Renting a car - thoughts?

[lovemylab]

DH and I are considering renting a car while in Antigua. This will be the first time that either of us have ever been there so we are looking for advice from some more veteran cruisers :)

 

If you have rented a car, what was your experience? Would you do it again?

[Snorkel_Girl]

DH and I rented a car in Antigua, in February. There are several rental car agencies available, our rate was approximately $50 USD, plus the $20 USD Antiguan drivers' license. We also decided to get the extra insurance as our regular auto insurance didn't cover rentals in Antigua, I believe it was $20 for full coverage from the rental car company. DH is an excellent driver, but since it was our first time driving on the left we though the extra insurance would be worth it. And believe me, it was! We pulled away from the curb and hit a very low concrete plantar (so low that I didn't see it from the passanger side). Oops! We estimated about $800 damage. The car rental rep was standing right there, she simply checked the damage and told us to have a good day, it was totally covered. No hassles, even when we returned, there was no extra paperwork for us, or anything. Excellent customer service. We simply dropped the car off and went on our way. We chose to fill up the car ourselves, it was under $10 USD.

 

So ... we highly recommend getting the extra insurance if you have never driven on the left before!

 

As for the actual driving experience, we would highly recommend it. There was a lot of traffic in St John, with a lot of 1-way streets that made it pretty confusing to find our way out, but the renal car rep gave us good directions. One you are out of town there are very few cars on the road, you will have no difficulty. The roads are in relatively good condition, we didn't see many large pot holes that some other people have commented on.

 

We drove to Darkwood Beach, Fig Tree Drive, Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, then to Long Bay (same beach as Pineapple Beach Resort). Darkwood Beach was beautiful, it's right beside the highway, and you can look out to sea at the other islands. Parking was never a problem anywhere that we went. Nelson's Dockyard was interesting, but we preferred Shirley Heights, to see the ruins and the spectacular view. Again, driving there was not a problem. There were a lot of goats, however, and we did have to stop a few times to wait for large herds to pass in front of the car.

 

In summary, the only tricky part was finding our way out of (and then back into) St. John. If you have a relatively good sense of direction and aren't afraid of asking for directions, you won't have a problem. You can order an inexpensive map on-line, we found one for $5 USD.

 

Have a great trip!

[texancruzer]

I second pretty much everything Snorklegirl said.

 

We rented from Hertz (booked ahead) and had an almost brand new Suzuki Grand Vitara.... also took extra insurance (we always do). Be sure the car rental rep does a pre-drive check and marks on the rental agreement any nicks, dings, scratches etc on the car that was there before you drove it. They are always supposed to do this - but some "forget" and then it is your scratch, ding etc.

 

We loved Antigua.... we went the opposite direction than Snorklegirl. First to the old church on the hill...you can see it from the harbor then we went over to Long Beach - spent a few hours at the beach. Then drove south to Nelsons Dockyard area but did not stop....then through Fig Tree drive and back over to the west coast and up to St. Johns. We too had purchased a map online for 3.50 so had our route already figured out before.... map included city streets for St. Johns so not too bad getting out of town. Once on the open road there was almost no traffic and altho the roads are two lane and no real shoulders we also did not encounter those pesky potholes others talk about. Dh has driven on the left many many times in many places so not a new thing for him. The only real tricky thing is the roundabouts (think Chevy Chase in Rome in European vacation going around and around near the coliseum). Just remember left going in and left going out. You'll do fine.

[lovemylab]

Thank you so much for your responses. Looks like we will be renting a car in Antigua :D

[figmentdj]

After several months debating scooter vs car rental. It looks like car rental. We'll do scooters on on another island. Now for info:

 

Snorkelgirl, what car rental agency did you use? Contact?

 

texancruzer & snorkelgirl, what map did you get online? website?

 

Thanks for the information.

[texancruzer]

Sorry....dont remember exact website.

 

but if you do a websearch for " Antigua Map " lots of links will come up.

 

There was even one site that had St. Johns streets too.... you can print these out. instead of ordering.

 

Just keep looking around. Do web searches. There is tons of info out there. :)