mightyparagon

For those of you who have rented a car in St. Martin, did you pay a port charge? One company's quote included a $15 port charge (separate from taxes and no insurance is mentioned) but this is not listed on any of the other companies' web sites. I'm just trying to compare the bottom line price for the available companies.

Coastal has a port charge. But being able to walk to the rental booth was worth it for me.

And yes, there are $25 cars advertised. But they are little Diahatsu things that I don't trust.

The Fodor's guidebook says to consider getting a one dat car rental in St. Martin for about $25.

 

Has anyone done this? How crazy is driving on the island?

 

We'd like to explore the island, maybe spend some time at a nice beach, and get a good lunch.

Don't get the cheapest car. Go up a grade or so and get one with better safety features. You are only talking about $20 difference anyway.

Returned a couple of weeks ago from a 7 day on the NCL Sun. We made prior arrangements for a car with Coastal (near the dock).

I have to give them a big thumbs up. I was paranoid about the insurance and the huge deductibles. At Coastal I was able to buy enough insurance to get the damage deductible down to $100. The last thing I wanted was to have an accident in another country (and this is two countries!) and get into a mess.

We rented the Hyundai Accent sedan. It was about $45 for the day, and with the extra paranoia insurance it came to $98 (there were 3 of us--so we shared the cost). Also, they don't charge anything on a credit card, they just take an imprint of it, and you get that back after the car is returned. The car was brought to us, and the gentleman walked us around the car (looking for damage), and showed us the spare tire (yes, it had one).

The car was a 2011 with 8600 miles on it. :D The Accent is only a 4 cylinder, but she made it up the hills. We made a tour of the island, picked up a couple of geocaches, had lunch in Marigot, and made it back in one piece. We put gas in it and it was about $9 (after the conversion from guilders). We paid for the car in cash.

My cruisemates also rented from Coastal, but there were about 7 of them. They were supposed to get a van or something, but somehow it wasn't available when they arrived. So Coastal just upgraded them to a Ford Explorer. :)

The roads were challenging in some places. Have to really watch out for poor road conditions. The driving is on the right, like in the US, but things are in KPH, and so is your speedo. There are some narrow streets, and some situations where you will have to "thread the needle" between vehicles. There are roundabouts, too. Some areas have intersections where traffic merges into one lane down a street. My advice: patience and focus for the driver. Don't get all upset at the horns blowing at you--(the locals apparently don't like the tourists ;)), just watch yourself and be polite. You don't own the place; don't drive like you do.

Another thing: I own a Hyundai Accent. I have been driving since 1982 and have driven nearly 200,000 miles in an Accent. I know EXACTLY where it is on the road, and how wide it is. "Threading the needle" for me was no big deal. But if you go from a small car to driving an SUV on the island--well, you are going to need to really understand how big the vehicle is.

There are guys who are used to driving big vehicles and they should not have a problem. Not me. I was glad to have the Accent. I knew where the controls were, how big it was, and what it could do. Big advantage for me.

I was glad I did not have to drive on St. Thomas. That was really crazy. But on St. Maarten it was not as bad as I thought, and if I go again, I might just rent a scooter (yes, I ride).