Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced car rental company out of Cape Town?

Can we get to the sites in Cape Town without a car or should we have one to use there as well? Otherwise I would just need one for the Garden Route/Addo and return.

Are there reasonable shuttle rates to/from the airport to the CBD area?

Do you normally pay the $$$ for the extra coverage/insurance on the daily rate? We normally get a step up from the economy but nothing big/flashy.

thanks for the help!

Alise

I spent ages researching every car hire company that offered cars in Cape Town back in April for my recent May/June trip.

Here's some information/ opinions I formed.

Car hire in SA is bloody expensive!

The cheapest was Tempest but the excess in case of accident was high and they had no option to pay a supplement to reduce that excess. Their prices also rise as availability falls.

Avis offered an option to pay an additional fee (about 60 Rand a day) to reduce the excess in case of damage, theft etc from 9000 Rand down to about 3500 Rand. Their rental was also well priced so this is who we booked with. We had no problems with collection, none with the car itself and none on return in Port Elizabeth. That said, we also rented with Avis from Durban to Johannesburg and the bill was significantly higher than it should have been. I insisted they query it with the Durban office where we collected the car and they reduced it to the previously agreed amount. They never told my why the initial figure was incorrect. On collection ensure that you understand what the costs are and have them write down on the rental agreement what the final bill should be, exclusive of petrol and any damage costs, of course. Check your bill before payment.

It's worth having a car in Cape Town. Although we did use taxis some evenings we mostly drove ourselves and found this very convenient. Unless you're happy to use taxis a lot, self-driving is the easiest option, especially since many attractions are not within the central area of CT but further afield, such as Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Gardens, the Cape of Good Hope, Camps Bay and other coastal villages...

The other option you have is whether to opt for a limit of 200 km/ day (averaged across your entire rental period of course) or unlimited mileage. Your decision will depend, of course, on your intended route and how many days you are spending there. We were quite leisurely and spent 17 days in the area and hence 200km/day would have been sufficient although Avis rentals seem to come with unlimited anyway. But some rental companies offer different prices for the two options.

Good luck!
Kavey

Hello Alise,

In terms of car hire may I suggest that you book this through Tempest Car Hire who presently have excellent rates in town as far as the big name car hirers are concerned. http://www.tempestcarhire.co.za I would only suggest Tempest if you intend travelling outside a radius of 150Km outside of Cape Town in that they have pick up and drop off points outside of Cape Town. Furthermore when you are on the open road, which generally is far from most cities, it is always handy to be involved with a car hire company (like Tempest, Avis, Buget or Hertz) that can swop your vehicle virtually immediately.

If you do not intending travelling out of Cape Town 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.

Hope this all helps.

Enjoy my city and The Garden Route when you visit us.

Selwyn Davidowitz

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

We rented a car with Avis and were very pleased with their service. OK, it wasn't the cheapest but we wanted 1) unlimited mileage
2) full coverage insurance with as little as possible excess.
We got what we asked for (super CDW & super TLW with excess only R 1035) and we paid R 255 per day for a brandnew category A vehicle (excl. local tax, VAT, etc. 14%).
Just go the Avis website www.avis.co.za and see in their 'specials' section what they have on offer right now.

Even in Cape Town we were very glad we had our car. We used it day and night, never felt unsafe on the road or in (well lit) parking areas.

What about finding places to park in the downtown areas? Plenty of parking garages for a nominal fee??? Or will we have to do a lot of creative parking or parallel parking?

Parking lots are everywhere. In downtown CPT there's a very large one in front of the city hall (street named Darling). Also several smaller ones along the main road (Buitengracht M62, very convenient for visiting Bo Kaap area). There are parking attendants to whom you pay the required fee (+ a small tip). In some places parking is by means of a special parking card (this was the case in Stellenbosch). You don't need to buy one, just pay the fee to the parking attendant and he/she will introduce his/her card in the machine for you.
No car park problem in the V&A Waterfront either!
Again, we have never felt unsafe in public parkings. Not during the day, nor at night.