T&C: How many days should we rent a car?
 

Hi:

Going to Turks and Caicos and staying at the Royal West Indies mid May. We'll be there for a week and I want to know if we should rent a car for the whole time, or just a portion of our trip.

I've searched the forum and noted that most visitors recommend renting a car. We'll want to go to different beaches, but we're not necessarily "off the beaten" path types. That said, I was thinking that 3 days w/a car should be sufficient? Is that good enough?

Secondly, where should we rent a car from. I've read that if you're going to rent a car it should be a Jeep or other sport utility. Do the major national chains deliver to RWI. Tropical Auto does but I would prefer a better known company.

Thanks for the suggestions in advance!

We rented for 5 of 8 days and that was plenty. There are fewer interesting sites around the island than most of the other places we've visited. Grace Bay (11 miles long) really outshines any other beaches on the island.

The one drive that really requires 4WD is the one to Malcolm's Road Beach. It's a pretty spot and an interesting trip. A small 4WD works best.

Other than that, what you mainly need is a good suspension. The potholes are nasty.

We rented from Scooter Bob's - very nice people, vehicles were somewhat beaten up but that seems to be normal on Provo. They picked us up at Ocean Club West and drove us to their office to get the rental.

You might want to rent early in the week so you can stock up at the IGA (although RWI may run a shuttle there). Even if you don't brave the Malcolm's drive, be sure to visit Blue Hills and check out one of the conch shacks (such as Bugaloo's).

hi mah, i have rented from scooter and provo fun cycles. both were fine. any company should be willing to meet you at the airport or your hotel. my suggestion is that you rent a car to start with. cheaper and some of the roads are kinda rough and the car will be more comfortable. if you decide to go to malcom beach trade for day and get a 4x4. the road to malcolm beach can be very sketchy - read sometimes impassable. but trying is fun too.
other beaches to take a look at are long bay beach, sopadilla bay and taylor bay beach. also i've found that grace bay beach looks quite different from one spot to the next.
remember you may want the car to go to different places for dinner too.

Just returned a week ago from Provo. We stayed at Coral Gardens and did not rent a car. We used cabs to go to dinner at different places. I would recommend renting a car for a day or two to tour around and call cabs for meal excursions. Cabs are expensive but overall still less than renting a car for a week.

Thanks for all of your responses. I think that we'll rent a car for two days and take cabs in the evening for dinner.

We stayed at RWI for two weeks and had a car for one and a jeep for the other.It will almost pay for itself just on restaurants.Just be carefull if you go to Malcom's as we had our car broken into, as were several others.If you go ,just don't lock it and don't leave any valuables in it and they don't seem to bother it.

Cooper:

Does that mean that you think we should rent a vehicle for the whole week of our trip?

Mah,
One thing you should always do when traveling and exactly what you are doing is ask the question, how often and what is needed?

For how often, only you can decide but you'd be amazed how often you'll use it when you have it.

Other things to consider, what's the weekly rate vs just 3 days...many times weekly rate isn't a whole lot more and in fact typically once you've rented for 5 days thats the weekly charge. Next question is do you want to have to map out exactly when you want a car and plan certain days you want to do this or that or perhaps get to the grocery store or do you want a car there all the time so you don't have to even think about it?

I agree with 4wd assessment, for just tooling around Provo you do not need 4wd a regular car is more than adequate...yes there's potholes but nothing any car can't handle.

A good day trip is out the western side of the island, Malcom's beach (Tiki Huts)....you must have 4wd for that trek, other than that no.

Have a great trip.