'tourist' Travel

tourist

I've heard the small local companies are much cheaper than Hertz and other chains, but as they're small I doubt they allow you to drop a car off in another location or any such perks. I can ask around for some names....do you speak Spanish? because I would suspect many of the smaller rental places don't have English speaking staff.

I read here and and almost never post. But I am getting irked to see words like "cheap" and "affordable" all over the place.

Are you looking for a car to get you around for US$20 a day or a luxury vehicle to take you around in style for US$150 a day. I think both prices are "affordable" depending on your needs, desires, and financial status.

It also helps to be more clear where you want to rent and return. The Montevideo Airport? Punta del Este Airport? Montevideo? Punta del Este? Colonia? El Campo?

I can't imagine how so many people are friendly and helpful here with such difficult to answer questions.

"I am coming in January 2009 and want to rent a car for 1 week. My budget is around $25 a day and will pick up the car at the MVD airport and return it there too. Any suggestions?"

Of course, if you mean "cheap" instead of "affordable" then take the bus. You'll find the buses in Uruguay are much nicer than you thought.

Good to see you come out of hiding :)

I'm not easily "irked", but I have to admit it is very difficult to answer very open and vague questions - especially when they include the words "cheap" or "affordable" because these terms are very relative to your financial situation.

Fern I forgot to mention about the buses...depending where you want to go in Uruguay the bus services are for the most part very good. If you want to explore the coast you are better off taking the bus (especially during the summer months as the services are so regular). If you specifically want to go to off-the-beaten-track locations (which in Uruguay really means the middle of nowhere!) then a car is fairly necessary. However Brice is right about fuel prices, its not cheap.....but if this is the type of exploring you want to do then you don't have many other options because the smaller towns of the Interior (the countryside) are not well service.

Here is one expats experience renting a car here in Uruguay, it seems pretty straightforward.

• Exploring Uruguay: Renting a car

In my experience, its nearly always cheaper to spend several hours on line and take a 3 step approach to renting a car. First, find a selection of rental agency price comparison sites (not rental agencies) in order to find a selection of rental agencies which in turn will offer you deal on car rentals in the place where you want to collect it. Whole weeks usually offer a better deal than say 2 weeks and 6 days.

Its a slow and tedious business coz its necessary to read the small print to determine EXACTLY what you're getting with respect to potential insurance excess charges/extra named drivers and the like.

I spent yesterday doing this for by SO who is visiting not-so-merrie England next week. For a 2 week rental price on the same car class from the same car rental company with the same insurance terms varied from 816 U$S to 333 U$S.

I'm not sure how well these price comparison sites would work for Uruguay, most things aren't really online, and as I said to Fern...I think its the tiny local places that offer the best deals in Uruguay.

Before I bought an ROU car, I used to use such means for renting cars from Carrasco airport. I was amazed to find that the best prices usually came from Argus (a Dublin based agency) who had a deal with Europcar in Carrasco but the best deals were not available if you approached either of them directly rather than through a price comparison site :-)

My last Carrasco rental (a VW Gol) cost me 242 U$S for two weeks. Approaching Europcar direct the quote was 414 U$S and approaching Argus direct it was 293 U$S.

As said previously, its a minefield.

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