We are planning on renting a car as we leave Capetown to go to the Winelands for four days and the Garden Route for three days. We will be flying back from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg to fly home. Any car company recs and other advice for renting?

I use AutoEurope for my car rentals in South Africa and Namibia. They offer discounted, prepaid car rentals and work through major car rental companies. As of September, in South Africa they were using National Alamo. I have always been happy with them and have not had any problems.

zinfanatic,

I agree with Safarilover that AutoEurope and National Alamo are starting to present a good product in Cape Town however my experience has shown that Tempest Car Hire are also offering good rates as far as the big name car hirers are concerned. http://www.tempestcarhire.co.za. I would only suggest AutoEurope and Tempest if you intend travelling outside a radius of 150Km outside of Cape Town (I.e. outside of the Winelands) in that they have pick up and drop off points outside of Cape Town. While driving in Cape Town 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.

Also remember that we drive on the left-hand side of the road. Our speed limit ranges from 60 km (urban) to 120 km (freeway) per hour, depending on the road. Wearing of seat belts is compulsory and driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious offence. An international driver's license is required to rent cars. It is required that you carry a valid driver's license at all times whilst driving. Petrol (gasoline) is available in main centres and on major routes 24 hours a day.

<b>VERY IMPORTANT:
Petrol (gas) cannot be purchased with a credit card. You have to pay cash for gas (petrol) everywhere.</b>

Hope this helps and that you enjoy your stay in Cape Town and on the Garden Route.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Yes, Selwyn has an excellent point that gasoline cannot be purchased on a credit card, so plan to have about R200 cash for petrol purchases.

However, an international driver's license is NOT required. For the past eight or nine years, I have merely presented my US driver's license which has my photo, my passport, and a credit card. Hertz, Avis, and National Alamo have not asked for an international license.

safarilover,

Oops! It is not only Americans who travel to SA. thus when I speak of an international drivers license I mean the license of your country such as an American license etc.



Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Before leaving the U.S., we rented an automatic intermediate sized car from Hertz that offered the best rate for that size car--better than the local agency that a South African friend had recommended (that rate turned out to be the highest). We had rented that car for the last week of our stay when we would be returning from safari; while we were in Cape Town in late November, at the beginning of our trip,
we decided to rent a car for a couple of days and rented an intermediate manually operated model from Europcar. They had no automatics available. The Hertz rental was for the same price as the automatic. Service on both was just fine.

Make sure that you book before you go especially if a Friday - we did all our car rental bookings eg Jburg, Blomefontein before leaving Oz but not the one from Cape Town as we were not sure of our exact plans. Had a lot of trouble getting a car on the Friday but the desk at the Holiday Inn ended up finding a cancellation. Driving very safe and we had a great time finding our way around - watch the speed limit though - had a very unusual encounter with a policeman that wanted the fine paid on the spot - no paperwork- that was up near Phalabora - we ended up getting it sorted.