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Car rental?


caribbean2000
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

We are in Curacao in a couple of weeks from 8-11. Decided it would be cheaper to rent two cars instead of hiring a taxi for the day. I just booked two 7 passenger SUVs at Avis which is located right at the pier. Avis does rent for one day. $82.00 for the day. I'm sure there are smaller cars for less.

Seems the other car rental services have a minimum of 3 days!

Enjoy your cruise! :cool:

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I just got back from my cruise with a stop in Curacao. We rented 2 small cars there (8 people total) and it worked out perfectly. I rented from Avis. They have a few locations but we used the one at the Howard Johnson Hotel (about 10 min max walk from the pier) because the one at the Megapier (where ship docks) didn't have what we wanted. We got 2 Kia Picante cars @ $27.25 each for the day. They are very small but we fit 4 people pretty easily and we have some quite tall people in my family lol. I don't know that you could squeeze much more in but if you had small people maybe 5. They were both manual transmission (stick) so if you don't know how to do that you probably won't be able to rent on the island. The Avis worker showed up a bit late but otherwise it was a pretty easy process. All paper so it took a little longer than in US though.

The biggest issue was navigating the area. We didn't have a great map from Avis but it was better than the one we got at the pier from Information desk. The roads are not marked well AT ALL!!! and half of them don't have street signs. The map we had didn't have all of the roads listed either so it was pretty interesting.

overall it was fun but definitely confusing driving around. made for a great adventure though! I would recommend renting but i would also recommend a better map or maybe even a GPS.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Does anyone have experience with a car rental on the island?

 

As others have said AVIS at the Mega Pier is the best option for cruisers. Just remember that their central depot is at the airport and only have cars readily available at the Mega Pier if they are pre-booked online. The office to the left of the Tented area is only manned if people have prebooked and then only up to 9.30am.

 

We reserved an automatic from them 18 months ago (cost US$78) and had a puncture on the dirt road leading to Casa Abou only to find the spare was also flat with a puncture. It cost us $50 to get the tyres repaired with no redress from AVIS

 

Recommend you throughly check out their cars before you leave the pier or better still AVOID.

Edited by mickey89
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  • 3 months later...
What's the chances of walking off the ship and getting one if you haven't reserved it? Is the driving kind of crazy there like on many of the other islands?

 

Not at the pier without reservations. We rented one last minute unreserved off site and they came and picked us up at the pier. $35 bargain. Roads are decent, drivers civilized, navigating a bit challenging. Leave at least an hour to drop off the car.

Edited by neptuno
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  • 2 weeks later...
Was that with Avis Neptune or a local company? Thinking of hiring a car and would rather use a "local" company if possible.

 

No, we did not rent from Avis. It was a few years ago, so maybe Google "rental cars Curacao". The office was on the northeast side of the town, over the big bridge. Great bargain. I think it was Thrifty.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Rented from AVIS at the pier: like others have said, this is not a major location for them, they close early (around 5PM) and there's no dropbox for keys, so we just locked them in the vehicle and went back onboard. We requested a GPS and didn't get one. Luckily I had saved some maps on my phone before leaving home, including one to the biggest Digicel store on the island to get a SIM card.:D

 

Definitely inspect the vehicle carefully as you would anywhere. Tire damage is a serious issue out this way because of the island's topography.

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Does anyone have experience with a car rental on the island? We've visited a couple times off ships but (after doing a lot of research) some of the beaches we'd like to visit for snorkeling are just not practical via a taxi. thanks!

 

We rented from Avis this Thanksgiving at the Mega Pier with a prebooked reservation. I was the first one off the ship and the agent at the office said they had "overbooked" and there were no cars available, although she had a sign outside advertising "cars available". Go figure!!! So, luckily I had saved my booking on the cell phone and had her call the agent. He was "not available". I did not budge, asking for the manager. Eventually, about an hour later, someone drove a car from the airport to the mega pier for us. We had a great day. I made sure to photograph all the previous damage so in the end I was not charged for any dents. The cost was about $55 USD plus fuel. The pier office closed earlier than expected so we left the keys in the glove box and locked the car, leaving it at the pier. Very convenient. Less trouble than renting from Thrifty off site.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Rented from AVIS at the pier: like others have said, this is not a major location for them, they close early (around 5PM) and there's no dropbox for keys, so we just locked them in the vehicle and went back onboard. We requested a GPS and didn't get one. Luckily I had saved some maps on my phone before leaving home, including one to the biggest Digicel store on the island to get a SIM card.:D

 

Definitely inspect the vehicle carefully as you would anywhere. Tire damage is a serious issue out this way because of the island's topography.

 

Had you prearranged leaving the vehicle at the rental location for drop off? We were looking to rent a car but have to choose drop off time and it won't let you select anything past 5:30 unless you choose the airport as the drop off location. We don't arrive until 1:30, so were hoping for more time and would hate to be rushed.

 

Thanks for any information you might share!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Be forewarned with regard to renting from Avis. Just because you rent a car from Avis, doesn't mean it will be there when you arrive. We booked an SUV for 9am. We weren't cleared to debark until almost 9:30. When I got to the Avis office, they didn't have a vehicle for us. They blamed vandals, but in talking with locals, we were told they take whoever comes first regardless of reservation of not. They tried to send us to Budget in the Rennaisance, but they only had small cars and we were a part of 5 traveling with 2 - 70+ year olds, lots of walking and tight cars won't work.

 

I will be contacting Avis directly to let them know how their franchise is operating in Curacao

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