Holidays ...
 

Hi
I am currently organising a holiday in Costa Brava for a group of friends early/mid October.

We like visiting off season when its cooler, less crowds and better value e.g hotels etc.

Yesterday I was gobsmacked to see the car rental prices from Barcelona. The cheapest small car was....... £5...... For a week! You'll find these prices on any of the rental brokers sites. In the end I went for a big people carrier £55. Amazing.

With the accomodation prices low, lo cost air tickets and now car hire for virtually nothing I have created a package for a fantastic total price. We're all coming in from 3 countries. With the cost well under budget we have more resto & beer money!

We were in Granada a couple of years ago off season. Walking in shorts, no queues at eg the Alhambra, (or crowds inside) hotel at well less than the 'normal price' etc etc . Best time IMO to holiday in hot countries. Weve done the same in Lisbon, Porto, Merida, Caceres etc etc

But this car rental is the best Ive ever seen! :thumbsup:
Jon
PS I stumbled onto this, but if anyone knows of other wonderful tourist destinations that have a huge surplus of eg hotels, cars etc in low season and hence wonderful value pls post.

Re: Holidays ...
 

Wow.

Re: Holidays ...
 

Hola

Just be careful of cheap car hire; there are many scare stories around about "damage" of one sort or another that ends in tears. From a cut on the inside of a tyre to having to have a new exhaust due to driving over objects

Davexf

Re: Holidays ...
 

Ive posted several times about the deals I get and the annual top up policy I use to cover all the extras. We use icarhireinsurance.com. We rent for several months a year and have never had problems, in fact it was in the UK (where I rarely rent) that I had the biggest problems, but were quickly sorted with the insurance.

The learning I got from that was always to take the rental agreement paperwork home, and wait for a bit and check the credit card statement before chucking it out.

I always recommend that you take additional insurance to cover the exemption amount for the basic rentalco basic insurance and provide additional cover

The amazing deal I got in Barcelona was from a known company. If I didnt have an annual policy, it was only £18 for the additional protection for the entire week.

A stonker of a deal - the best I've seen ...... and we are well protected. :thumbsup:

Jon

Re: Holidays ...
 

I've just got great deal for our next trip to CE. Less than 5Eur a day all in.

Doing the usual checks I found that Skyscanner also do cars - I actually didn't book with them, but they had great prices. So this is an extra one to add to my previous recommended lists that you can find on searching the forum. If this interests

https://www.skyscanner.net/car-rental/

Jon

Re: Holidays ...
 

Jon, I'm delighted for you that you achieved such an amazingly low price of 5 euro daily. BUT, do they know you are taking the car outside of PT and into Spain? Every deal I just looked at for November clobbers one hard in cross border fees. 10 days = 90 euros being the worst and 30 euros being the best. Did you overcome this ?????? Cheers.... Keith

Re: Holidays ...
 

Had a great cheap holiday in Costa Brava via Girona, lovely wee city. But spent the savings on some expensive entry fees to sights.

Re: Holidays ...
 

Re: Holidays ...
 

I would agree with that. I sometimes use Travel Rent as well via Zest and with the 10 euro cross border charge they usually come out at exactly the same price as Rent Auto.

Re: Holidays ...
 

Hi Keith .I mentioned that my rental was 'all-in', so that includes the insurances, additional driver and the absolutely essential Spain entry so we can drive to CE.

Its just a case of shopping around and checking the T&C's. E.g try the Skyscanner site I mentioned. It takes me at least 30 mins to arrange it on shopping around the various sites Ive mentioned several times before with a ''spreadsheet' of any extras you need, and choosing the best.

We spend several months a year in CE, in all seasons and I simply cannot financially justify (for us) owning a car, vs renting. In about 15 years of renting Ive never had a big problem in ES/PT. For the pricing or the admin or problems with the rentalco's. One just has to be careful and .check the hidden costs that can plague the industry.

Of course we arent driving a posh car, but we aren't bothered about that. Luckily we see a car as a tool, not any sort of ''status' thing.We have friends who wouldn't be seen dead in eg a small Peugot, Kia, Skoda etc etc.

That also applies to our own cars

Jon

Re: Holidays ...
 

Snap :thumbup:
This time last week we were in the Costa Brava, on an annual friends reunion. We had one bad day weather wise with the outskirts of that horrible storm that hit Majorca, but just had a good laugh over a very long brekkie.

Going in low season we got an unbelievable car rental price (as above), accomodation costs were great, we were in shorts each day, and were there for Columbus day. The scenery was fantastic, France accessible... And we were struck by how friendly and welcoming the locals were.

A great holiday, and high on the 'Spain list' for a trip with the BH.

Jon

Re: Holidays ...
 

I picked up my sub €5 / day rental car yesterday. The best car yet. Only 8k kms, 5 door, ac, satnav, cruise control, transponder, Spain entry etc etc. I am surprised at how much technology they put into cars these days!

Nice to see blue skies this morning, lets hope it stays !

Jon

Re: Holidays ...
 

Thats a fab price!