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Costa Rica car rental (1 Viewer)

Re sim cards, we bought one and then we couldn't get it to work. The guy in the shop here we bought it, tried to connect it for us but we failed.

Was it in an official shop of one of the service provider (Kolbi, Clara, etc) ? Usually they are helpful in this type of shop...bought a local sim card in Georgia and Armenia, everything worked fine.
 
We used Target Car Rental in 2021 and they were great - we put their services to a test by having a breakdown in Osa from all places and they delivered a new car next morning, driving it all the way starting at 5 am from San Jose. I usually have conflicts with rental agencies, but this one was fantastic.

We had limited options to drive at night because of the covid curfew (that definitely showed the virus who was in charge), but in particular around Osa the (few existing) roads were quiet and there was wildlife.

Thanks, it's seems like their website is not working right now but I'll try to send them something on WhatsApp.

I think I'll try to drive quiet roads at night yes, I might not see much but who knows :)

Kolbi I think still has a stand in the airport. If not you can get any prepaid SIM (Claro, Liberty, Kolbi) from just about any grocery store or corner market (pulperia). It will be much cheaper than an eSim. You can probably get by on like $5 a week.

Provably the best option yes, we will have a little time on our first full day so I'll do this.
We used Wayz to navigate our car around Costa Rica. It was excellent. The car was booked in advance using Geoddesy from England or a company name similar to that
Waze generally does well but for a while (still?) it keeps trying to get people stuck in the mountains coming from the Pacific Central area (Carara/Tarcoles) up to La Fortuna. Ask me how I know.

I think we'll use Waze + some office maps from Maps.me.

A general point: renting a car in Costa Rica, and many other birding destinations, it is very worth to be sure about details of car hire insurance such as excess cover and damage to finer parts of the vehicle, like undercarriage, windows etc and collision damage waiver (CDW). During car hire online it is often difficult to impossible to find what exactly the insurance covers. Companies and / or their staff at the counter in Costa Rica try selling / pressuring to buy extra insurances. This can cost substantial sums when you hire a car for, say, a 14 day holiday.

The point is: in many countries, extras of insurance are already covered by credit card or private liability insurance. Otherwise, diverse companies online offer extra insurances for a fraction of the cost of car hire companies. Check this beforehand. This can save substantial money on car rental and / or worry what happens if you, for example, damage underside of our rental car.

Yes, I will call my bank and insurance to check this...although I saw on the Adobe rental car site that Visa gold cards don't cover this type of insurance since 2021...will ask anyways.
 

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