I recently attempted to reserve a rental car through a Hertz location on Loop Street in Cape Town. I was told that there are no cars at that location and that a car would have to be collected from another location after I showed up with my reservation. This is a bit too much back and forth for me. We are staying at the African Villa in the City Bowl area. Can someone recommend a convenient, international car rental company in this area? I would be most grateful.

Many thanks,

We had a lot of trouble trying to get a car in Cape Town - it was the only place that we had not really pre booked. It was a Friday and all companies were saying sorry all gone. We ended up getting one (good price) at the Holiday Inn - Avis desk - Waterfront location.

We used Budget last fall. They have an office on Strand Street near Buttengracht Street (I think).

Great-thank you for your input. I will look into both.

Best regards,
Lisa

Lisa,

To my knowledge there is no car hire company relatively close to you at African Villa that you can lets say walk to and pick up a car. The closest to my knowledge would be Tempest Car Hire which is on the corner of Wale and Buitengracht Street. With that said why dont you ask African Villa if they dont know who the closest company would be.

Furthermore why dont you rather let the company drop off the vehicle at your place of stay? There could well be a drop off charge however I do believe that this will be worth it considering the location of African Villa which is on quite a steep hill overlooking the city.

Question: Why the insistance of using a so called international company? You would obtain much better prices from small local companies and overall their service will be as good, if not better than the big name companies. If you are going to be travelling outside of lets say a 150 km from Cape Town then I would probably suggest an international company as you could then do car swopping in case of need etc at various branches of the company outside of Cape Town. Generally the smaller companies cannot provide this facility outside of the central Cape Town region.

If the above suggestion suits you then
I would suggest that you use Value Car Hire, http://www.valuecarhire.co.za, as their rates are always the ones to beat in Cape Town and their cars are always in an excellent state. Furthermore their service is attentive, friendly and efficient. All that I know is that as a local Capetonian if I were in need of a car to hire then I would use Value Car Hire.

Just my twopence worth.

Enjoy Cape Town when you visit our great city,

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Thank you for your insights Selwyn. I was in touch with An African Villa. They suggested Around About Cars. AroundAbout has been in touch with a very competetive rate and they will deliver the vehicle to An African Villa. I've decided to book with them.

We leave on Saturday. I can hardly wait!

Best regards,
Lisa