One of the challenges of coming home this Christmas is going to be transportation. We're a little bit too old to be bumming our parents' vehicles and using buses or taxis is not going to work at Christmas, especially since I'm likely going to go around the bay to visit my grandparents. So we've decided to rent a car for at least one week while we're home.
Of course, renting a car while back in St. John's kind of sucks as well. We rented a convertible Mustang in California for a week and put about 1,500 miles on it for around $400 (plus gas). It's going to cost a little less than that to rent a compact for a week with a 700 km limit. After that, it's 20 cents a km. Oh, and the cost of gas as well, which is more expensive than California, I think.
How many other places in North America have rental agencies like this? I haven't rented many cars in my time, but I've always had unlimited mileage.
Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions, recommendations, discount codes or whatnot that I might use for booking a car in St. John's? I've already poked around Expedia and Travelocity and wasn't that impressed. I'd like to get it booked sometime soon just on the off chance that they all get booked over the holidays. I also have to figure out if we're going to put more than 700 km on a car in the run of a week. I figure it will be close.
Sadly, we're not getting a fun sports car this time. Kind of useless in Newfoundland in December. God, just don't let it be a KIA. Any car that has a name that can be an acronym for Killed In Action is not something I would feel comfortable driving.
9 comments:
Let me know if you decide to make a night out of it and need a place to stay when you visit the grandparents. The cabin is out there just down the shore.
I always use Budget car rental, always get unlimited mileage and excellent service; e.g. not charging me for a extra day if I bring it back late, etc.
Yeah, we've had good luck with Budget too (and unlimited mileage), when they've got something available. Enterprise have treated us okay as well, although the mileage wasn't unlimited, from my memory of it.
Not sure how long you're going back for... sometimes the monthly rates (usually unlimited kms) are better than rates for a couple of weeks.
Thanks for the advice, everyone. Sadly hotwire.com doesn't work in St. John's. I checked with Budget and the rental deal isn't that great online (about $300 a week) and they have the same mileage limit. Perhaps it's different if you call or visit in person.
Of the ones I've checked, Enterprise is the best. About $210 for a week with unlimited mileage (with the funny clause of a 3000 km cap). So it's what we're leaning towards.
And Colette, I'm sure we can crash with you should we spend the night around the bay, given your husbands deep love of me...
I have found Enterprise and Discount car rental to be the best for me, depending on when and how often you want to rent.
I've always called their reservation system, that way you can "outplay" them, as they would give me a quote and you can compare and sometimes get a discount or upgrade, just because they want to win you as a customer.
Budget usually is more expensive than all others, so is Hertz.
My uncle is visiting from Ontario and he is using Enterprise. He has unlimited mileage, as long as only he drives the car. But, lol, it is a Kia. He despises it. He usually drives an Olds or a Cadillac and hates "foreign" cars so when I saw him pulling in the driveway in a little Kia, turning on the windshield wipers when he tried to turn off the car, I knew he would not be happy. Oh boy was I right.
Guess I won't offer to let you use my KIA Sorento while you're home for christmas......lol.
Enterprise normally has the best rates when we rent.
The Entertainment Books have a lot of coupons for car discounts in them. Free days, % or $ off. We started buying the books when we lived in Vancouver, and now we get the Halifax one. It has a bunch of 2 for 1 coupons for attractions and dining, so if we use it a couple of times each year, it's worth it.
www.entertainment.com
There's 12 Canadian books; no St. John's or Northern Canada though.
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