Want to rent a car in Costa Rica? You may have heard horror stories from previous travelers or on other websites reviewing their renting a car in Costa Rica experience but it’s all about doing the proper research to prepare and prevent any nightmares.
The first thing you need to do is decide which car rental company to go with. And there are tons in Costa Rica! Although Americans/Canadians like to go with the big international or American companies, I prefer to go with local ones.
So when my friends came to visit and we needed to rent a car, I chose to rent with Adobe Rent a Car. Why? You can read my Adobe Rent A Car review and my experiences renting a car in Costa Rica as a foreigner to find out. After my experience, I’ll always rent a car in Costa Rica with Adobe Rent a Car!
*Still valid Nov 2019 – We’ve also teamed up with Adobe to give a Costa Rica car rental discount and extra benefits to our Mytanfeet readers. Click the link to read more about it*.
Adobe Rent a Car Review
What I checked for first: reviews and reputation
Renting a car in Costa Rica is NOT easy. Like you, I read so many reviews online and got tired and frustrated after a few hours. It seemed like every company that I read about, namely the international ones like Hertz, Budget, Alamo and Enterprise all had bad reviews and this was mostly due to hidden insurance fees and quality of the car.
I decided to take a look at local companies and was pleased to find good Adobe Rent a Car reviews. Their policy on their website stated they didn’t have any hidden fees and their fleet consists of cars with only 2 years of service. That automatically sounded a hundred times better than the other companies!
Insurances
The next thing I checked was their insurance and this is where Adobe really won me over. Some of the car rental companies insurance policies were not clear at all and had several options that covered this but not that, or get option 3 and it’ll cover option 2 but not 1 and so on and so on. I was also restricted with the credit card deposit, my limit is not that high and some companies were telling me I had to give a $3000 deposit!
Adobe Rent a Car only has 3 insurance options, one which you can decline with your credit card insurance. And since their policy is no hidden fees, insurances or taxes, I had the peace of mind that what I see on my reservation was what I was going to pay.
Pros About Adobe Rent a Car
They are 100% Costa Rican
As a traveler, I much prefer my money to go to the locals than the foreign companies, especially in a country that depends on tourism so much like Costa Rica.
The entire Adobe Rent a Car company is Costa Rica from the owners are Costa Rican to every employee. That also gave me a little more peace of mind since that means they know Costa Rican laws inside and out. They know the roads extremely well and gave helpful advice for which car to get for my itinerary.
Easy to Understand Insurance
With only 3 insurance options no matter how much my deposit was or which insurance I wanted, it was easy to understand exactly what covered what. Their website was also very clear on what each insurance covered.
Excellent Service
Their service is one of the best I’ve ever encountered. They really do keep the friendly Costa Rican vibe in every email and phone call. The agents were very polite and answered every question I had. They didn’t push me to get the optional insurance which I appreciated.
Great car maintenance
The car we rented was in excellent condition, despite having around 50,000 kilometers on it already. We had no problem with it at all during our trip.
Transparent
No hidden fees, no surprise taxes. What I saw on my reservation was exactly what I paid. This is the difference between Adobe Rent a Car and other companies in Costa Rica.
When my friend rented a car through Budget, he had to pay an insurance that was not included on his reservation and they only told him about it when he went to pick up the car. At that point, there was nothing he could do and had to pay it.
Adobe doesn’t do that at all.
Overall Experience – Our Adobe Rent a Car Review
My experience with Adobe Rent a Car was excellent. Fast service, very communicative and super nice. Prices were competitive compared to other companies and there was no confusion at all about insurance which was the most frustrating part about finding a company to rent with.
So if you’re going through the same kind of situation I was, comparison shopping and trying to find not just the best price, but the best service with the least stress, I highly recommend Adobe Rent A Car. And due to my great experience with them, Mytanfeet has a partnership with Adobe to give our readers a discount and extra freebies!
Click here to get your car rental discount
The Best Costa Rican Car Rental Company
Now we always rent with Adobe and it’s been awesome each time. We’ve rented a Hyundai Tucson for a recent trip to Turrialba, a Kia Sorento in San Jose and a Mitsubishi Montero in Tamarindo.
Adobe has 15 offices throughout the country and at each international airport.
I also wrote an extensive guide to renting a car in Costa Rica to help you even more and make your trip planning less stressful. We want everyone to have a stress and worry free trip in Costa Rica. As you can see, we know exactly what it’s like to be in your shoes when it comes to renting a car in Costa Rica – we know how confusing it can get!
We also wrote a post about Adobe Rent a Car’s insurance policies so that you can be 100% clear on what it covers.
I hope that this post and our discount helps you not only save money for your Costa Rica trip but also gives you more insight and peace of mind.
Click here to get your Costa Rica car rental discount
Read more Costa Rica travel tips below!
Tips for driving in Costa Rica
Tips for using Airbnb in Costa Rica
