UKC

Any recommendations for honest car hire from Malaga heading to el chorro area?

Is it needs? I've seen some talk of people getting the train. 

Having never been to Chorro before, I'm guessing a car would be better to get about .

Do NOT hire from Goldcar.

Ever. 

Even if you have to walk

Or hitch.

With a burly man who keeps winking at you.

Whilst he's wearing chaps.

On a more serious note have a newspaper or similar with you and as you check the car photograph everything and video it too inside and out. Personally I'm not too shy about doing it in front of the people. I've never had a problem yet and you've got plenty of evidence to fight with if anyones tries something funny. 

If you want to get excess insurance, buy it online before you go and you'll get a years cover for about the cost of a day or two if you get it from the hire company. Also pay with a credit card if you can as you can sick Visa on them if they try it on.

But don't go to Goldcar or any of the others that do the hire it full of fuel, return it empty business. Its a con.

Good luck finding an honest one, but the advice from NaCl is solid. Do not be rushed into signing for the state of the car until you have gone over it in ridiculous detail. Record and photograph every little scratch and buff, inside and out and ensure that they sign for that damage. Even something tiny will give them grounds to scam you. Photograph the fuel level and the mileage.

Make sure they know you are going to be "one of those" customers who is forensic in their attention to detail and they probably won't scam you. Get your own excess insurance with insurance4carhire or similar. £42 for the year.

On a more positive note, I had no issues with MalagaCar. Pretty decent value (even though I'm under 25) and they even upgraded our car to an estate for free when something with the booking had gone wrong on their end.

As with the other comments though, do be careful and cover yourself by getting evidence etc

I couldn't remember but seeing the name has reminded me. I've used Malagacar several times with no problems too. 

I've always been the asshole with the camera making a documentary about the car mind you.

  A lot of car hire operations at Malaga airport seem to require a shuttle bus to pick up the car or get to the desk. Is this all of them or just some? Which ones?

Not sure if it's all of them but a short drive (maybe 5 mins max) from the airport is a big industrial estate with a few companies located there. MalagaCar does have a shuttle service but it's free of charge and they have sign written minibuses that take you. I'm pretty sure we were met at arrivals by someone from the company who directed us to the minibus area too

+1 for Malaga car ????

Malaga car hire just seem to give you what you paid for without any f*cking around. Which seems a little strange in the world of car hire. Think it was £50 for a week paid in advance. They offered insurance, i said no and that was that. Away I went. Short bus ride and maybe a 15min queue.

I've used Helle Hollis  http://www.hellehollis.com/    a few times with out any problems . Usually get the free shuttle from outside & down below to right of the airport entrance / exit which then takes you to the Helle Hollis garage about 5 minutes away . Good prices & helpful staff with a nice selection of vehicles .

I hired from InterRent last year, not knowing they were affiliated with Goldcar. Turns out their service is just ‘consistent’ (heads up).

Re: Actually needing to hire a car - All depends on where you’re staying and how lazy/fit you are really  

If you’re based in El Chorro - ie. Climbers Lodge, Olive Branch, La Finca etc.. you’ll certainly have no trouble. If coming from a bit further afield - Alora Or Las Melizas, a car would definitely make life simpler. Again though you can still get away with it quite easily - using the train to EC station and walking from there.

Whatever you decide, best of luck and happy climbing! 

just don't use goldcar, google them and it's a litany of horrors

I've used Malaga car the last 3 times I've been to Chorro and it's worked well. I'd use them again. The shuttle to the airport is convenient and I haven't had any problems. They do try and sell you their insurance so you need to keep saying no, but the rental itself was super cheap. Check in was quite busy one time and had to wait maybe 20 mins.

They probably weren't thus affiliated last year. I've used Inter-rent (one of Europcar's cheap brand names) from Marseilles twice and Treviso in the last 2 years and found them OK. Now Europcar has swallowed up Goldcar as well and I found to my horror on arrival at Alicante last December to get my "Inter-rent" car I had to queue at the dreaded Goldcar desk! Then undergo the intimidating "buy these extras or you will lose thousands of pounds" hard sell from an extremely unpleasant man who handed me the keys to a diesel car and unbeknown to me charged extra for it!

Thanks for train info .

My wife is pregnant so depends on here really, were not normally hire car people and would happily use the train and walk to get about. 

We're staying at la Finca and looking at train from Malaga to el chorro is a poss6

Also looks like there is only one train ad day at 10am. We land at 11.30!

So hire car it is!

Thanks for Malaga car recommendations, they look good price compared to others .