Car rental in Aruba

[NewWaveDave]

Does anyone know if there is a car rental in Aruba who:

 

1) has a pick-up and drop-off at the cruise pier?

 

AND ALSO

 

2) allows you to keep the vehicles out later than 6:00 pm?

[pholter]

There are bunches of companies that have vehicles at the cruise terminal/pier.

I don't know of any of them who let you keep the cars after 6pm though.

 

We used www.arubaroyal.com

[NewWaveDave]

Thanks for the reply!

[premiumrican]

Does anyone know if there is a car rental in Aruba who:

 

1) has a pick-up and drop-off at the cruise pier?

 

AND ALSO

 

2) allows you to keep the vehicles out later than 6:00 pm?

 

 

I used Thrifty in Aruba. We were able to keep the car as long as we wanted. If you go to http://WWW.Aruba.com and find the transportation section and there is a whole list of rental car agency's in Aruba. Thrifty had a small office at the pier. Here is there link

 

http://www.thriftyaruba.com/

[twit]

We rented from Hertz which was at the cruise terminal. The car had to be back by 6:00 but be aware that if you bring it back earlier they are not there at all of the hours. I think there will be someone there at 2:00, 4:00 and 6:00 but if you come inbetween those times, like we did, you are out of luck. This can be a problem if your boat sails at 5:00 but no one is at the Hertz place untill 6:00. Make sure you check this out before you go.

 

Also we rented an air conditioned 4 x 4. I would not do that again. The air conditioning does not really work well and you are better off rolling down the windows. (at least in the one we had)

[wvufan]

Hi Dave,

 

We had better luck with Hertz in Aruba. Rented a 4 wheel drive automatic A/C Diahatsu-all day for something like $90 with waiver, plus we got a discount off of that for AARP. So, for two couples, we paid something like $20 per person plus gas.

 

They have an office right by the port-you can book on line, and you will notice several options for pickup point.

 

Even though they closed at 6, they told me to keep it as late as I wanted and to simply leave the key in it when I brought it back. I did so and there were no problems.

 

Have fun,

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[JC Cruiser]

My wife and I had pretty good luck renting w/ Amigo Car Rental. They picked us up just outside the pier and took us to thier rental location. We rented open air jeeps. It was very nice having a 4x4 vehicle because we were able to travel the entire island. We were able to return the vehicle either before 6pm at the rental office we rented from or 8pm at the airport. We returned it to the airport and took a short taxi ride back to the pier. Hope this helps!

[MJ25]

We rented a Jeep Wrangler with oversized wheels and tires on the pier for $90 including insurance. Took the top off and had a wonderful day cruising the island.

 

We discussed taking the jeep tour excursion but opted out because of the $98 per person price. Drove to the California lighthouse and decided to take the off road trails along the coast and ended up running into one of the excursions. Traveled with them to the points of interest. Then when we were ready to move on we just hooked up with one of the other tours leaving.

 

Not only did we get to go off roading and see the nature of Aruba, we had the Jeep for the rest of the day to go where ever we wanted and saved $100. The only thing we missed that the excursion recieved was lunch!

[nho9504]

We rented with Hertz on our stop April 25, Monday. We reserved the 4x4 Daihatsu on the web with American Airline CRD and got 10% discount. With waiver ($15) the final total is $82.

 

A few things I would like to comment, so hopefully to help others in the future.

 

1) The Hertz station at the pier is NOT always staffed. The guy named Michael was not there when we arrived at 10am. Other companies staff went to look for him for us. And Michael told us that he would be gone for good by 1pm. He told us to return the car, leave the car door unlock, and put the key under the mat. We did not feel right but he insisted it would be OK. (More about that later).

 

2) Look carefully for your CDW waiver !!! It has a deductible of $750 - imho, one does not need to buy that waiver for $15 - as it really aint provide much protection for you if the deductible is $750. We did not realize it until later we thought we need to check that out, after we had to use a very edge of a very deep tire track, so we brushed some torny bushes at the side, and created quite a few scratches on the car. Then we discovered that huge amount of deductible. The Hertz guy did not mention a word about it when he asked if we would buy the waiver. He only mentioned about the cost and we thought for $15, it would be ok to buy peace of mind. WRONG.

 

3) The car was a bit beatten up, and not very clean. But that probably is the nature of the 4x4 rentals on the island. Aircondintioning worked well for ours. HOWEVER, it cannot navigate the OFF ROAD area of Aruba - i.e. if you plan to go to Natural Ponds, you would not be able to make it. We tried and had to give up half way, after already made it, with lots of maneuver, to the top of the mountain. We can see the sea on the other side, and lots of cars down below. However, the clearance of the Daihatsu definitely cannot navigate the deep tire tracks to go down there. We already have had several occasions the rear tires cannot grab the surface and spin on our climb up the mountain ... We decided it is not safe to push forward ... especially it took us 3 tries to free ourselves from a spot ... So, at the end, we turned back. And the situation at the time was so dire, that we completely forgot to take video or pictures of the scene, as well as how desparately, and dangerously we got ourselves in ... I dont think any rental car companies can rescue you if you happened to truly get stuck up there ...

 

Only Jeep Wrangler and a Suzuki Jeep we saw have high enough clearance to do such. Also Jeeps have much bigger tires that make the very bumpy tracks a lot easier to handle. Note : I did not say "road" - as there is NO ROAD to Natural Ponds - there are only tire tracks and they changed with each travel and weather ...

 

We opted for the Daihatsu at the first place was because with Jeep, it is open air, open top - way way too hot under Aruba sun. It turned out that the day we arrived, it was rainy and shade almost all day till mid afternoon. We also did not realize there are Suzuki Jeeps available that are hard tops with Aircondintioning.

 

4) If you dont plan to go to Natural Pond, a passenger car is good enough to do all that sightseeing you want, even to the Natural Bridge - which, is really not much to see and the Natural Bridge is, well, what can I say ? like a joke. The California Lighthouse and the Natural Bridge - to us, are pretty much a joke. Waste of time. You see far far more impressive "Natural Bridge" near Santa Cruz, California, USA. And they are far more beautiful. All those descriptions on the various boards are way overexagerated - probably from people who feel they made a fool themselves and want others to suffer the same. Me, I want to tell the truth - It is a waste of time to go to these 2 points.

 

The National Park is very primitive. They have a small booth at the entrance - the park is free, but there are a small crowd of locals there, like 5 or 6 persons. One guy approached us to explain briefly about the park and gave us a primitive photocopy of "map" ... then at the end, he asked for "donation". We did not bring much money with us, I hesitated a bit. But hubby said to give him $5.00 ... Hind sight, we probably did not need to, and shouldn't to, especially we had to empty our pocket at the gas station near pier, in order to fill up the car ... (I figure that if we dont have enough cash, then one of us have to go back to ship to get some money and back to the station ... quite a walk). Roads inside National Park are narrow gravel roads. There was not much to see in the Park, though we met a British girl in the Park - it turned out a film crew from BBC was scouting sites in the Park for a documentary about Caribbean Islands. The girl was already been in the Park on previous trip, so she did not want to walk again, but left behind to watch for the equipments ... We only spent about 20-30 minutes in total in the Park and then decided to get back out to head for Natural Pond.

 

Actually, the best bet in Aruba, is just to go to the beaches in the hotel zones - Palm Beach and Eagle Beach - for that, you dont need rentals - there are very cheap buses to go there, a buck one way I believe. Though you need a car to go to Baby Beach, and I think it is worth it, even with the refinery complex right next to it. Water seems to be clearer and calmer at Baby Beach. You also have a very nice view on the drive approaching Baby Beach - Lots of colorful fishes when I snokeled there. The island is really small, but the local roads are like a maze once you venture inland. Knowing the general direction and the location of each sightseeing points and the names of nearby towns would help you follow the occasional signposting for the Main roads. On our way to Natural Bridge, once we were out of downtown, the sign disappeared. We were kind of loss but a local apparently saw our look when we all stopped in front of traffic light. He came out of his car and approached us, gave us brief instruction and told us to ask again when we got to that end of his instruction ... It worked. Following his instruction we eventually reached an intersection where there was a good size supermarket and we stopped there and asked again. That finally put us to the main road where once again sign posting reappeared.

 

5) Gasoline - we did not remember to check the exchange rate between USD and Aruba money. So at the gas station, we are at the mercy of the filling guy to tell us how much USD is ... We filled up the car at the Valero station near pier, and I believe the guy overcharged us by may be 30 to 50% ... The Hertz guy said we should use up no more that $8.00 gas, we ended up had to pay $12.00 to fill the tank back to the level where we started. But we had ventured to the Natural Pond area ... so we figure that may be $10 is about right ...

BTW, 1 Aruba money = to roughly 0.57 to 0.60 USD, as of today, 5/27/05.

 

6) CAR RETURN. When we got back to pier, naturally Michael is not there as he told us he would be gone by 1pm. We truly not felt comfortable to leave the car unlock. A guy we met in the morning there, who helped us located the Hertz guy in the morning, offered to help ... He also said NO ONE would leave car unlocked when they returned car after hour ... He offered to call Hertz Airport Location for me to ask for instruction. The supervisor at Hertz airport location was shocked to hear about that absurd instruction Michael gave to us. He wanted to talk to me. So we talked on this local guy's cell phone. I was instructed to leave the key underneath the mat, and LOCK the car !!! He said NO WAY YOU DONT LOCK THE CAR. He actually wanted me to go to the car NOW while we were on the phone, and did as he instructed. We did, and then left. We had no idea what might happen to Michael later.

But for the following few days, we kept checking our credit card statement, to make sure no further charges from Hertz at Aruba. Oh, apparently it is not a "real" Hertz, but a franchise - the charge appeared on our card is not Hertz, but simply Rent A Car.

 

7) Bottom line : You dont need to reserve a car - just go to the rental car area - there are plenty of local companies to choose from. If you feel adventurous, then get a Jeep. Otherwise, a passenger car would do just fine.

[WeR3Angels]

I have checked the Amigo car rental website that someone mentioned - is this US dollars or Aruba $$ ?

 

TIA

[wvufan]

Just to clarify one aspect of my previous post. I mentioned that I was instructed by Hertz to simply leave the key in the car. I did not mean to imply to leave it in an UNlocked car. We were told to lock the key in the car.

 

We drove along the coast as much as we could and through the park area with the caves, and feel that a four wheel drive is a must. We actually got stuck once even with 4 wheel. I guess it depends on which "roads" you actually take.

 

We would gladly rent the Diahatsu through Hertz again.

 

Part of the enjoyment for us is that we got a convoy of 5 or 6 vehicles made up of folks we met on our roll call, and had a blast going to Baby Beach, the caves, park, natural bridge, lighthouse, etc. We didn't all stick together throughout, but had a lot fun planning. We declared it funny hat day, and all of us wore ridiculous hats, flew pirate flags from our vehicles, and generally acted like fools:)

 

On our previous trip to Aruba, we went with Roberto's Private Snorkeling and it was also very enjoyable.

 

OOOEEE:D :D Bob and Phyl

[tirakotchi]

I have checked the Amigo car rental website that someone mentioned - is this US dollars or Aruba $$ ?

 

TIA

 

Aruba currency is ' Florin ' (AWG or Afl).

 

Car rentals accept USD $$ as form of payment too. If you see the $$ sign than it's US dollar.

 

Happy sailings.