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Car Hire in Sardinia and general recs.

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 Donotello 03 Aug 2020

Hi All. 

Planning a trip to Sardinia in a few weeks. I usually hire with Enterprise as I have an account and earn free hire etc. Checking Sardinia though, it's coming up as 240 for the car plus 220 to fully protect it, double what I usually pay elsewhere in Europe. Similar with SIXT. I usually try and avoid the cheap companies that aren't as accountable for messing you around, as the big names, but interested to hear your thoughts.

Has anyone got any recommendations for a fully comp car hire from the Airport for less than 300? (7 day stay)

Also any recommendations of where to stay and which guidebooks to buy, will do my own research at some point but happy to hear others experience!

Thanks 

Post edited at 10:44
 sinclaircooper 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

Seems really expensive. I just checked what I paid in Sardinia in 2018, was £200 for 10 days, fully comp. Not sure if car hire is a bit more expensive across Europe in general right now. You could look into buying separate insurance for covering the vehicle and opt out of the coverage they offer, which is what I normally do. It's much cheaper. 

 Toerag 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

I suspect it may be expensive because aside from the main motorway the roads are poor, twisty, and have the usual southern Italian crazy drivers on them.

1
 elliot.baker 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

When you say fully comp have you investigated those hire car insurance companies online?

They are usually something like £20 for a week's fully comp cover compared to 10x that as you have seen.

There was a lengthy posts about people's experiences of this last summer on here, I think about Majorca or somewhere. 

As many people complaining about big companies as small ones - seemed pot luck.

I went to Portugal, with a company that also had a number of 1* reviews for ripping people off with insurance etc. - but I went prepared with my credit card to put the 1,000EUR+ deposit down, and I had my insurance sorted online separately, had no problems whatsoever.

I will say I read the T&Cs meticulously and the guy in front of us got turned away for not having the right card in the right name that it was booked under online (or something like that) and after a long time arguing he stormed out furious (as you can imagine - he'd just landed and he had no car). 

I think I used "Money maxim" for the car hire insurance

https://www.moneymaxim.co.uk/

 Iamgregp 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

Yeah I have couple of friends who are on their way over shortly and it looks like the price of car hire has gone through the roof this summer.  We payed a few hundred for 2 weeks when we last went, looks like they're much more now, for some reason.  SOrry I can't be more help on this front!

With regards ti where to stay - we spent some time in Igleseas which is a nice enough town with plenty of places to eat and drink and not too long a drive from the crags.  We also spent time in Lozerai at The Lemon House, which was great and we got many recommendations from Ricky who runs the place.  We were going to go up to the far north after that but the weather turned bad so we went to Cagliari for a few days.  Lovely city as it turned out, and there's even some climbing just outside of town.

However I'd recommend spending some time in Ulassai as the canyon there has loads of good climbing, there's the Nannai climbing hostel and it's a lovely town.  

Guidebooks wise there's Pietra di Luna which is actually a bit shit - badly translated and vague directions and somewhat dated, but it ids THE guidebook for Sardinia.  Ulassai canyon has it's own pamphlet sized book which you can buy at the hostel, well worth it as mopst of the stuff in the canyon is new and so isn't in the main book 

OP Donotello 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Iamgregp:

Hey thanks. Yeh there's an old thread in which everyone says how bad the book is!

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/destinations/sardinia_guidebook_suggestio...

I see there's one for smaller areas, and plenty of home-made topo's online (like they do in portugal) so might just try and print out as many as I can, spent £35 on a book to portugal only to find all the topo's online and in better format. 

 Iamgregp 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

Yeah I've slagged off the book many times here before - 50 Euros for a book that has you aimlessly driving down dirt roads for 2 hours before you finally find the crag!  If you can pick up a second hand copy from someone it's worth having though...

Also just to make you aware for some of the routes, especially the older crags or multi pitch stuff, you're advised to take a small rack with you (which I don't own) it'll generally say this in the book, but not always so don't get caught out two pitches up like I did! 

 99ster 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

If you're planning to go there in August - that is peak season for Italians to go there on holiday.  So that could explain the higher cost of car rentals.  And if you are going in August/September it will be VERY hot.  Not far off unbearable for climbing.

OP Donotello 03 Aug 2020
In reply to 99ster:

Nope, heard July and August are unbearable so will be first week of Oct. 

 RX-78 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

We went in October one year, one thing to consider is that the West coast will have the evening sun so stay warmer and brighter later. We were on the east coast and it was funny that as the sun went people on the beach started to crowd the small areas still getting sun shine.

It was lovely in October, still warm but no crowds.

Post edited at 20:08
 Dave Ferguson 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

I've never had a problem with the cheap companies, just take out your own excess insurance, less than £30 for a week. Yes you have to put £1000 deposit down from a credit card but just go round taking photos of the car before you leave so they can't sting you for damage that was already there. Pay particular attention to the roof. I've only had to claim on the insurance once for a wing mirror that got knocked off, The insurance company paid up within a week. No point paying over the odds for "piece of mind".

 99ster 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

> Nope, heard July and August are unbearable so will be first week of Oct. 

Good plan.  October is an excellent time to visit, it's really quiet so you should be able to get very cheap accommodation and the weather is really nice.  We've been 3 times now, went at the very end of October last year and still had a couple of days at 30deg with sun every day.  I love Sardinia!
Enjoy!

 FactorXXX 03 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

Not sure if you're aware of it, but there's a pandemic going around which is making things a bit weird. 

OP Donotello 03 Aug 2020
In reply to FactorXXX:

Ah really? Will have to look into it. 

 trouserburp 04 Aug 2020
In reply to Donotello:

Don't use Hertz in Sardinia. In brief- tyre wall blew just driving along, took it to local garage where he showed us it was a previous repair job that had failed. He offered to replace it for 80 euros but suggested taking it to hertz in case that invalidated something. Drive to airport, long queue, 200 euros to replace it and gave us a nissan Micra to replace the car, which was smaller than i had paid for and we couldn't fit in it (had to put luggage on laps and heads). Top it off they wouldn't provide the documentation i needed to claim the money back from my third party insurers. Peace of mind with expensive company my bottom

 Iamgregp 04 Aug 2020
In reply to trouserburp:

I think we used Locauto.  Was shitting myself when I took the car back as I had got a load of surface scratches down the side from getting lost on a very narrow dirt road because of that shitty f'ing guidebook but was all good as when I took the car back the guy checking it back in is a climber and was more interested in sharing topos and stories than checking the car.  What a result!


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