For those of you who are curious about our camping/off-road setup in Costa Rica, this post will give you some more details about our trip and tips for planning your own!
The Company
Nomad America is an adventure rental company based in Alajuela, Costa Rica (just outside San Jose, near the airport). They specialize in 4×4 and camping rentals along with other gear (surfboards, snorkeling, etc.). They have a pretty comprehensive website, so I won’t spend too much time rehashing info readily available there. Check out their website here for more info and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.
Booking
The booking experience is pretty self-explanatory and painless on the Nomad America website. You select the vehicle you want and check the availability for the dates you’re looking at. From there, you have a variety of add-ons you can select before paying a deposit and securing your reservation. One thing to factor in here is insurance. We have the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel credit card, which includes loss-damage waiver coverage for rental cars. Simply put…these rentals do NOT count. Double check with your auto insurance and/or credit card coverage, but most will not cover what they consider to be recreational vehicles. (Be sure to clarify with them what is considered a “recreational vehicle.”) We decided to purchase the additional insurance coverage for our vehicle, which ended up adding $22.45 per day to our rental cost. Another important thing to note: If you get your rental stuck off-road somewhere, you are responsible for any recovery until the vehicle is on a road a regular tow truck can get to. So be conscious of that before you go bury it somewhere (as tempting as that may be!).
When you pick up your vehicle, also be aware that you’ll have to put a $1,000 security deposit on your credit card. This amount is credited back to your card if the vehicle is returned without any major damage and also acts as a deductible if repairs are needed. That said, these guys understand it is an adventure rental. They aren’t going to nail you if it comes back with some brush scratches or a little ding here and there. We added a GPS unit to our booking initially as well for an extra $5 per day. We ended up removing it from the rental once we arrived on-site (more on how awesome and flexible the Nomad America guys are later) due to the fact the rental included a local cell phone with data and Google Maps. If I had to do it again, I’d take the GPS unit. The local phone was great, but Google Maps/Waze were glitchy and it lost service a couple times. I didn’t use the GPS unit, so I don’t know that it would’ve been much better, but for the relatively low cost, I’d recommend taking it.
Another extremely helpful thing was the itinerary Nomad America emailed us after booking. I reached out via email about the types of things Megan and I enjoyed and a couple of areas we thought we wanted to visit. They responded with a PDF of a sample itinerary including suggested campsites and activities, which we didn’t end up following to a T, but was a great start. They also quelled my fears about getting reservations. Being from the Bay Area in California, I’m used to reserving campsites well in advance, or taking a chance and hoping you don’t end up sleeping in the car. At most campsites in Costa Rica, we were able to just show up and they had room. They were not like traditional campgrounds in the US either. The most established campsite we stayed at was an open field near a hotel with a bathroom facility for campers to use. This was totally fine with us … just not what I’d expected. The local cell phone also came preloaded with the iOverlander app, which was a great help to us in finding campsites along our route.
Pickup
We flew into the San Jose Airport, so Nomad picked us up for free when we landed. They took us to their shop where our vehicle was waiting for us. The guys were awesome! They took us through all the gear, the vehicle, and answered all our questions. Our Jimny was basically brand new, so it did not come with some of the off-road gear I was initially looking forward to (snorkel, lift, bumpers, halogen lights). It only had the off-road tires added, but it ended up being fine and was super nice and comfortable being that it was so new. It was a 5-speed manual transmission, which was not a problem for me, but something I was a little surprised wasn’t disclosed during the booking process. The guys did tell me they have had some situations where renters cannot drive a manual transmission, in which case they have to swap out the vehicles. If you don’t know how to drive a stickshift, I’d suggest disclosing that to Nomad after booking.
Our Jimny came with the following gear: rooftop tent, awning, camp shower, cookware & dishes/utensils set, two propane camp stoves, camp shovel, machete, ice chest, linens, flashlights, rope, garden hose, folding table, camp chairs, water jug, and hammocks. I mentioned above how we initially included a GPS but removed it at the shop. The guys were super flexible at Nomad. They made this last minute adjustment for us with the GPS, answered our questions along the trip (their numbers are preloaded into the local phone), and even let us turn our vehicle in a day early without charge (we gave them a few days’ notice). They went through our itinerary with us in the office before we left and helped us make the adjustments to it that we wanted.
The Trip
Our trip was a great experience, but I won’t go into the specifics of where we went here (see our other Costa Rica posts for that). Here, I want to talk about a couple items related to traveling around CR with Nomad. Driving in CR is not all that different from driving in the US. You’re on the right-hand side of the road and people mostly follow the signs and markings on the roadway. The main things to be aware of are the frequent narrow bridges. You will come across many bridges that are only one way. One side of the bridge will have a “Ceda” sign (meaning “Yield”), but it’s basically first-come first-served. Also, not all the roads in CR are paved (including some major highways). There will be times when your GPS says “Turn Right!” and you’ll look down the rocky, unpaved dirt path thinking, “That can’t be a road … that’s someone’s unmaintained private driveway.” It most likely IS the road you’re looking for. Enjoy … that’s why you rented a 4×4!
Additionally, the water in CR is potable, so no need to worry about drinking water from a faucet. Like the US, some water will taste better than others, but it’s all fine to drink. All gas stations have water to fill up your camp shower as well. Be aware though, the hose bib connections are not all compatible. Nomads gave us a short length of garden hose to use to fill up. We had to get another female hose connection because the hose had one female, one male connection; but we needed two female connections in order to hook up to most hose bibs at gas stations.
This may sound strange, but do not worry about corrupt police. We had two interactions with police during our trip and both were fine. One was a simple traffic stop to check my driver’s license and the vehicle registration. The second was a visit from a couple officers telling us we were not allowed to camp in the location we were set up in. The officers were very friendly and even told me a few old Costa Rican ghost stories while we sorted things out. They let us stay the night and asked us not to return the following night to camp there.
The Drop Off
When it was time to end our trip, we drove back to the Nomad shop in Alajuela to return the car. We parked under one of the awnings, removed our stuff and the guys came over and asked us about the trip. We chatted with them about our destinations and whether we’d had any issues with the vehicle while they gathered the closing paperwork. Overall it was really painless. They processed the return of the $1,000 security deposit and asked us to fill out a short survey about our experience. They asked where our next stop was and then gave us a ride over in one of the other vehicles(depending on how far you’re going, they’ll either call you an Uber or give you a ride).
Conclusion
This was an awesome experience! We saw parts of Costa Rica we would’ve never otherwise visited. If you like camping and off-roading or are thinking about getting into overland camping, then this is for you. I’ve been looking into potentially purchasing a rooftop tent myself for awhile, so getting to try out the gear on this trip was a great bonus for me. The guys at Nomad America were very helpful and it was a great experience. I would definitely recommend it!
Note: This post is not sponsored by Nomad America. We just really loved their service!
3 thoughts on “Overland Camping with Nomad America”