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Renting a car in Gustavia,St. Barts


littledats
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We were just in Gustavia, St. Baarts on the Insignia. We arranged for a car rental ahead of time and they were waiting for us at the tender dock. We enjoyed having the car for the day but the roads are very narrow and very curvy!!! We returned the car to the parking lot by the tender dock, dropped the keys in the car rental drop box at the tender dock and headed back to Insignia.

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We were just in Gustavia, St. Baarts on the Insignia. We arranged for a car rental ahead of time and they were waiting for us at the tender dock. We enjoyed having the car for the day but the roads are very narrow and very curvy!!! We returned the car to the parking lot by the tender dock, dropped the keys in the car rental drop box at the tender dock and headed back to Insignia.

 

Use Turbe. We used Hertz and do not recommend them. The Turbe rep was at the port waiting for the ship. She actually called Hertz for us as they were not there.

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We were just in Gustavia, St. Baarts on the Insignia. We arranged for a car rental ahead of time and they were waiting for us at the tender dock. We enjoyed having the car for the day but the roads are very narrow and very curvy!!! We returned the car to the parking lot by the tender dock, dropped the keys in the car rental drop box at the tender dock and headed back to Insignia.

 

Agree. We were there last Friday. Used Alamo.

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How was Alamo? Did they deliver the car to the dock? We are going to be there in a few weeks.

 

Yes. Right to the dock. The car was actually there in the parking lot when we arrived. We waited about 5 minutes for the representative to arrive with paper work and key. On return, parked the car and dropped the keys in a box. If you are not used to manual transmission, be sure and get an automatic. The island is very hilly.

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We used Hertz. I think we rented a jeep, but it was a covered, modern one. I didn't think to ask if they would bring the car to the rental office. The rental office (and another company - forget which one) was in a building about 2 blocks from the tender dock, and we found it OK. I think they had us do paperwork there and then took us to the airport (maybe five minutes away) to pick up the car. We were told to return the car to a big parking lot near the tender dock. We had no problems. For the most part the roads are pretty good but as others have said, it places they can be curvy and it definitely has some hills. It was no big deal, though. We had a manual, but my husband is fine with those, so that wasn't a problem. You may not need the car for a whole day, as the island is fairly small with not all that many attractions, but overall, I WOULD recommend renting a car. We drove around quite a bit, and went to the place near the airport where small planes come practically right over your head as they approach the runway. We liked the Grand Fond area as it was pretty wild and sparsely populated.

Edited by roothy123
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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

We just returned from our cruise with a stop in St Barth's. We didn't have any rental reservations but asked at the main pier and there were no more cars. We walked a ways and stopped in a few shops and asked about car rentals. A gentleman passing by told us to head down the street and turn left and there were several car rental places. So off the ship we walked to the right until we could take a left up the street (where Cheeseburger in Paradise is). There was a Budget car rental sign in the perfume shop! We filled out all the paper work and a van showed up to take us to the airport (5 minute drive). There we picked up our BMW convertible and drove all over the island. We had to return the car by 6 pm to the airport which is when they close. We just barely made it back! Got checked in and the gal then took us back to the pier.

 

The fun part of being at the airport was watching the small planes come in and land!

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  • 2 months later...
We just returned from our cruise with a stop in St Barth's. We didn't have any rental reservations but asked at the main pier and there were no more cars. We walked a ways and stopped in a few shops and asked about car rentals. A gentleman passing by told us to head down the street and turn left and there were several car rental places. So off the ship we walked to the right until we could take a left up the street (where Cheeseburger in Paradise is). There was a Budget car rental sign in the perfume shop! We filled out all the paper work and a van showed up to take us to the airport (5 minute drive). There we picked up our BMW convertible and drove all over the island. We had to return the car by 6 pm to the airport which is when they close. We just barely made it back! Got checked in and the gal then took us back to the pier.

 

The fun part of being at the airport was watching the small planes come in and land!

 

Great that you were able to get a rental car. I had a lot of fun driving around the island in February. Even though Hertz also closed at 6 PM at the airport, we weer told we could leave the car in the rental lot and drop the keys in the drop box in the airport building. (Our cruise did not leave till 11 PM). One of the Hertz employees just happened to pass by when we dropped the car off (around 8 PM?) so he drove us back to the harbor.

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  • 1 year later...

How were all these car rental companies with excess/ deductibles?

I was reading that one of the local companies charges 700 Euros even if you have a tiny scrape. Not that i'm planning on damaging the car, but better to be prepared!

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To be honest we were almost so late in returning the car I think they just did a quick check around the car.

 

Prior to that cruise we stayed in Grand Case for a week and rented a car from Hertz. I took photographs and video of the entire car with the Hertz guy checking us out. When we returned at the pier in Philipsburg we just dropped the keys in the box with no one there to look at the car. I figured I had the before pics just in case but we didn't do anything to the car anyway and we didn't need them.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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I've done some research now and looked into the CDW excess (deductible) for various companies on the island, and they vary from 500 Euros to over 1000 Euros, which is all too much of a risk for me. It doesn't take much for someone to come round a corner too fast, and to have a bump.

I might look into taking a separate policy out from home, which is easy enough to do in the UK, but otherwise I won't be renting a car.

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