Car hire for family holiday – a few less obvious tips

As a family, we tend to organise our trips on our own. That not only includes booking our own accommodation, flights but also a holiday car hire for the family. This could be the for a short-term rental for one or two days, or for the duration of the whole holiday.

The one exception is the skiing holidays (see our post on skiing holidays with children) that we tend to go on with reputable companies. Crystal Ski being our favourite.

A lot of tourists never even contemplate hiring a car whilst on holidays.

Quite a few maybe would want to, but they are worried about the process or driving in a different country. For us it has never been an issue but I understand the concerns, if you have never done that before.  All I can say, try it once and it might change the way you organise your holidays. You have been warned. For sure we would have not seen all the thing we managed to during our recent holiday in Mexico.

Hiring a car is a relatively straightforward process and well covered everywhere. But if you are travelling with kids (especially young ones) there might be a few less obvious aspects that you might have not considered. Here are some of the things that we have learned and experienced on our trips and wanted to share. Mainly, so that you learn from our mistakes, not your own. ?

Flexibility

I am sure everyone can list many reasons why hiring a car could be a great idea whilst holiday. But there are also some less obvious benefits, especially if you are travelling with young children.

If there is one reason to hire a car on family holidays it must be the flexibility it offers. You can get to the places that you want to see, spend time in some but not the others – with the car you are in control of what you do and how.

Let’s be frank – most organised bus tours are not designed with young children in mind.

We have all been on bus trips organised by our hotel reps. Early starts, late arrivals and being rushed from one place to another. Add lengthy site visits with a tour guide flooding you with every historical detail about the ruins you are visiting. Ideally in full hot sun surrounded by thousands of other tourists. It can be tough for an adult but what about your 4 or 6-year old? They are not only bored to death but also just spotted a playground nearby and now they want to play and become difficult. The group is not going to wait for them. Sounds familiar?

That is why we regularly hire car during family holiday.

You can plan your visit to an interesting place in a way it suits you and the children. Maybe it is better to  get there early or late afternoon avoiding the crowds and mid-day heat. You can spend as much or as little time on site, without worrying about the rest of the group and the guide rushing you. Or simply just sit and enjoy an ice cream or a soft cold drink for as long as you want. Also, you can have your meals at the right time for your kids and in the places that serves the right type of food for you. It is particularly important if you are travelling with food allergies. And on top of that, you can take all the toys and equipment you need with you on the trip to keep the children happy.

What are the key things we take into consideration when hiring the car for family holiday?

Car rental location

OK, it might not be the top factor but it has to be taken into consideration. If you are hiring a car at the airport usually you will find offices in the terminal building and off-airport locations. The latter usually being cheaper. Sound like a no-brainer – why would you want to pay more to get the car in the terminal?

Normally, if you are renting from an off-airport location you will need to take a shuttle bus to the car rental office. It might not sound bad, but if you have two kids, maybe one in a stroller, four suitcases and two car seats on top things are very different. Getting on and off the bus becomes a logistical nightmare. And remember that the bus will stop at other terminals and there will be more people with their luggage getting on-board.

We always give the preference to in-terminal rental locations even if we pay a little more. Of course, if the premium is excessive or there is no alternative we go with off-site rental locations.

If you are staying at a hotel and need a car it is always worth checking if they can deliver and pick up the car from your location. Most of the companies would do it, although some might want to charge you for the service. My recommendation would be, don’t go with the agent located in the hotel lobby but google some in town centres. These do not get as much hotel guest business and are more happy to deliver and collect the vehicle.

 

The right type of car to hire for family holiday

The car you hire for a family holiday needs to be spacious, right? Well that depends. If you travel with young kids, as we do, you need the space but in the right places. The car itself does not have to be big.

First of all, young kids do not need lots of space in the back seats anyway. They need just enough to comfortably fit in. Where you need some space is – the boot. If you are travelling with a buggy or a stroller you need to be sure that you will fit it in, together with any other luggage you might have. The buggy is probably the most challenging item when it comes to packing a car and just keep it in mind.

That is why, we always do some basic research regarding the car categories offered by rental companies. Trip advisor forum is always a good start. If we are not familiar with the make of the car, we would google before making the booking. This will give you an idea on what to expect.

Also contacting the specific office directly to check which cars they offer might help. Hertz, which we use quite often, has a dedicated “family car collection” which typically include the estate types of cars. It might be worth asking about it.

 

Car seats

Travelling with young children in a car means you will need a child car seat. You have only two options here:

• Hire one with a car
• Bring your own one from home

Hiring a car seat together with a car for family holiday is usually the easier option. There is however, few things to remember.

Even if you request a car seat at the time of the booking these are never guaranteed. Just read T&Cs of your rental. Most likely the payment for the car seat will be required at the time of collecting the car. Why? Because it might happen that there will be no car seat available. Unlikely but it might happen. Keep it in mind.

Secondly, the car hire company usually will not fit the car seat for you. They will just hand it in and off you go. In 99% of cases it is not a problem. However, it happened to us that we spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to install the unfamiliar seat. And, of course, the manual was missing. In the end, we had to hire a different car for our family holiday, than originally planned.

Therefore, if you decide to hire a car seat, I would strongly recommend you use one of the larger companies (international or national). They tend to have larger stocks of car seats and more experienced staff.

Bringing your own car seat

We always take our own car seats with us. Almost all the legacy airlines will accept children car seats outside of the normal luggage allowance at no extra cost. If you are travelling with a low-cost airline please make sure you check it as there are no rules. Some will see them as a piece of luggage, some don’t.

Of course, the downside of bringing your own car seat is you have to deal with even more luggage. Remember the shuttle bus you need to get on at the airport to pick up your car?

For quite a while now, we have been using the Trunki Boostapack backpack that also works as a booster car seat. You can find it on our Amazon product list. I can’t recommend it enough. It is small, it is an actual backpack that a child can carry around with their treasures inside and it is dead easy to install as a booster seat.

If you are bringing your own car seat you need to be aware of one important thing. Most of the countries have their own safety certification systems. The best example is that most of the car seats used in Europe have not been certified for use in the US and vice versa. That does not mean that they are not safe. Simply the manufacturer was not planning to sell them in the other market and have not certified them with local authorities.

What does it mean for you? Well, technically your car seat might not be legal in the country you want to drive in. This could become an issue if you are involved in an accident. The insurance company might refuse covering medical costs on these grounds. You need to make your own decisions if you are happy with the potential risk or not.

to sum up…

90% of our trips abroad would involve a car hire for the duration of the holiday. It is a great way of exploring the countries you are visiting at your own pace. It also gives you a better feel for what the local life looks like. And our kids simply love travelling in new cars.

I hope the above, less obvious tips help you to hire the right car for the family holiday and you will enjoy it even more!!!

If you want to share your experience of holiday car hire or have a question please let us know through comment section below.