This past fall my wife and I spent nearly two months in Costa Rica while we adopted our three kids. We arrived on September 12 and didn’t leave until November 4. Although we were (sadly) stuck in San Jose during most of that time, we did want to get out and see the country a bit.
(SEE: Hotel Punta Leona Review – stellar price for an all-inclusive)
(SEE: Visiting Irazu Volcano in Costa Rica)
A typical adoptive family would have hired a private driver for their transportation needs. But we are anything but typical. I wanted the freedom of being able to come and go as we pleased, so I decided to rent a car. I also figured it’d be cheaper, but sadly, it was probably the same after the obscene (and mandatory) insurance charges were tacked on. We also paid the nominal charge for roadside protection, which turned out to be entirely worth it (SEE: Should you purchase roadside assistance protection when renting a car?).
But it did make for an adventure and some great memories. The best part? The car I rented was a standard. It’d been years since I’d driven one routinely, and it was a blast. Here are 5 reasons I think you should rent one, too:
To prove you’re a real driver
Reportedly, only 18% of Americans know how to drive a standard. That’s honestly appalling. If you can manage a stick, this’ll give you a time to show your stuff. I learned to drive one with my first car. And then my second and third. It all easily came back to me with a fury when we were in Costa Rica.
Now I sport an automatic minivan, so any vehicle bragging rights have been obliterated. My only consolation is that it’s a Honda.
For all those mountainous roads
Costa Rica is made of mountains. In the United States, we have ways of dealing with them. Cut pieces, fill pieces, tunnels…the interstates just push through them. Not so in Costa Rica. The roads wind and wind. Forever. One of our outings was snaking our way up to Volcán Irazú (SEE: Visiting Irazu Volcan in Costa Rica).
If you’ve ever had to do a lot of mountain driving, you’ll know that having a manual is an asset. It’s far more comfortable to control your speed by shifting rather than riding (or burning) the brake the whole way. I know many automatic cars allow you to put the car in a manual mode (of sorts). But an actual manual transmission is always preferred.
You can push-start it when the kids leave the light on
This is a welcome, if unexpected, feature. The first week we had our mini SUV in Costa Rica, one of the kids left the interior light on overnight. The battery was completely dead the next day, and we had somewhere to be. Not a fun situation to be in.
But all was not lost. With a little help from a hotel staff, the car was easily pushed out of the garage and into the road. Thank goodness for the hills in San José! I stuck her in second, picked up a little speed, popped the clutch, and off we went.
It’ll save you money
Want an automatic? In many places, this will mean forking over a little more cash. In Costa Rica, the price difference was nominal. It was like $5 more for the month. But in other places it isn’t that cheap.
For example, the cheapest car with a standard rented at Rome Fuimicino (over random dates this fall) rings in at $163 for a week. The automatic is $264. That’s a $101 back in your pocket for your stick-shift know-how.
It might also be your only option. Imagine booking a car and then showing up to the counter, just to find the lot devoid of automatics. Ok, I’ve never heard of this happening, but I have heard stories from multiple friends about a rental car agency not having the type of car they rented when they arrived to pick it up. Heck, I’ve gotten “stuck” with a Tahoe when I booked a Corolla. If this can happen to the type of vehicle, it may apply to your choice of drive train, too.
It’s more fun
Really, it all boils down to this. Standards are 1000% more fun than automatics. Anyone who drives one knows this.
And this is why I enjoyed every last minute in our gutless Daihatsu Bego.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Any driving in a manual in a city with hills is a nightmare. Try riding a manual in San Francisco, stop at a stop sign in the middle of a steep hill, and then stall. Not fun.
I’ve done it. Twice. SF was a thrill in my pickup, and then my sister’s car. Gotta pull the ol’ e-brake trick.
Been there; done that, Chris — and that was only during my third year of driving since I earned my driver’s license.
I was in San Francisco while driving from Seattle to San Antonio via southern California in a car with standard transmission, which was only within a year of learning how to drive with a stick shift. It was scary; but it did not deter me.
I have only owned one car with an automatic transmission; and I have absolutely no problem driving in places with steep hills with a stick shift. In fact, I look forward to going back to driving my car after renting a car with automatic transmission.
Snagged the same car in Costa Rica while we were there – put 400 kilometers on all those mountain roads!
Also got the same car in Costa Rica. With the tiny lil < 2L engine, a manual was necessary to get it scooting along. It would've helped having a 4×4 though, cause some of the roads going up to the volcanoes were unpaved.
Will get to drive a Euro hot-hatch stick shift while in Basque Country for spring break. Looking forward to it quite a bit while saving about 50% on rentals.
The BeGo/Terios is definitely a popular model in CR. We switched to a diesel automatic 4×4 for our last week as we added a 6th person to our party. Were supposed to get a minivan, and they gave us that instead. Would have been a much better ride on our previous outings!
I regret not having the chance to learn stick shift and now pay dearly, literally, whenever I go to Europe and cough up their 2x premium for automatic. ARGH
Bummer! I can imagine it is hard finding access to one (short of purchasing) to practice on. I’m glad I learned. It has certainly come in handy on multiple occasions.
did the same thing in costa rica! loved having the manual
Are you aware of the American Express rental car insurance which costs $25 per rental of up to 42 days?
I believe that this is still only collision damage. I paid with my Chase Sapphire, so I had this part covered. What killed me was the liability insurance.
If you can point me to a card that gives substantial liability insurance as well, I’d love to take a look. Not sure this exists.
There’s joke at many car rental places that the price increase for automatic cars is the ‘dumb American tourist’ fee. Pretty much everywhere else in the world seems to manage fine with manual cars. Not sure why the US has mostly automatic. Laziness?