UKC

Does anyone have any experience in hiring a car in Cape Town (to take to Rocklands) for Under 21's? I'm thinking of booking flights for next summer, but want to make sure this is a possibility and won't cost too much.

Thanks!
Sean

In reply to seanwalsh:

As I'm over 21 I've no direct experience but everytime I've hired a car in Cape Town I've seen the requirement is over 25. I think you will struggle but good luck anyway.

If you do succeed by VERY careful of the small print relating to excess it tends to be very high in any event, and can be 100% for an accident on a gravel road.

The road from Clan William to Rocklands is gravel.

In reply to seanwalsh:
Hmmmm.... I'd be more inclined to do the African thing and look around for a bloke with a car who wants to earn some cash. There must be thousands of perfectly honest Capetonians, white, brown or black, who would be happy to run you around for an agreed price for a few days. That takes away the worries about security and route finding.

Try Googling taxi services in Cape Town and sending out a few emails. Pound to a penny you'll get "official" refusals or high prices and then a day later the brother of one of the owners will make you a cheaper offer.

In reply to Trangia:

I returned from rocklands today and can say the road is very good and not gravel. But U21's could be expensive. You could possibly get a lift off someone else and then grab lifts to different areas from People you meet. Then if you can't get a lift the local areas (we stayed at de pakhuys) are great and walkable.

In reply to James Malloch:
That's great news, it's been upgraded then. I was there a about 3/4 years ago and it was gravel then. It's the road where the hub cap came off and overtook the car! (See my previous post regarding the physics involved) Has the road on past De Pakhuys and on towards Wuperthal also been upgraded?

In reply to seanwalsh:

Thanks for the replies! I think I'll look into getting a taxi.

I've heard rumours of car hire places not asking for ID or a driver's licence. Is this the case?

In reply to Trangia:

Have you always hired cars from the airport? I was thinking it may be easier to get one elsewhere

In reply to seanwalsh:
Yes, mainly because it was less hassle. Otherwise you have to get from the airport into Cape Town. Regarding excess, as I said this tends to be high in SA even for normal roads, and the car hire companies charge a bomb to get it part reduced, so I'd recommend taking out a separate excess insurance before you go with these people:

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/?refID=2047&subRefID=0&curID=GBP&langID=1&...

It's worth shopping around on line. I've used different car hire companies but sometimes the big names like Avis have proved cheaper than small local firms, although not always, it just depends if they are running a promotion at the time you book.

I've always been asked for driving license and ID, and I've been stopped in a police road block and had to produce them.

In reply to Trangia:

Alright, Thanks again for the response. Hopefully I'll find a way!

In reply to Trangia:

I'm not sure about the latter road (I've not heard of wupperthal).

The R364 from clanwilliam is good. Just anytime you turn off to a climbing area you get onto the sandy roads which are fine if you go slow. The only problem we had was driving to the fields of joy parking as the bushes were overgrown and we were worried about scratching the car on them (it was brand new).

Lots of roadworks just south of clanwilliam at the moment too, i think they're making a whole new road by the look of it, it's a huge job going on for many miles. Hopefully it will continue to see improvements!

I'll hopefully be back next year so the changes should be evident!