Heading on holiday? Beware expensive car hire!

Bags packed? Check. Flight booked and passport found? Check. Hire car sorted out? Almost… Hiring a car on holiday is an essential for many travellers. But finding a good deal on car hire can be difficult. The cost of car hire is different depending on the destination, but also depending on the package you choose. If you’re hiring a car in Florida, look forward to the cheapest costs out of all holiday destinations. But watch out if you are driving a hire car in Norway – picking up a rental from Oslo Airport was the most expensive destination for holiday car hire, according to a recent report from the Post Office.

Cost of car hire abroad

The average cost of hiring a car for a week in Florida was calculated as £165, which included the cost of the basic hire for the week, a tank of unleaded petrol, and two extras. Florida car hire was cheaper than other destinations because the hire rates here include excess waiver insurance, whereas at other destinations you must buy it as an extra. The cheapest European destinations in the survey turned out to be Bulgaria, Malta, Corfu and Crete.

The most expensive destinations for hiring a car, according to the Post Office, were Norway (the most expensive) Italy, and Switzerland. A Norway car hire deal cost on average £520, according to the report, while car hire in Italy was £491.

Searching for car hire deals

If these prices leave you worried, be sure to search out good deals online. Leaving car hire to the last minute is a bad idea because you generally have little choice over what you can buy. Take some time to research deals online, comparing prices. Remember that it is not always the best option to buy the basic package to try to save money. For example, if you skip excess waiver insurance you could end up paying a lot of money on the excess fee if the car is damaged in an accident or stolen.

Check to see what extras are included in the price of rental and if you can trim the cost of car hire anywhere. You could take your own sat-nav system, for example, rather than hiring it from the car hire company. Or you could use your own booster seats for the children.

How to save money

Beware of cheap aluguer de automóveis deals that actually turn out to be more expensive at the end of the day. If you hire a car from the city rather than the airport, for instance, you could end up paying more in transport costs to the city than you save on the cost of picking the car up from the airport. You may not always be able to cut the cost of car hire – you don’t want to miss out on a cheap holiday in Norway, for example, just because car rental is more expensive there – but you can cut down unnecessary costs by shopping around and by eliminating inessential extras from the car hire package.