UKC

I’m going to Calpe at the beginning of January. Has Anyone got any good recommendations for car hire from Alicante airport? The cheapest quotes I’m getting are about £70 a week which is not bad but I’ve had cheaper deals on previous Spanish trips. Maybe it’s a busy time? 

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Lara car. Not the cheapest but "all in" full to full fuel and they greet you at the airport so no queueing. Cost is comparable with the cheapos once you add on all the hidden extras. 

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Hi Pete we always use lara car hire www.laracars.com and have done for the past 8 years.

Mainly because the price they quote is the price you pay theres no big credit card excess you need to leave blocked on a card, no massive que at the hire car desk, roadside assist is included and the customer service is great.

Using them again for trips in Jan and Feb.

Hope that helps.

Andy

In reply to Presley Whippet:

great minds Presley!!

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Inter rent at the airport are coming in at under £15 for the week...

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Centauro have always been good, reasonably cheap and second driver thrown in for free.

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

have always used centauro and have been great when you have full insurance. Last time we watched someone without the full insurance have all the paint work checked throughly with a torch... saying that they accidentally charged me a €30 upgrade charge which I still haven't got back

In reply to climberclimber321:

Just used Record Car Hire- had ford fiesta for 2 weeks for £15 Euros- what's not to like?

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Another vote for centauro. Not the cheapest but never had problems, I suspect there may be a link!

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Try .. doyouspain.com had lots of experience at booking through them as have many friends who are Costa Blanca  regulars. Make sure you take an excess insurance in the uk iCarhireinsurance.com are good and don’t buy the hire companies insurance When collecting for which they will try a very hard sell with you. I usually look for a full to full deal. Sometimes you can get a free extra driver. Have a great trip. 
 

In reply to james1978:

Try and avoid these. Recently used them and as we arrived after 11pm through no fault of our own we got hit with a 60 euro fee. Also, their damage identification process upon picking the car up has scope for you missing some damage and subsequently being charged for it. Have a look at the reviews online.

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

We went end of October and used Firefly, when checking the car at the end of the week the woman scanned the left side of the car in less than 2 seconds then walked straight to the right and immediately "found some damage" and charged us 250euro.. such a scam. Thankfully we took out excess cover with https://www.insurance4carhire.com/ after recommendations on this forum and they reimbursed us with no dramas so definitely recommend doing that.

In reply to nikoid:

Juts checked centauro Alicante and its quoting me 300 plus euros for 10 days!

In reply to Pete Wimbush: 

Hi Pete, remember me? Your 1993 car at Alicante technique was "turn up at airport & cram into a Fiesta with 4 people & their gear already in it"   

I use Europcar at Alicante, as with EasyJet (if you're flying EasyJet.....) I/we get a pretty big (30%) discount.  Rarely a  queue & we laugh at the Goldcar line waiting for their "cheap" hires......  

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Mediterranean car hirers are the nasty greedy end of the car hire business and you need to be on your guard. Do not automatically tick all the boxes, get your own cover for the excess and check the car thoroughly with a powerful torch before accepting it. Check especially for kerbed nearside wheels. Also don't trust the online car hire agents, go straight to the hirer's own website.  

We have one-year's excess cover with Bettersafe; it paid for itself by the third time we hired a car from Enterprise and it gives us £5000 excess cover against their £1000.

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Hi Pete,

I haven’t read all the thread but please stay well clear of Firefly. I got ripped off by them last month and have subsequently found loads of disgruntled customers on Facebook and review websites. Their reputation is atrocious, should have checked this before I booked through doyouspain.com 

cheers

Giles

In reply to Bulls Crack:

Blimey! Never had quotes like that. Absolutely outrageous. Give them a miss then.😀

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Have used centauro at Alicante for a couple of years in a row now and they were OK.  Used to alway suse europcar who were  mostly excellent (except one year where they were spectacularly bad in a very expensive way ... but, even then, did get my money back after complaining).

I think the price is very variable depending on when you go. I usually go over christmas and new year and it's expensive.  I'd say 300euros for 10 days is pretty standard if you're going at a busy/popular time (and don't want to risk the likes of goldcar).

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

We have used Drivalia for the last three years. Excellent.

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

I used Centauro with my own stand alone carhire insurance, rather than bought from them. And yes, they demanded I bring the car back earlier because of that and then crawled over it with high power torches until they found something to charge me for. Never again!

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

There have been numerous threads on this subject with lots of warnings, and good advice. If you want to avoid getting getting caught by a large unexpected bill it is well worth trawling through these past threads. There are some nasty sharks out there in the car hire companies operating out of Alicante and other Med airports.

In reply to Phil Murray:that’s a blast from the past! I do Remember that trip...I’m a bit more organised these days I hope. I think I’ll go with Record Go this time as they are coming out cheapest and offer free second driver. Hope you are keeping well. I remember trying to keep up with you running back into Sella which was a mistake

In reply to Pete Wimbush:thanks for all the advise. I’m probably going to go with RecordGo as they are about the best deal I can find. I’ve used loads of different ones in the past but they vary in popularity from year to year. It is amazing how the price fluctuates if you play around with the dates. Unfortunately my flights are booked!

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Earlier this year we booked with RecordGo through Holiday Autos.  There were much cheaper options available but I was wary of these, this was still a very reasonable price for a good quality car especially when shared between several people.  Their checking in and out process was very efficient and we had absolutely no problems.

In reply to Howard J:thanks for that. I’ve just booked with them. A fair price and they include a 2nd driver for no charge which is useful. Also full/full so not conned into buying an expensive tank of fuel!

In reply to Pete Wimbush:

Book the full insurance option directly with Centauro and there's no problems at all