Aruba - Rental Car Experience.....

[baileybrad]

We were on the Odyssey of the Seas on an 8 day cruise the week of 2/25/23 - 3/5/23. We reserved a compact car from Jay's for $81.40 on our Wednesday in port there.. We had tried Royal first as we had used them before and were fine with their service. Royal only had jeeps left when I reached out to them and those were obviously were more expensive. We walked over to the rental lot and found the Jay's guys. Royal used the same lot for our past rentals.

 

We went through the paperwork particulars with the Jay's guy who was in charge. After a brief conversation, he tried to upsell us on a jeep for $125. I told him that we were fine with what we reserved. We had no reason for a jeep as we were just going to the beach. As we moved through the conversation he said that he was out of compacts and we would be getting a jeep instead for the same price. Needless to say, we thought that was a crappy way to try and do business. The jeep was an older one but, again, we only needed reliable transportation. The A/C worked great. He just tried, unsuccessfully, to try and make and extra $45 off of us for no reason.

 

Vehicle had about a 1/4 tank of gas in it. We were told by the big guy's #2 to bring it back with the same. We went and got gas first so we would not have to deal with it later. I did put in way too much gas, filling it to 3/4 tank and we barely moved it below that. The gas was over $7 a gallon. I should have bought half the amount of fuel that I bought. Frankly, the conversion confused me and the clerks are really no help to you. You pay before you pump. They did have full service pumps but I am not sure of the price difference. 

 

FYI.....we only saw 2 gas stations from downtown to Arashi Beach and down and back to Baby Beach. Also, the car needed to be returned by 6:00pm Aruba time keeping in mind that their time is one hour ahead of the ship's time. We got back at 5:45pm.

[crewsweeper]

Thanks for sharing your experience.  Glad you didn't have to pay up for something you didn't want..  Sorry you overdid the gas, but hard to know what mileage you would get.

 

Just curious, but if the beach is the only place you went to wouldn't a taxi have been way cheaper and less time consuming?

[baileybrad]

We went to 2 different beaches and a grocery store. You may know this but Arashi and Baby Beach are about as far apart as 2 beaches can be on the island. We get to see lots of the island without being controlled by others schedules and transportation restrictions while not being part of a group event. It was a wonderful day.

Edited March 10, 2023 by baileybrad

[baileybrad]

Duplicate word

[BoozinCroozin]

We have a Jeep rented. We plan to go to Tres Trapi to snorkel first thing in the morning. The to Arashi Beach to relax and take in the beach and lunch. After, head to the old gold mill and secret pool. Then head back to the dropoff location. I am a little concerned with overall time if we went to Arashi and then down to Baby Beach area. It would be a lot of time getting around.

[gumby4243]

We rented a jeep from Jay's Car Rental.  They met us at the peer and pointed us toward a parking lot a short walk away.  We waited a few minutes for the attendant to finish with 2 other renters.  He asked if we wanted an open or closed jeep.  We chose open, which was really fun, but a bit hot.  We drove to the Aloe factory, the Natural Bridge, the Donkey Sanctuary, the Lighthouse and to see the flamingo's in the wild.  The jeep was older, but we didn't have any mechanical problems.  We got it full and returned it full of gas.  We used our phone for navigation and got around fine.  The return was super easy.  We did pay for the extra insurance just to make sure we wouldn't have any problems.