Mochi7

Family of 3 (with a toddler) is planning a day trip to Anguilla from Marigot via Ferry. Our preference is to rent a car there, but it does not look like we can do so at Blowing Point in Anguilla.

For a day trip, should we just take a taxi to places we want to go?

TIA.

RoamsAround

It's much easier to take a taxi (plenty will be meeting the ferry). You can hire the driver for the day at a price that is not much more than a rental car and you won't have to worry about driving around an unfamilar island.

TPAYT

IMO, I'd take a taxi to Shoal Bay East and rent a chair on the beach.

Anguilla has gorgeous beaches, but not much in the way of sightseeing. With a toddler I'd go to Uncle Ernie's, Gwen's, etc. and just be on that beautiful beach for the day.

elisemf

There is a restaurant right at Blowing Point, the ferry dock, I am pretty sure it is called Andy's. You can rent a car there. Last I was there (mid Dec) it was $35/day, $5 for insurance, which is optional, and an additional $20 for an Anguilla Drivers License, which is required.

Mochi7

Great. We'll look for Andy's. If that does not work out, we'll take a taxi.

Thanks for your help!

Mochi7

Update:
We went to Anguilla last Tuesday. Thanks elisemf - at Blowing Point we rented a car from Andy of Mitchell's Car Rental (same price quoted - registered at one of the bars there). I think this is the same guy.

Having a car allowed us to tour the island – we started at Shoal Bay (East). The surf was high on that day and we didn’t feel safe for our toddler, so we drove to west. We tried Sandy Ground, Shoal Bay West, Rendezvous Bay and we ended up at Meads Bay. We had a leisurely lunch at Straw Hat (recently moved from Forest Bay to this location) at Frangipani Beach Resort and enjoyed the beach afterwards. Straw Hat’s owner Peter was very accommodating and we felt comfortable there.

All in all, we were glad that we had our own car to explore the island. Andy is a friendly guy and is eager to make recommendation of beaches based on the day’s weather/surf. His car is fine for one-day rental, but if we were renting a car more than one day we would go for regular car rental agency. It seems that well-used cars in Japan end up in British ruled islands which also drive on the left.

Shoal Bay (East) was nice – its contrasting color of turquoise color ocean and bone-white sand is striking. Perhaps our expectation was too high for the beach – it was nice but we did not get the all the hype about this beach though....

rosvold

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Andy (Car Rental at Blowing Rock) via phone, email -anything?

Sor123

It looks like only us being unlucky with Andy. We E-mailed him a car rental request a few days earlier being on a 2 weeks’ vacation in St. Martin and wanted to visit Anguilla. He responded promptly and we had the car not as described in his website. It was a Nissan, small car with the wheel on right side. We asked for a left side car available and he provided a dirty Jeep for 5 dollars less than regular rate as posted on his website. Being the only one car available we took it and drove to Shoal Bay East directly from Blowpoint . That makes approx. 13 km. Then enjoyed all day on the beach and returned around 5:15 pm to catch the ferry back to St. Martin. Nobody was available at Blowpoint where Andy has a “hut” located 25 meters west from the pier. We have been advised by existent taxi drivers to drop the car in the same spot as found in the morning with the keys on . As we did. At the return time we stopped and put one gallon of gasoline in the car considering that will be enough for those 26 km driven. But was not. Next day Andy sent an Email to inform that he charged 21 more dollars for extra gas (three more gallons) stating that his Jeep is a 6 cylinders and burns a lot of gas and the tank was not full even after 3 more gallons which he refill the tank. We responded with the receipt number but never received again an answer from this " good" guy.
We have all pictures for the car and the dash mileage completed by that day but the charge on our credit card was found when arrived back in Canada.
We do not recommend this person and we will never do this again considering that we saved a few bucks for the rental but being overcharged for never used fuel. We recommend anyone to use the official rental car companies available in the island and not the private guys like Andy.