Car Rentals

[Beachbum1944]

Looking to rent a car for the day. Does anyone know any car rental places?

[MisterBill99]

I've always rented from Hertz - https://hertz.sxmrentacar.com. Last time I tried renting from a guy who I had read positive reviews of on CC. Got there and the guy had misplaced my reservation (he wrote it on his desk pad) and did not have a car for me! He had me go to another place and I felt like I was getting ripped off.  Walked over to Hertz and they took care of me.

 

BTW I think your signature is broken. I see

"[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Paul & MaryAnn:cool:"

Edited December 13, 2018 by MisterBill99

[thing]

We are spending a week on the island and have reserved with Kennys car rental.  Leslie is the manager and after doing a little research it, he comes highly recommended.    

I have spent a week or so on many different islands in the Caribbean and always rent with local companies.   The service is always better, much more personal and accommodating. 

Edited December 13, 2018 by thing

[SnorkelAway]

Unless something has changed, Kennys does not rent at pier.  When on island off a cruise ship, I have used Rodael - they do a good job.  http://rodaelcarrental.com/

[MisterBill99]

1 hour ago, thing said:

I have spent a week or so on many different islands in the Caribbean and always rent with local companies.   The service is always better, much more personal and accommodating. 

 

I'm pretty sure that the Hertz in SXM is locally owned and I've never had a problem there. Like I said, the one time I tried to rent from a real local place, they didn't have the car for me, plus I had to walk further since they were outside the gate while Hertz was inside.  Obviously YMMV.

[highcorral25]

I was on RCI Freedom of the Seas and stopped in St. Maarten on Sat Feb 2, 2019.  There were four of us and we wanted to go the French side of the island.

 

It was chaotic trying to get a taxi specifically to Marigot (there were 4 cruise ships in port that day) and I suggested renting a car.

 

There is Hertz and Coastal (next to each other) nearby the taxis, a very short walk from the cruise terminal.  Hertz had no cars available.  Coastal only had 2 and 4 door jeeps left.  We rented a 2 door jeep for the day for $138 (total).  It was clean, in good shape, and an excellent way to get around the island see the sites.

 

First stop was the Sunset Bar at Maho Beach.  There is gated parking which is extremely convenient and the bar validates the parking so there is no cost.

 

Next we drove to Marigot on the French side to get passport stamps, but unfortunately they stopped doing this.

 

After that we drove around the island stopping occasionally.  It was leisurely and I would gladly do this again.

 

If you are considering renting, I recommend getting there as soon as possible or making a reservation well in advance to ensure you get a vehicle.  They have small 4-doors for half the cost of the jeeps but they were already rented.

 

 

[MisterBill99]

1 hour ago, highcorral25 said:

 

 

There is Hertz and Coastal (next to each other) nearby the taxis, a very short walk from the cruise terminal.  Hertz had no cars available.  Coastal only had 2 and 4 door jeeps left.  We rented a 2 door jeep for the day for $138 (total).  It was clean, in good shape, and an excellent way to get around the island see the sites.

 

 

We were in SXM a couple of weeks ago. I had a car reserved from Hertz, a Corolla for $55 plus taxes. When I showed up, I was told that me they had upgraded me to a 4 door Jeep. This worked well since there were 4 of us and one of the passengers was large and while he was going to fit into the Corolla, the Jeep was a better fit (although it was the first time I had ever driven one, I don't even have an SUV). I paid for the $12 insurance (I don't normally but didn't want to deal with a potential foreign rental insurance claim on my credit card) and it came to around $80 including all taxes. The last time I rented from them, they were offering GPS's for $5 a day. This time they did not, but found one in a bin that gave it to me. It was a very old 3" model but it was good enough to get me around the island. The other option was turning on my cell phone for the day for $10 to use Google Maps. The rental places were not busy when we got there at 9:30, even though there were 5 ships in port.

 

We had a great time, went over to the French side to survey the damage from the hurricane The other couple who went with us had rented an apartment in Grand Case the year before the store and wanted to see how the town had fared. Then we went over to Marigot and walked around. We didn't get to Maho (again) because I was afraid of getting stuck in the Philipsburg traffic.