[Travel] Tenerife

[sully]

If you're going to Canaries? For car hire I wouldn't recommend doyouspain as whilst prices may be a bit cheaper than say hertz they will still come with decent size excess.

In canaries try.
1. Cicar
2. Autoreisen

Both local, competitive prices, good cars, plenty of availability and most importantly zero excess. When you book it doesn't ask for any credit card and on desk you only pay rental, no deposit, zero excess.

Use Cicar all the time and autoreisen on occasion

We have used Cicar on Tenerife and Lanzarote in the past. Excellent service and no nasty surprises.
They even managed to sort us out when my wife accidentally booked the wrong date!

 

[seagull_si]

On no account go Goldcar in the Canaries. Their strapline price looks tempting. But... they do sneaky stuff. Like take €1000 off your credit card on account before they give you the car. And because the rental agreement is in Spanish, you'll doubtless not notice that by default they've included insurance that assumes you'll be wanting to visit a different Canary Island in your hire car during your one or two week stay

The queue at Fuerteventura airport for Goldcar is twice the size of queues for other car hire firms, and moves twice as slowly, as they lure in the suckers. Avoid! Bruv lives in Fuerteventura for part of the year. On his recommendation we go Autoreisen. Class act, never had anything other than a positive experience with them

I should have said that I am going to mainland Spain (Alicante). Youdospain best deal is with goldcar at the moment, but similar prices with other providers. I also have the option of paying about 50 euros for the extra insurance to leave no excess, but I think I have been had in the past where the provider states that this is a third party insurance policy and we would need to take out their policy or have the excess covered by a credit card.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I should have said that I am going to mainland Spain (Alicante). Youdospain best deal is with goldcar at the moment, but similar prices with other providers. I also have the option of paying about 50 euros for the extra insurance to leave no excess, but I think I have been had in the past where the provider states that this is a third party insurance policy and we would need to take out their policy or have the excess covered by a credit card.

Maybe read the Goldcar reviews first? Doesn't make for pretty reading

 

[peterward]

We have used Cicar on Tenerife and Lanzarote in the past. Excellent service and no nasty surprises.
They even managed to sort us out when my wife accidentally booked the wrong date!

Yep, theyre one of the biggest company in canaries and their cars are everywhere, they just dont appear on UK price comparison searches booking aggregators.

no excess is a no brainer, worry free driving from scrapes or a a crash. Last hire I booked a 5 door large boot hatch (Fiat Tipo size) and got free upgrade to a brand new Peugeot 3008.

 

[peterward]

I should have said that I am going to mainland Spain (Alicante). Youdospain best deal is with goldcar at the moment, but similar prices with other providers. I also have the option of paying about 50 euros for the extra insurance to leave no excess, but I think I have been had in the past where the provider states that this is a third party insurance policy and we would need to take out their policy or have the excess covered by a credit card.

Cicar have just started to do mainand Spain too, and Alicante is one of places they operate, never used there though, only on Canaries (Cicar is "Canary Islands Car), but if no excess there also, Id have a look as service is excellent, cheap prices and no excess is a massive stress reducing bonus!

 

[Badger]

On no account go Goldcar in the Canaries. Their strapline price looks tempting. But... they do sneaky stuff. Like take €1000 off your credit card on account before they give you the car. And because the rental agreement is in Spanish, you'll doubtless not notice that by default they've included insurance that assumes you'll be wanting to visit a different Canary Island in your hire car during your one or two week stay

The queue at Fuerteventura airport for Goldcar is twice the size of queues for other car hire firms, and moves twice as slowly, as they lure in the suckers. Avoid! Bruv lives in Fuerteventura for part of the year. On his recommendation we go Autoreisen. Class act, never had anything other than a positive experience with them

We're off to Gran Canaria in a few weeks. I booked my car hire through Expedia and I think it's with Europcar who I have at least used before without any negative experiences.
It's such a lottery with the smaller car hire companies, in my experience. They're either really friendly and accommodating or they're out to get as much money as they can from you. Never anything in between.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Tend to use whoever has a kiosk or desk at the hotel.

nice and easy.

going to Cape Verde Monday for two weeks…missing palace bad fan….not bothering hiring a car…beach, pool, bar , eat sleep.

 

[One Love]

What are Avis like in Gran Canaria?

 

[peterward]

We're off to Gran Canaria in a few weeks. I booked my car hire through Expedia and I think it's with Europcar who I have at least used before without any negative experiences.
It's such a lottery with the smaller car hire companies, in my experience. They're either really friendly and accommodating or they're out to get as much money as they can from you. Never anything in between.

Well hopefully if its at Airport they will be a kosher one or directly owned?. I wont use Europcar again personally. in 2017 went to Reus, Spain and hired with them via expedia, it was off site about a mile from airport. I cant remember the exact times, but I put the arrival time down as pick up time, then 9 days later when we returned, the exact same time down as return.... but whilst it gave 24 clock times on expedia, somehow that only translated to 12h clock times with Europcar, so having collected car at 21:00pm on day one, and brought car back at 17:30 on final day, they said I was late and car shouldve been returned by 9am?
I showed Europcar rep my expedia booking that showed 2100 return, and she showed me on hers it had 9am. Thought that would be the end of it, a week or two later a late fee of 38 euros appeared on my credit card when back in UK, I called europcar head office and complained in writing, and they said the branch I rented from was a franchise and they had little control over them..... about a month or so later, I shit you not, they added another 70 something euros, claiming some sort of traffic breach + admin fee without any proof, and I was sure that nothing of the sort had occurred.

I had to change my credit card number. Total scammers in that branch.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Out in Cost Adeje at the moment. Can’t hire a car as only fit to drive on flooded and icy roads.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Out in Cost Adeje at the moment. Can’t hire a car as only fit to drive on flooded and icy roads.

Icy roads? Seriously? In the town?

I understand if that is up mount Tiede but I dins that hard to believe when the temp is 23C every day

or is that just what you are used to driving at home

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Icy roads? Seriously? In the town?

I understand if that is up mount Tiede but I dins that hard to believe when the temp is 23C every day

or is that just what you are used to driving at home

The latter . Typical January Brit when it was -5 degrees a week or so ago, flooded roads to the airportand it’s now +25 degrees. Though windy, only complaint so far from other half. ‘it’s a bit too hot’.

 

[Notters]

Thank you for the Cicar recommendations, they look great - never seen a car hire company with such good google reviews and cheap too!

 

[Since1982]

Thank you for the Cicar recommendations, they look great - never seen a car hire company with such good google reviews and cheap too!

Used Cicar in Lanzarote in the past, very good but I’ll always use Autoreisen if I can.

 

[Notters]

Used Cicar in Lanzarote in the past, very good but I’ll always use Autoreisen if I can.

OK - any reason?

 

[Since1982]

OK - any reason?

Largely personal preference and me being a creature of habit but they also dealt with some no fault damage I had some years back really well.

 

[Dave the OAP]

The latter . Typical January Brit when it was -5 degrees a week or so ago, flooded roads to the airportand it’s now +25 degrees. Though windy, only complaint so far from other half. ‘it’s a bit too hot’.

its 30degrees C in Cape Verde next week. Can’t wait!

BTW. Where in costa D are you? We stay in the Rui Aracas far end of CD.

if you want a decent fish restaurant I 100% recommend Salita in La Caleta…just up the coast and walkable from CD On the boardwalk

 

[Heffle Gull]

Tend to use whoever has a kiosk or desk at the hotel.

nice and easy.

going to Cape Verde Monday for two weeks…missing palace bad fan….not bothering hiring a car…beach, pool, bar , eat sleep.

If you are going to Boa Vista I can thoroughly recommend VB tours for any excursion you may want to do. Had a great quad biking trip with them last year. Look then up on Facebook or Instagram.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

its 30degrees C in Cape Verde next week. Can’t wait!

BTW. Where in costa D are you? We stay in the Rui Aracas far end of CD.

if you want a decent fish restaurant I 100% recommend Salita in La Caleta…just up the coast and walkable from CD On the boardwalk

Wow, 30 degrees forecast in Cape Verde. Be interested in your feedback on CV compared to CD. Thanks for fish restaurant recommendation. We’re bang next to Plaza del Duque.

 

[Flounce]

Thank you for the Cicar recommendations, they look great - never seen a car hire company with such good google reviews and cheap too!

Used them in Lanzarote and I managed to break a rear light on a brand new car reversing into a light on a low wall. I told them when I handed it back and they just said “ningun problema”

No excess really does mean no excess.