to cover the cost of cleaning/repairing the damage. With respect to the exterior, there isn’t an expectation that travelers should return vehicles in a clean state. (Most vehicles that get returned have plenty of dirt and dust on them.) But, it isn’t a bad idea to take the rental car to a car wash, or even ask the last hotel you stay at if they happen to have a hose you can use to rinse off the car (if not, you could use water from the tap or purchase a big bottle of water from a grocery store). The better the car looks when you return it, the more it appears like you took care of the car when you had it, which may earn you brownie points with the car rental agency.

Pura vida! 🙂