car rental in st. maarten

[grayhound01]

:rolleyes: has any one rented car in st. Maarten,had a good or bad experience,or should we just make a day of pinel island?

[cruisebabe43]

My friend and I rented a car and she drove over to the French side of the island. It was very inexpensive and a beautiful drive. There are lots of car rental services right to the right as you get off the ship. We went with Hertz, because we had heard of it but I don't know if it was really affiliated with Hertz or not. The car we got was a Toyota Corrolla, brand new (according to them) and it was clean and ran well. The different rental services are very competitive too so you can rent a car for pretty cheap if you get the guys going back and forth with each other. Good luck and Happy Cruising!

[Yeldarb]

We spent the day with Joyce Prince for a really reasonable price she drove us all over the Island. You can find her contact on these boards somewhere. She also has a car rental agency so might be able to hook you up there as well.

 

Cheers,

[AshleyDillo]

:rolleyes: has any one rented car in st. Maarten,had a good or bad experience,or should we just make a day of pinel island?

 

We (my brother,our good friend and I) rented a car for the day when we went to St. Maarten the week after Mother's Day. The car rental place is to the right after you walk through the security gates at the end of the pier. You'll pass all of the tour buses lined up in parking places. All of the rental companies are set up in a row in booths. The two national companies on site are Hertz and Dollar. I did read somewhere that Avis is also there, but they are located elsewhere on the island.

 

What was really entertaining to us was all of the employees calling out to us as we walked up. All of the companies, even the nationals, were screaming that they had the best prices and that all of their competitors had bad cars. We didn't have a reservation and just walked up to the Dollar counter. They quoted us $40/day for an economy car. Expecting it to be way more, we agreed. The total cost after taxes was $61.90. They did change the damage deductible to $500 from the $0 on the standard Dollar form. Had we done a little more research, we would have found out in advance that they will haggle with you on the price. The guys who walked up as we were leaving were quoted $45 for an economy car.

 

The car they gave us was probably 2-3 years old - a Kia with little horsepower, about 25K miles and had a little under a full tank of gas. One of the employees took our friend to pick up the car in another vehicle that didn't have enough room for all 4 of us. My brother and I waited only about 5 minutes for them to come back with the car. Our friend said they drove to someone's house and picked it up from their driveway?!?!!? A little sketchy but everything turned out ok!

 

It was great having the freedom to drive around. We had a map of the island and no destination in mind other than to see both sides. We were able to stop when we wanted to and didn't have to wait on a tour. They drive on the same side of the road as we do in the US.

 

Some people complain about the traffic, but with one lane roads in both directions and heavy pedestrian traffic near the towns it is expected! The roads are curvy and windy and narrow in some places, but it didn't feel dangerous or scary riding around at all. The Kia did bottom out a lot because the roads aren't maintained as well as we are used to.

 

On the French side: Gas is expensive and sold in litres. Fuel is full service. The gas station we were at did take dollars, but the prices were in Euros. I think we paid $18 for a little less than half a tank.

 

There is plenty of parking in downtown Marigot, which is a lot smaller than Phillipsburg. We had little luck finding parking in Phillipsburg, so we didn't get a chance to explore the shops there as it was almost time to get back on our ship. If you're going to drive, I would suggest head for the farthest away place you want to visit and work your way back to the rental car center.

 

We had a blast, and this is the way I like to explore every new place I visit the first time. I'm not a fan of shopping or the beaches, but I wanted to see everything that I read about and pretty much succeeded. The next time I visit, I will definitely rent a car to go explore in depth some of the places that caught my attention this time.

 

[Edited because mileage does not come in dollars...doh!]

[The Big Booper]

There is a municipal lot near the flea market that charges $1.00 per hour. Sometimes the lot appears full but there is a lot of car activity and people are always pulling out. It is 2 blocks from Front Street, aligned with the pier downtown and 1 block from the central traffic light.

 

Free parking is harder to find now that Front Street has banned car parking (and most car traffic also.)

[PSCruiser]

Ashley gave a good account of the car rental situation - don't expect a bunch of new cars like at Orlando airport! Our last rental (i think it was Dollar) was a short walk from the booth, and it was in somebody's back yard! No problems though. BTW, one thing I noticed is that when you get your car gassed, the attendant expects a tip - not like the US.

I wanted to mention that you can get a car reserved for the pier location on the regular Budget website. No credit card needed. I think they are the only one - even the Hertz is evidently a local, not affiliated with the main Hertz network. Going there in August, so I'll see if my reservation is worth any more than the paper its on. One other thing, if you rent a jeep, etc. with the canvas side windows, you may find that some of these are missing, so you may have little security for your in-car items -i.e. don't take any valuables that you don't need or you may have to walk them back to the ship.

[grayhound01]

Thank you all for the info. we will make car res. soon for our july 2 Valor cruise .

[The Big Booper]

We usually use Hertz at the pier. Their parking lot is 2 blocks from the pier gate. We have always gotten a car with 12,000 or less miles from them with a full tank of gas and ready to go. The local Hertz is a franchise owned locally.

 

You can bet your bippy that Hertz International watches it's franchisees. A good name is priceless. Just watch the nonsense that goes on at the pier with the local companies.

[grayhound01]

I used budget online sx3 location (cruise dock) $62.00 with insurance

[yodacruiser]

Would caution on the use of Dollar. While there staff was friendly, there cars were not in good shape. The KIA I rented had a slipping transmission, in addition to having an expired registration (brought to my attention by the local french PD). While at the counter another renter came walking back in after his car broke down after several blocks. However, they were the cheapist deal..............

 

For the pay lot it is in the parking lot of the 12 meter yacht club, from there it is a very short walk to the shopping area, price is $1.00 per hour. There is also a new paved free parking along the salt pond.

 

Have cash (dollars) to fill up the car, they do not acceot credit cards.

 

We did the did the 12 meter yacht race..great fun.

[The Big Booper]

The Hertz cars always appeared close to the name brand low end rentals at US places such as Orlando, etc. in terms of appearance and reliability. Everything worked fine, low miles on the clock and the gas tank was full.

[Canuck Cruzer]

Is it recommended to book in advance or just show up and let them offer a good rate?

 

If I rent a vehicle, I would want to get a soft-top jeep. So I would assume, to book a specific vehcile, it would be best to book ahead.

 

Any thoughts?

[feirlin]

Even though the 'national' companies have the brand name when I was researching rentals for my trip to St.Martin I wasnt impressed. The prices were a bit more than the local guys and the cars were lower categories. I read a lot of reviews on here about Arthurs and contacted him about a rental after seeing a lot of great reviews.

 

For 65 total Arthur was going to rent us a Suzuki Vitara softtop since we are a family of 4 (two young kids) and wanted to 'go topless' as we explored the island.

 

The location is outside the security gates and about a block down. NOTE you will pass through what seems like two gates...the first is the shopping gateway area then you walk past the busses and other cars to the actual gate that leads to the road. Arthurs is located on the road a block down (turn left, an they are on the right in a white building). It took me (a big girl), my boyfriend, and the two kids about 5 minutes to walk there.

 

When we got there Arthur was out waiting for us and was extremely helpful and nice and provided us a great soft top jeep wrangler (a nice surprise upgrade). We were out of his office in 5 minutes and after he took some pictures of us in the jeep with the kids with our camera for us we were out of there.

 

We had a wonderful time cruising around the island in the Jeep with the top down. We did the whole circuit around the island heading in the Simpson bay direction first and ending at Oriental beach for lunch and playtime and swim on the beach before heading back at 4pm. Heading back into town from this direction seems to work really well..traffic wasnt too bad that way (and there were 6 cruise ships there).

 

The only mistake I think we made with the rental car was filling it up with gas when we stopped. We didnt realized things were in litres so it was expensive! And we didnt account for the car being pretty fuel efficient and the island being small. We only used about 1/4 of a tank.. so if you do need gas for your trip around the island..you dont need much!

 

Have fun!

Melissa

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.arthurscarrental.com/newfile.html