Thinking of renting a scooter

[rain_bowbrite]

We are thinking about renting a scooter and exploring the island own our own. Neither of us have driven a scooter before. Are they hard to drive and would we be better off getting a car?

 

The scooters just should like sooo much fun but afraid of the driving difficulty level.:confused:

[sailin' on]

We were at Grand Turk last week, and rented a scooter there. I had never driven a scooter. It was a blast. Grand Turk is a very small island, and the scooter took us everywhere very quickly. The scooters are very easy to drive. There is push-button ignition, and no shifting gears. Once you get used to it and get a little braver, you will have no problem. Have fun!

[bruce-r]

We were at Grand Turk last week' date=' and rented a scooter there. [/quote']

Perhaps you could provide a few details about the scooter rental such as location and prices. Thanks.

[sailin' on]

We reserved a scooter with a guy named Tony. He also has car rentals. He has a website called tonys car rental dot com. We met Tony at the cruise terminal area. We walked through the buildings, a little to the left, till we came to a parking lot. Tony was there, with lots of scooters. Cost was $55 for the entire day. The scooter was in great shape, looked new, and ran great. The only challenge was to remember to drive on the left side of the road! It was a fun day.

[bruce-r]

http://www.tonyscarrental.com/

 

Thanks. Looks like they rent bicycles as well.

[shygirl]

Do you need to show a driver's license to rent a scooter? Do they provide Helmuts? How long did it take to see the island not including swim or food breaks?

[sailin' on]

Tony did take down lots of information, including drivers license. He provided helmets for us. There is a new law requiring helmets. As luck would have it, we were there on the day the new law took effect. There was a local T.V. person at the pier interviewing people renting the scooters. She asked me several questions, including how I felt about the fine being $500. Pretty steep! So, we were glad helmets were supplied.

 

The island is small. We had trouble finding our way around at first, just because we kept going too far. We finally figured out that everything is pretty close. At the end of the day, we realized we had not seen the lighthouse. We went from the southern end of the island to the northern tip where the lighthouse is. It seems like it took about 20 minutes to get there.

[doglover44]

We are renting scooters from Tony too, in December. I just spoke to him on the phone and he said since we were a larger group (7 of us), he would give us a price break and charge $45, instead of the usual $55 per day. I thought that was very reasonable and we can't wait to see the island via scooter! I also mentioned to him we would be paying him in cash - so maybe that helped in dropping the price too. I'm really glad to know that helmuts are provided - I was wondering about that. I'm already a little nervous about driving on the left side of the road and making sure my children are safe too!

[rain_bowbrite]

Sailin thanks for the info on the scooters. Still unsure if we will rent one though because of some negative threads here on CC about the dangers of riding a scooter (thread refers to riding in Bermuda).

 

It seems like the traffic on Grand Turk is pretty non-existent though which makes me a lot more comfortable with the scooter rental idea.

 

Now onto my actual question...does Tony give you a map with the rental?

[sailin' on]

Traffic was very light on Grand Turk. Tony did give us a map, but it was very small, looked like a bookmark. It showed general roads and the layout of the island. Roads were not identified by name on the map. I had printed out some good maps before we left home, but of course I left those home. We didn't have too much trouble once we figured out the scale, and remembered how small the island really is. We went to the museum, the court house building, the light house. We drove over to Governor's beach and spent some time there. Driving on the left was interesting. It was not too hard except once in a while at intersections just remembering which way things were moving.

[andre2p]

For those that reserved a scooter ... do you think the reservation was necessary? I wonder if I should take a chance and find one when I get there. Did it look like many were available?

 

Thanks,

Andrew :confused:

[rain_bowbrite]

For those that reserved a scooter ... do you think the reservation was necessary? I wonder if I should take a chance and find one when I get there. Did it look like many were available?

 

Thanks,

Andrew :confused:

 

I would like to know this also although I am pretty sold on the idea that we are going to rent one so maybe it is best to rent ahead of time.:confused:

[lambs2]

We were on Grand Turk with the Costa Magica on Fri., Nov. 24 during our Thanksgiving week cruise. We did not prebook a scooter and thought we would just find one to rentwhen we got there, as we were the only ship in port that day. There was qute a line at the scooter rental booth, and we hate to wait in lines. I saw a group of scooters by the road about 1/3 mile from the visitor's Center so DH and I decided to just walk over there and rent one. There was a group of scooters, a pickup truck and a hand-lettered sign saying $55. However, when we got there there was NO ONE in sight to rent them from! We stood around for a few minutes but nobody showed up, so since we had already walked that far DH and I decided to continue walking...all the way to Cockburn Town! There were NO sidewalks until you got to the "town", so that made the walking a bit more challenging, but the traffic is not heavy on the one main road. We made a stop by the airport where there is a big display of a model of the Friendship 7 - the orbiter in which John Glenn made his historic orbits of earth in 1962 and that splashed down in the sea a few miles off Grand Turk. We also wandered down to a deserted rocky beach where ours were the only footprints on it. Luckily, I had brought our watershoes along so we changed into those for our walk along the beautiful, but rocky coastline. Two rather large dogs (no people anywhere around that we saw) started following and barking at us so we decided to play it safe and headed back to the road and followed it into the "town". We figure we walked about 3 miles or so (?) from the ship to the town, but we are great walkers and it was a gorgeous day.We had to ask some other tourists we saw along the way just WHERE the town was, and the guy said, "You are basically IN the town." So you can see just how small it is! a few government building, a couke non-functioning clock towers, a bank or two..that's about it. We found a gas station with a convenience store where we bought some bottled water and then continued exploring the little town. Saw many of the salt ponds along the way. At the waterfront we saw the oldest church, St. Mary's (oldest church on the island), several bars, the one bed and breakfast on the island (the Grand Turk Inn - a lovely restored vintage home), and the Grand Turk Museum with ship wreck exhibits and other artifacts. Small but very nice. Also saw the plaque commemorating the first landing in the New World by Christopher Columbus. Took lots of photos. Would have liked to have made it to the lighthouseat the far end of the island, but that was another 5 miles from the town! A scooter would have come in real handy and next time we visit we will definitely rent one (ahead of time!)

It is very obvious that Grand Turk is a brand new tourist destination for the cruise lines (only since Feb 2006), as it still has that calm peacful non-commercial feeling (except for the Visitor Center area). I was on a cruise that stopped in Cozumel in 1974 and remember how unspoiled that island was back in those days! There was no visitor center at all, and our ship just had to tender us in to the town. I even remember going to Nassau in the 1960's when I was a child and that it was a completely different experience back in those days and very non-commercial! Anyway, Grand Turk is still like those places were "in the old days", but the prices are high because it costs so much to live ther and EVERYTHING has to be imported. They have no crops at all, and no drinkable water supply, either. Grand Turk was just an island wher they dried salt for export. The many salt ponds were dug on the island, just for that purpose after Grand turk was first discovere by some Bermudans and then further settled by some Jamiacans.

After walking around Cockburn Town for awhile we caught a taxi back to the ship for $5. per person. We were the first ones picked up by the taxi, and soon realized that the driver aimed to fill every last spot in that 9 passenger van to make the trip worth her while. I certainly can see why they do this, as gas is $8. a gallon on this small island!! After we were all stacked like cordwood in the van we proceeded back to the Visitor Center. We then checked out all the shps near the Visitor Center and walked to Governor's beach and the tip of the island all the way to the left of the Visitor's center before heading back to the ship before sail-away time. :)

 

Next time we will pre-book a scooter, but we still had a fantastic day visiting Grand Turk and exploring it (mostly) by foot!

[Lachase]

We just returned from a cruise and I think our best day was on Grand Turk where we rented a scooter and went off on our own around the island. It was easy to navigate, not a lot of traffic and you could drive the side roads. It was great seeing the natural scenery and we loved getting away from the touristy pre-fab area around the dock or being herded in a group as you are in arranged excursions. I saw signs around noting future tourist developments scheduled and was sad that this island will soon be tainted and lose it's natural flavor and authenticity.