Last year, my family traveled to Costa Rica for spring break. We scored some awesomely inexpensive tickets from DC to Liberia, but I was completely stumped when trying to figure out an affordable rental car. Rental car prices for our one week stay varied from extremely cheap ($80) to cost prohibitive ($900+) and the insurance requirements were indecipherable. Even more troubling were the numerous reviews from unsuspecting vacationers who booked a seemingly affordable rental car, only to be hit with excessive fees upon arrival. After a few hours of research, I was able to figure out a way to ins and outs of Costa Rica rental car insurance and after reaching out directly to a number of rental car agencies, decided to book with Vamos. Here’s what I learned about Costa Rica rental car insurance and my review of our experience with Vamos.
Costa Rica Rental Car Insurance:
Rental car insurance is a government monopoly in Costa Rica and thus, every rental must have liability insurance from the INS (Instituto Nacional de Seguros). The mandatory insurance costs anywhere from $10-$20/day, depending on the vehicle you rent and provides only minimal coverage (it does not cover your rental car at all, only damage to other people, their cars, or property). Thus, if you want coverage for any damages to your rental car, you must purchase supplemental collision ($15-40/day, depending on rental car company and vehicle) or, if you have it, rely on your credit card’s rental car coverage.
My husband and I both carry the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which offers primary collision as an included benefit. Primary insurance means that the Chase’s rental car insurance benefit kicks in before our regular car insurance and, for those who might not have a vehicle and thus, do not carry car insurance, the Chase benefit serves as your insurance policy when renting a car on travel. Prior to travel, I called the phone number on the back of my Chase Sapphire Reserve card and inquired about the rental car benefit. I was transferred to Card Benefit Services and, upon confirming my personal details, was emailed a letter verifying my CSR insurance benefit and the terms of coverage. A redacted copy of the letter can be found here.
Choosing Vamos Rent-A-Car:
When researching Costa Rica rental car options, Priceline.com and various independent car rental websites were willing to rent me a car for the entire week for as little as $100, without any insurance. Reading numerous online reviews, however, I feared that we would suffer the same experience as many: showing up and being held hostage at the rental car line and being told we needed to add on hundreds of extra dollars of coverage to our car. Of all the car rental companies I researched, Vamos Rent-A-Car was the only one that allowed me to: (1) select the mandatory liability insurance and (2) waive the collision insurance during our reservation. As an added bonus, Vamos also included one free child car seat rental and a free cooler. Although the quoted price was just over $300 and thus $200 over the least expensive option I could find online, I valued Vamos’ transparent booking process (and the numerous positive online reviews didn’t hurt either). Moreover, after reserving our vehicle, I emailed Vamos to confirm that our credit card collision coverage would be sufficient. I attached a copy of the letter from Chase’s Card Benefit Services and within hours, received a reply that it was fine and would be accepted. My husband reports that he had no issues when picking up the vehicle and that the final estimated price was the quoted price online.
Why book a rental car?
I’m sure you’re asking — why book a rental car? The honest truth is that we are not resort people. My husband and I (and our kids) get antsy if we are in one place for an extended period of time and, traveling with young kids means that we have very little desire to be stuck on hotel shuttles and guided tours.
Moreover, although our resort offered shuttle services to and from the airport and to other nearby locations, utilizing the cheapest transport option of a private shuttle for our family of four to travel from the airport to the hotel would have cost $280 round trip. Thus, the cost of the rental car was essentially the same as taking a shuttle to/from the airport… but we would also have a rental car available for us to use for the duration of our stay. Note: it ended up costing us $338 to rent the car for the duration of our trip.
Car Seats in Costa Rica:
It may come as a surprise to many, but car seat laws in Costa Rica are significantly more stringent than laws in the United States. Indeed, all children under 12 must be secured in an appropriate car seat when traveling by car in Costa Rica. Vamos graciously offers one car seat or booster free of charge for the duration of your rental, which was one of the immediate benefits to renting from Vamos as both our kids would require car seats. I’m a bit of a car seat junkie and almost always insist on bringing our own car seat on trips. For this trip, my intent was to utilize the IMMI GO Child Car Harness. Unfortunately, when my husband arrived at Vamos, he learned quickly that the IMMI GO’s LATCH attachments would not work with our Costa Rican rental car. This being our first international rental car experience with a car seat that wasn’t just a simple booster, we had neglected to consider that international cars may have different attachments. Luckily, Vamos was great and provided us with a rental car seat for my not quite four year old. Although Vamos’ original quote included only one free rental car seat and I had selected a booster seat for my nine year old as our “free seat,” the attendant noticed that my husband was unable to get the IMMI GO to install properly in our rental vehicle and supplied us with a convertible car seat at no extra charge. The convertible car seat was in excellent and clean condition and I was immensely grateful. Had I been aware of the issue, I would have likely packed the RideSafer Travel Vest, or just brought a booster for my older kid and used the free car seat option on a convertible car seat, which is more cumbersome to travel with.
Snug as a bug in his Vamos car seat.
Getting Gas in Costa Rica:
Our rental car came with a full tank of gas and we only ended up having to fill up once, immediately prior to returning the vehicle. I’m no expert in getting gas in Costa Rica, but our experience was that all of the gas stations are full service – meaning you cannot pump your own gas. While getting gas, we were approached by an individual offering to clean our windshield. I have on idea whether that was a complimentary service, but we declined by waving the individual away. We were able to pay our bill via credit card and I was thankful that we had change from our trip to Rincon, so I could tip the individual who pumped our gas.
