Practical
Renting a Car in Costa Rica: What to Know Before You Book
Guanacaste Experiences editorial team
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25 September 2026
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17 min read
In this guide
The deposit is the number that catches peopleDo you need a 4×4? Almost certainly not — and we had this wrong ourselvesYour licence is valid for exactly as long as you areWhat the roads are actually like, in numbersFines, and why a police officer cannot take your moneyFuel, tolls and the cash you should be carryingThe things that catch people at the counterFinding the place you are goingWhat we could not verifyAlmost everything written about renting a car in Costa Rica is written by people with something to sell — rental companies, comparison sites, or blogs earning a commission on the booking. We earn a commission too, and we say so at the bottom of this page.
So we went to the primary sources instead: the consolidated text of Costa Rica’s traffic law, the park service’s own access pages, the fuel regulator’s published price table, the transport ministry’s statistical yearbook, and the terms and conditions of six rental companies operating here. Several things repeated everywhere turn out to be wrong. And the number that decides whether your pickup goes smoothly never appears in a quote.
What this guide does and doesn’t cover
Insurance is the other half of this subject and it has its own guide — what a Costa Rica rental really costs once mandatory liability is added. This page is everything else. Every figure here carries the date we retrieved it, because rental terms, fuel prices and fine tables all change on their own schedules.
The deposit is the number that catches people
Your quote says $30 a day. What nobody tells you is that the company is also going to block somewhere between $100 and $5,000 on your credit card at the counter, and that figure is nowhere in the booking.
Here is what the six companies we checked publish, retrieved on 24 September 2026:
Security deposits as published by each company. These are individual company policies, not an industry standard — the spread is the point.
Company
Deposit held
Debit card for the deposit?
Vamos
$100 / $750 / $2,000 depending on coverage
No
Budget
$300 – $3,000 depending on coverage
No
Alamo
$500 plus the estimated cost of the rental
No
Adobe
$1,000
No
Hertz
$200–$3,000 *or* $1,000–$5,000 — see below
No
Mapache
Credit card required; amount not published
Not stated
Note the Alamo row. It is not $500 — it is $500 plus the estimated rental cost, which on a two-week booking is a materially different number.
Hertz Costa Rica contradicts itself, and we are not going to pick a side
Hertz Costa Rica’s terms page says deposits "range from $200 to $3,000." Its FAQ page says they "go from $1.000 to $5.000." Both are live on the same site today. We have no way to tell you which is right, so get the figure for your specific vehicle and coverage in writing before you fly. That gap — $200 at the low end versus $5,000 at the high — is larger than most people’s entire holiday budget.
The one genuine rule across every company that addresses it: a physical credit card, in the driver’s name, present at the counter. Five out of five refuse debit cards for the deposit. Vamos explains why more plainly than anyone — with a credit card the hold clears in two to five days, but on a debit card *"it may take the bank up to twelve (12) weeks to release a deposit."*
Two further traps in the same area. Adobe and Budget both reject virtual cards — Adobe names Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay specifically, while noting a physical Apple Card is fine because it is a Mastercard. Budget additionally requires embossed numbers, which many newly issued European and American cards no longer have. Vamos explicitly does not care about embossing. That is a per-company difference, not a national rule, and it is exactly the sort of thing to check for your company rather than assume.
And Vamos documents something the others skate over: there are two holds, not one. The deposit, and then the rental total. Both can sit on your card at once. As they put it, *"these two holds, and the final bill, may occupy a large portion of that credit card’s available limit."* Take a second card.
Do you need a 4×4? Almost certainly not — and we had this wrong ourselves
This is the most profitable question in Costa Rican car rental, so it is worth being precise about. We previously wrote that no Costa Rican government source recommends a 4×4. That was overstated, and this research corrected us.
The tourism board genuinely says nothing. Its entire official rental-car page is a directory of companies — we searched it for "4x4", "4WD", "four-wheel", "drive" and "road" and got zero hits on all five, against 94 hits for a control term. The transport ministry says nothing either.
But the park service does, in exactly four places out of the 34 national park pages we checked — and the wording differs in ways that matter:
Every official Costa Rican 4×4 statement we could find. All four are in Guanacaste or Tempisque; the other 30 park pages say nothing.
Where
What SINAC actually says
Strength
Santa Rosa → Playa Naranjo
*"es necesario un vehículo 4x4"* on the spur down to the beach
Necessary
Rincón de la Vieja, Santa María sector
*"Se recomienda… un vehículo alto doble tracción"*, especially in the wet
Recommended
Parque Nacional Diriá
*"se sugiere un vehiculo doble tracción porque se debe cruzar el rió Diriá"*
Suggested
Palo Verde
*"En época lluviosa es preferible el uso de vehículos 4x4"*
Preferable, wet season
The useful detail is what SINAC says about Las Pailas — the Rincón de la Vieja sector almost every visitor actually uses. It describes the approach as *"una carretera pavimentada casi en su totalidad"*: a road that is almost entirely paved. The 4×4 advice applies to the *other* sector, the one most people never go to.
The Diriá contradiction — do not follow this advice in a rental car
SINAC suggests a 4×4 for Parque Nacional Diriá specifically so you can ford the Diriá river. Every rental contract we read prohibits exactly that. Adobe’s published restrictions state: *"No insurance coverage applies if a rental vehicle enters water. This rule applies regardless of the type of insurance selected and regardless of whether the vehicle is a 4×4."* In a rental car the answer to that river is not "bring a 4×4" — it is "do not drive it."
Which points at the thing the whole 4×4 debate misses. The rental industry draws its line at road versus not-road, not at two-wheel versus four-wheel drive. Adobe again: *"Even if a vehicle is labeled as 4×4, it is not designed for off-road use. Insurance coverage is invalidated the moment the vehicle leaves a recognized road."* A 4×4 buys you traction on legal gravel roads. It buys you no additional permission and no additional cover.
One more, and it is law rather than contract: driving on the beach is prohibited in Costa Rica. Article 1 of the traffic law expressly extends its scope to *las playas*.
Your licence is valid for exactly as long as you are
Nearly every guide to driving in Costa Rica says a foreign licence is good for three months. That rule was repealed in November 2024 and the pages repeating it have not caught up.
Article 91 of the traffic law, as reformed by Ley 10591 of 5 November 2024, now authorises visitors to drive *"por un plazo idéntico al autorizado para su permanencia legal en el territorio nacional"* — for a period identical to their authorised legal stay. Your driving authorisation is tied to your immigration stamp. The passport is the document that determines it.
The same reform added something genuinely useful: *"No se podrá exigir la presentación de la licencia en formato físico, cuando tal persona la muestre en formato digital porque así la emite su país de origen o residencia."* A digital licence must be accepted — but only where your home country issues it digitally. It is not permission to show a photo of your licence.
And no, you do not need an International Driving Permit. It appears nowhere in the law, and both rental companies we checked say the same, with the same single exception: a licence not written in the Latin alphabet. If your licence is American, Canadian, British, European or Australian, an IDP is not required by anyone.
What the roads are actually like, in numbers
From the transport ministry’s own statistical yearbook for 2024 — not a blog estimate:
28.6% of all Costa Rican public roads are paved. The rest is gravel and dirt.
The national network — the numbered routes — is 69.6% paved.
The cantonal network, which is what gets you to most beaches and villages, is 19.8% paved. Four fifths of it is gravel or dirt.
Then there is condition, which is measured separately. On the roughness index used by the national materials laboratory, not one kilometre of Costa Rica’s paved national network rates "muy buena". Sixty-two per cent rates merely "regular", and 28.6% rates deficient or worse.
Here is the part that contradicts the usual framing: Guanacaste’s paved national roads are better than the national average — 18.6% deficient against 28.6% countrywide. The worst provinces are in the Central Valley. Every travel article treats Guanacaste roads as the hazard; the measurements do not agree.
The caveat that matters more than the finding
That roughness data covers paved national routes only. The roads that actually cause visitors trouble — the unpaved cantonal approaches to Santa Teresa, Nosara and dozens of beaches — are not in the dataset at all. A good score on the highway network tells you nothing about the last ten kilometres, and the last ten kilometres is where people get stuck.
Worth knowing too: Costa Rica has no official live road-conditions feed. We looked. The transport ministry publishes nothing of the kind; the national emergency commission runs an alert system, which is the closest official channel. That absence is itself planning information — you cannot check the road before you leave, so build slack into the day.
Fines, and why a police officer cannot take your money
Fines are set in five bands and re-indexed to inflation every January. The amounts in force from 1 January 2026:
Traffic fine bands in force from 1 January 2026. The table is reissued annually, so check the year before relying on it.
Band
Amount
What lands you there
A
₡362,839
Over the alcohol limit; above 120 km/h; refusing a breath test
B
₡245,195
A child under 12 and under 1.45 m without a proper restraint
C
₡122,598
No seat belt; phone in hand; driving without the required licence
D
₡60,680
Ignoring signs or an officer; failing to give way
E
₡26,006
Culpable injury or property damage
Note band B. The most expensive thing a family with young children can get wrong is the child seat, and it outranks the seat-belt fine. The rule is cumulative: under twelve and under 1.45 metres means rear seat and a child restraint.
The alcohol limit is 0.50 g per litre of blood — but 0.20 g if your licence was first issued less than three years ago. Above 0.75 it stops being a fine and becomes a criminal matter.
An officer cannot collect a fine, and paying one does not clear it
This is true and stronger than it is usually stated. Article 192 requires fines to be paid at a bank or an authorised body, and then says: *"Cualquier pago que se realice en forma distinta de la establecida en este artículo… se tendrá por no efectuado"* — any payment made otherwise shall be deemed not to have been made. So money handed to an officer at the roadside does not reduce the debt by a colón. The fine still stands, in full. The officer’s job is to write you a citation.
So how does a rental company end up charging your card months later? The traffic law contains no provisions at all about rental companies — we searched the full consolidated text and found none. What it does instead is attach the fine to the *vehicle*: article 200 places a lien on the car *"aunque el conductor no sea el propietario"*, even though the driver is not the owner. The ticket follows the plate, the lien lands on the rental company, and the company recovers from you under your contract. That is the whole mechanism.
Fuel, tolls and the cash you should be carrying
Fuel prices are set nationally by the utilities regulator, so they are the same everywhere and there is no point shopping around. In force from 10 September 2026, per litre: super ₡726, regular ₡707, diesel ₡688. Fuel is sold by the litre, and the price is revised monthly.
An attendant will fill the car; you stay put. Say *"lleno de regular, por favor"* and watch that the pump reads zero before they start.
One thing we could not confirm, and everyone states as fact
You will read that self-service is illegal in Costa Rica. We could not verify that, and the one primary text we could actually read points the other way — the 2001 hydrocarbons decree lists dispensing islands as both *"Servicio completo"* and *"Autoservicio"*. The current 2022 decree is not publicly retrievable. So: attendant service is universal in practice, and we will describe it that way. We are not going to tell you it is the law when we could not confirm it is.
On tolls, two things. A through run on Ruta 27 from San José toward the Pacific costs about ₡2,300 for a normal car at the July 2026 tariffs. And the tolls on the Interamericana route — General Cañas and Bernardo Soto — are currently suspended, pending construction of permanent toll stations. So the alternative route costs nothing at the moment. That suspension is explicitly temporary; check before you travel.
Carry colones in small notes. Budget states most Costa Rican toll roads require cash and only Route 27 accepts cards; Alamo says cash only, colones or dollars, in notes of $20 or smaller. We could not get the toll operator to confirm its own accepted payment methods, so treat "carry cash" as prudence rather than a sourced rule.
The things that catch people at the counter
A scattering of specifics, each sourced to the company that publishes it. None of these is an industry standard — that is precisely why they catch people.
Not listing a second driver voids your coverage entirely. Vamos: *"Failure to list any driver… nullifies insurance coverage, thus making the renter fully financially responsible for any and all damages."* This is the highest-stakes line in this entire guide. Budget charges $4.99 a day to add one. Pay it.
There is no national minimum age. It runs from 18 at Vamos to 23 at Adobe, with 21 most common. Budget is the only company publishing a maximum: 80. Under-25 surcharges range from $10 a day to $50 a rental.
One-way fees are real and mostly unpublished. Only Vamos gives a figure — $50 between Liberia and San José. Budget, Hertz and Alamo confirm a fee exists and will not quantify it. Hertz reserves the right to refuse a one-way outright, so never assume it is bookable.
Taking the car to Nicaragua or Panama is flatly prohibited. Vamos recounts a renter whose car was seized in Panama — negligence, all cover void, full financial responsibility.
An early flight out of Liberia is the classic trap. Vamos warns that LIR departures at 9:40 AM or earlier risk missing the flight, because its office does not open until 7. San José runs longer hours. Check your company’s opening time against your boarding pass, not against the airport.
Fuel is full-to-full, and every company that mentions it says the shortfall rate is above pump price. None publishes that rate.
Budget publishes the penalties others hide: $150 a day late, $150 if returned excessively dirty, $250 if it smells of smoke, and $50 plus rebooking at current rates if the name on the card does not match the reservation — worth knowing if you booked in a spouse’s name.
Finding the place you are going
Costa Rica largely does not use street addresses. Directions are given as a landmark, a distance in metres, and a compass direction. This is not a quirk of informal speech — the national postal service writes its own branch address that way: *"Correos de Costa Rica, Sucursal Zapote, De la Iglesia de Zapote 200 mts al Sur."* Two hundred metres south of the Zapote church.
Waze has unusually deep official roots here: the transport ministry signed a data-sharing agreement to feed it official closure information, and Costa Rica was named one of the five heaviest Waze-using countries in Latin America. That reporting is from 2014, so treat it as history rather than a current market-share claim — but it explains why locals reach for Waze first.
You will also read that GPS routes tourists into rivers here. We went looking for a documented Costa Rican case and could not find one — only blogs asserting it generally, unrelated river rescues, and incidents in other countries. It is plausible and the underlying caution is sound. It is not something we can show you evidence for, so we are not going to present it as fact.
What we could not verify
Research that only produces answers is research that stopped too early. These are the questions we went after and did not settle:
Whether self-service fuel is actually prohibited by law. Evidence points the other way; the current regulation is not publicly retrievable.
Whether unpaid traffic fines are enforced against departing tourists. The law provides the mechanism — fines can be flagged against a foreign driver’s exit — but we could not confirm enforcement practice, because the road safety council’s site is behind a bot wall.
Economy Rent a Car’s policies, in full. The site blocks automated access, and every archived snapshot turned out to be a bot-check page rather than the policy content.
The current road surface to Santa Teresa, Nosara or Monteverde. None is a national park, so no official page covers them, and we would rather say nothing than repeat a guess.
Whether toll booths accept cards or US dollars. The operator does not publish it.
How we are paid, plainly
If you compare prices through the link below, we earn a commission on a booking — at no extra cost to you. It does not change what is written above; the deposit figures, the 4×4 findings and the legal citations came from government and company documents, several of which are inconvenient for anyone selling a rental car. Our insurance guide costs us money by telling people what the quote leaves out, and we publish it anyway.
Compare Costa Rica rental prices
Affiliate link — we earn a commission if you book.
How much deposit will be held on my card in Costa Rica?
Between $100 and $5,000, depending entirely on the company, the vehicle and the coverage you take. Vamos publishes $100/$750/$2,000 by tier, Budget $300–$3,000, Adobe $1,000, and Alamo $500 plus the estimated rental cost. Hertz Costa Rica publishes two contradictory ranges on its own site. Get your figure in writing before you fly. Figures retrieved 24 September 2026.
Can I rent a car in Costa Rica with a debit card?
Not for the deposit. All five companies that address it refuse debit cards for the security hold, though some accept one for the final bill. Vamos gives the reason: a debit hold can take a bank up to twelve weeks to release, against two to five days on a credit card. You need a physical credit card in the driver’s name, present at the counter.
Do I need a 4x4 in Costa Rica?
Usually not. The tourism board and transport ministry say nothing about it. The park service names just four places: a 4x4 is "necesario" for the spur to Playa Naranjo in Santa Rosa, "recomendado" for the Santa María sector of Rincón de la Vieja, "sugerido" for Diriá, and "preferible" at Palo Verde in the rainy season. Las Pailas — the Rincón sector most visitors use — is described by SINAC as almost entirely paved. Note also that a 4x4 grants no extra insurance cover: leaving a recognised road voids it either way.
How long is my driving licence valid in Costa Rica?
For exactly as long as your authorised stay. The old three-month rule was repealed by Ley 10591 in November 2024; article 91 now grants driving rights "por un plazo idéntico al autorizado para su permanencia legal". Your passport entry stamp is what determines it. An International Driving Permit is not required unless your licence is not in the Latin alphabet.
Can Costa Rican police collect a fine on the spot?
No, and handing over money does not help you. Article 192 of the traffic law requires payment at a bank or authorised body and states that any payment made otherwise "se tendrá por no efectuado" — shall be deemed not to have been made. The debt survives in full. An officer issues a citation; that is all.
Why did my rental company charge me for a fine weeks later?
Because the fine attaches to the car, not the driver. Article 200 places a lien on the vehicle "aunque el conductor no sea el propietario" — even though the driver is not the owner. The ticket follows the plate, the lien lands on the rental company, and it recovers from you under your contract. The traffic law itself contains no rules about rental companies at all.
How much is fuel in Costa Rica?
Prices are set nationally, so they are identical everywhere. From 10 September 2026: super ₡726, regular ₡707 and diesel ₡688 per litre. They are revised monthly. An attendant serves you — say "lleno de regular, por favor" and check the pump reads zero first.
Are Costa Rica’s roads as bad as people say?
About 28.6% of all public roads are paved, rising to 69.6% on the national numbered network and falling to 19.8% on the local cantonal network that reaches most beaches. On the official roughness index, no kilometre of the paved national network rates "very good". But Guanacaste scores better than the national average on those paved routes — 18.6% deficient against 28.6% countrywide. The unpaved beach approaches are not measured at all, and that is where the trouble usually is.
We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Sources
Facts in this guide were checked against these references on the dates shown.
Ley de Tránsito por Vías Públicas Terrestres y Seguridad Vial, N° 9078 — consolidated text (SINALEVI) — The current consolidated text, header confirming "Versión de la Norma: 31 de 31". Article 91(a), as reformed by Ley 10591 of 5 November 2024, authorises visitors to drive "por un plazo idéntico al autorizado para su permanencia legal en el territorio nacional" and provides that "No se podrá exigir la presentación de la licencia en formato físico, cuando tal persona la muestre en formato digital porque así la emite su país de origen o residencia." Article 192: fines must be paid at a bank or authorised body, and "Cualquier pago que se realice en forma distinta de la establecida en este artículo y de las que haya autorizado el Cosevi se tendrá por no efectuado." Article 200: "El gravamen procederá aunque el conductor no sea el propietario o no aparezca como tal en el Registro Nacional." Article 94: children under twelve and under 1.45 m must travel in the rear seat with a child restraint. Article 143(a): alcohol thresholds of 0.50 g/L generally and 0.20 g/L for licences issued within three years. Article 98: default limits of 60 km/h unsigned, 50 km/h urban, 25 km/h at school crossings. Article 1 extends the law expressly to "las playas". A full-text search for arrendad/arrendamiento/arrenda returned zero hits, confirming the statute contains no provisions about rental companies. NOTE: the SINALEVI page renders client-side and its HTML contains no law text; every quote was obtained from its POST /ResultadosNormativa/_CargarTextoCompleto endpoint. The widely cited legacy SCIJ link (nValor2=73403) resolves to Circular 148, a different norm. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Poder Judicial — 2026 traffic fine table (circular N° 220-2025, Boletín Judicial N° 223) — Amounts in force from 1 January 2026, embedded in the SINALEVI note to article 148: category A ¢362,839.14, B ¢245,195.06, C ¢122,597.53, D ¢60,679.58, E ¢26,005.53. Article 148 requires annual re-indexation to the INEC consumer price index, capped at 14% a year, so the table is reissued each January. The 2026 figures were a 0.22% decrease on 2025. (accessed 24 September 2026)
SINAC — Parque Nacional Santa Rosa — The strongest official 4x4 statement found anywhere in Costa Rica: "el Parque cuenta con carretera asfaltada hasta el sitio Histórico. Desde allí puede desplazarse al sector Playa Naranjo, pero debe considerar que en esa sección de camino es necesario un vehículo 4x4." Applies only to the 12 km spur from La Casona to Playa Naranjo; the approach from the Interamericana is ordinary paved road. Host requires curl -k (permanently broken certificate chain) and is not a catch-all (nonsense path returns 404). (accessed 24 September 2026)
SINAC — Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja, Cómo llegar — Las Pailas, the sector most visitors use, is reached "por 20 km sobre una carretera pavimentada casi en su totalidad" — almost entirely paved — and the page makes no 4x4 mention for it. The Santa María sector is different: "Se recomienda transportarse en un vehículo alto doble tracción, sobre todo durante la época lluviosa", on "un camino de lastre y piedra pómez". The page also records that the final approach to Las Pailas crosses private land charging 800 colones per person. (accessed 24 September 2026)
SINAC — Parque Nacional Diriá — States "se sugiere un vehiculo doble tracción porque se debe cruzar el rió Diriá y debido al tipo de camino" — a four-wheel-drive is suggested specifically in order to ford the Diriá river. This conflicts directly with every rental contract examined, all of which prohibit water crossings and void insurance for them. (accessed 24 September 2026)
SINAC — Parque Nacional Palo Verde — Under its Recomendaciones: "En época lluviosa es preferible el uso de vehículos 4x4 por las condiciones del camino." Preferable, and seasonal — the weakest of the four official statements. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Instituto Costarricense de Turismo — official car rental page (via Internet Archive) — The tourism board's entire official rental-car offering is a directory of rental companies with no driving guidance. Searches for "4x4", "four-wheel", "4WD", "drive" and "road" returned zero hits each, against 94 hits for the control term "rent". The live site returns 403 to automated clients, so the Internet Archive was used; no snapshot of ict.go.cr itself exists. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Adobe Rent a Car — Costa Rica rental car road restrictions — States verbatim: "No insurance coverage applies if a rental vehicle enters water. This rule applies regardless of the type of insurance selected and regardless of whether the vehicle is a 4×4." Also: "Even if a vehicle is labeled as 4×4, it is not designed for off-road use. Insurance coverage is invalidated the moment the vehicle leaves a recognized road", and "Driving on the beach is prohibited by Costa Rican law, not just by rental car policies" — the last independently corroborated by article 1 of Ley 9078. This is a commercial page, authoritative as to that company's contract terms rather than as to Costa Rican law. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Adobe Rent a Car — rental requirements — Deposit of US$1,000 by credit card; "We do not accept debit cards, cash, or virtual credit cards"; the cardholder must be the person collecting the vehicle; minimum age 23 with a licence issued more than two years earlier. The Spanish page names Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay as rejected virtual cards while noting a physical Apple Card is acceptable. Adobe's own comment thread states deposits vary by vehicle type, so $1,000 should not be taken as universal across its fleet. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Vamos Rent-A-Car — rental requirements and FAQ — Deposit tiers of $100, $750 or $2,000 by coverage. Minimum age 18 with no maximum. Documents the two separate card holds — "the first is the rental deposit and the second is the total rental" — and warns they "may occupy a large portion of that credit card's available limit". Gives the reason debit is refused: "it may take the bank up to twelve (12) weeks to release a deposit". States "Failure to list any driver… nullifies insurance coverage, thus making the renter fully financially responsible for any and all damages." Publishes the only sourced inter-airport figure found: "One-way drop-offs between our Liberia and San Jose branches: $50". Warns that "Departures leaving at 9:40 AM or earlier from LIR will be at jeopardy of missing the flight". Confirms an International Driving Permit "is not required — unless you're from a country that does not use the Latin alphabet". Recounts a renter whose vehicle was seized after being driven into Panama. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Budget Costa Rica — terms and conditions, and FAQs — Publishes a full deposit matrix from $3,000 with no coverage down to $300 with full coverage. "Debit cards, prepaid cards, and digital or virtual cards, including mobile wallets, are not accepted" and "cards without embossed numbers are not accepted". Minimum age 21, maximum 80, with a $50 young-driver surcharge for 21–24. Additional drivers $4.99 plus tax per day. Penalties: $150 per day late return, $150 excessive cleaning, $250 smoking, $50 plus rebooking at current rates where the cardholder name does not match. On tolls: "Most toll roads in Costa Rica require cash payment; only Route 27 accepts credit cards." Cross-border travel "is strictly prohibited under the rental agreement and insurance coverage". (accessed 24 September 2026)
Alamo Costa Rica — preguntas frecuentes — Deposit stated as "$500 + el estimado del costo de la renta", taken once at the start of the rental and returned "entre 3-5 días hábiles". The deposit is permitted only on the principal driver's credit card. Fuel options are full-to-full, prepaid, or paying the shortfall on return, "el precio será mayor que en la gasolinera". On tolls: "los peajes deben ser pagados directamente por el conductor en efectivo… en la moneda local o en dólares con billetes igual o menor a US$20." (accessed 24 September 2026)
Hertz Costa Rica — conditions and FAQ — The terms page states "Security deposits range from $200 to $3,000, depending on the selected coverage and vehicle type", while the FAQ on the same site states "Guarantee deposits go from $1.000 to $5.000". Both were live on 24 September 2026 and are irreconcilable. Debit cards are refused for deposits "because the process of releasing the holdings might take up to 45 workings days". On one-way returns Hertz states it "may either deny this request or, if granted, apply different rates and additional fees". Fuel: "The price per liter charged by the rental agent may be significantly higher than the price at the local service station." The terms page also states of itself that it "was last issued in August 2018". (accessed 24 September 2026)
RECOPE — tabla de precios nacionales de combustibles — Pump prices in colones per litre in force from 10 September 2026: super 726.00, regular (Plus 91) 707.00, diesel 688.00, kerosene 613.00. "Precios publicados en La Gaceta No. 170, Alcance 120 del 09 setiembre del 2026… Rigen a partir del 10 de setiembre del 2026." The page states consumer prices are set by ARESEP, and the column header "Precio ₡/litro" confirms sale by the litre. Prices are revised monthly. ARESEP's own tariff page renders its figures client-side and contains none in its HTML, so RECOPE is cited for the numbers and ARESEP for the authority. (accessed 24 September 2026)
MOPT — Anuario Estadístico del Sector Obras Públicas y Transportes 2024, Cuadro 2.1 and 2.2 — 2024 road network figures in kilometres: total public roads 45,920 of which 13,122 paved (28.6%); national network 7,845 of which 5,458 paved (69.6%); cantonal network 37,921 of which 7,510 paved (19.8%). Cuadro 2.2a, sourced to LANAMME's 2022-2023 evaluation, gives the condition of the paved national network on the International Roughness Index: 0.0 km rated "muy buena", 9.3% "buena", 62.1% "regular", 24.0% "deficiente" and 4.6% "muy deficiente". Cuadro 2.2b by province shows Guanacaste at 18.6% deficient or very deficient against 28.6% nationally. NOTE: the repository's DSpace user interface is a catch-all (nonsense item IDs return 200); these figures were retrieved through its REST API, which is not, and cross-checked digit-for-digit against the 2023 edition. The widely circulated CONAVI figure of "7,632.66 km / 66% asphalt" is stale and no longer appears on the live CONAVI site. (accessed 24 September 2026)
ARESEP — peajes, tarifas vigentes — Tariffs established by resolution RE-0071-IT-2026 of 22 June 2026, in force from 1 July 2026. Records that toll collection on the San José–San Ramón corridor — the General Cañas and Bernardo Soto plazas on the Interamericana route toward Guanacaste — remains suspended: "se mantiene la suspensión del cobro de tasa de peaje para el corredor San José-San Ramón hasta que se cuente con las estaciones definitivas conforme a lo dispuesto en la Ley N°10899". The suspension is explicitly temporary. ARESEP directs readers to the Ruta 27 concessionaire for that road's tariffs, where the July 2026 Class 1 table totals about ¢2,300 for a through run; that operator's page is currently serving injected spam and should be re-checked before reuse. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Correos de Costa Rica — código postal — The national postal service writes its own branch address using the landmark convention: "Correos de Costa Rica, Sucursal Zapote, De la Iglesia de Zapote 200 mts al Sur. San José, San José, Zapote 10105 - Costa Rica." Demonstrates the structure — landmark, distance in metres, compass direction, then district, cantón and province — in production use by the state operator itself. (accessed 24 September 2026)
Decreto Ejecutivo N° 30131-MINAE-S — Reglamento para la Regulación del Sistema de Almacenamiento y Comercialización de Hidrocarburos — Cited for what it does NOT establish. Its specifications index lists dispensing islands as both "16.1.6.1 Servicio completo" and "16.1.6.2 Autoservicio" — a design taxonomy contemplating self-service, not a prohibition of it. Neither of ARESEP's two fuel regulations contains the word autoservicio at all. The successor decree, 43449-MINAE of 2022, could not be retrieved (MINAE returns 403 and SCIJ renders client-side), so the widespread claim that self-service is illegal in Costa Rica is recorded here as unverified rather than repeated. (accessed 24 September 2026)
El Financiero — "Tránsito se alimentará de datos de Waze para atender choques y presas" — Documents MOPT signing a data-sharing agreement with Waze under the "Ciudadanos Conectados" programme, and reports Costa Rica as "uno de los cinco países que más utilizan la aplicación social Waze en Latinoamérica". The ministry undertook to supply "información a la aplicación sobre cierres, accidentes, desvíos". IMPORTANT: the page's own datePublished metadata is 2014-10-02, so this establishes Waze's official roots in Costa Rica, not its current market share. (accessed 24 September 2026)
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