Things are shaping up so that it looks like we're arriving in Spain at Algeciras on a Sunday. We're only in Spain for a few days, as it's not the main focus of our trip.

What this means is that our plan for getting a car at the docks and seeing some white towns, eventually dropping in Granada is a problem, - all of the car rental agencies within easy reach of Algeciras are closed on Sundays. Foiled! Then we thought we'd just catch a train to Ronda, which seems easy enough... see Ronda on foot on Sunday and then pick up a car on the Monday and do a day trip type loop out to Arcos and back, with other towns along the way. The next day we'll catch the train on to Granada

Except Ronda doesn't appear to have any rental locations listed with any of the majors. A bus or train to Malaga or Granada to pick one up seems like it would eat up most of the day. Does anyone know of any sort of local places around Ronda that we could pick up a car for the day? Or some other way to hit some of the "best of" the white towns and get back that day?

Thanks!

I haven't thought through all the logistics or checked the facts as of writing, but would it make sense to go straight to say, Malaga airport (where I can't believe the depot would be closed, even on Sunday) - i.e., bus Algeciras to Malaga, cab or air-train out to airport, - there to pick up the car and drive to Ronda?

PS Hope I was able to help a fellow Beach Boys fan....

Sorry, I was assuming that when you were considering Malaga as a depot in your post, you were doing so coming from Ronda, not Algeciras. But if you got that far, you probably already thought of the option of picking up in AGA straight from Algeciras. In any case I note the times are tricky unless your ferry arrives very early on the Sunday....there are only two buses from Algeciras to Malaga it seems, one at 08:15 arriving 11:15, the other later in the day around 15:00 arriving 18:00. The first bus would at least allow you to pick up at the airport around noon, such that you would arrive in Ronda mid-afternoon.

to check out the costs and feasibility of what you want to do, check out the following link:
http://destinia.com/car/en

Hertz offers "availabilty on request"
for after hours or Sunday rental out of their Algeciras office. This should be done through a Hertz reservation center.
You could check.
I am sure you can drop it in Granada,
I am also sure you will have to pay for the services, but it will certanly be better than bus+rental in Marbella or Malaga.

Thanks everyone. The trickiest part of this, in terms of catching a number of connections, or choosing a meeting time for special arrangements, I think, is going to be the unpredictable lead-in on the Morocco side that day. Buses, connections and some distance before we get to Tangier for the ferry. Hopefully we can figure out a way to choose something other than a Sunday.. the destinia site seemed promising, but seemed to lead to Alamo (I think) and then the Alamo website said the Algeciras location was closed. Kind of thinking that it may just be easier to train to Ronda and hang out, then figure it out on the Monday. Malaga might be it then. I was mostly hoping someone might know of a local that rented at a day rate like you see sometime. But maybe not.

Would hate to miss the classic white towns, but I suppose there's plenty to see that's reachable by train nearby if we can't work out a car without devoting half a day to getting it! I do appreciate everyone's thoughts. Thanks.

We were told that Hertz would deliver on demand in France and believe me, they DID NOT, and it almost ruined our trip! I would highly advise not trusting Hertz. Check out Autoeurope.com--I believe they have an 800 number that could help if the website doesn't give enough information. Good luck.

Thanks artlover. That's exactly what I'd be concerned about, along with not being absolutely positive when we could be there. I could see a missed meeting being "our fault", due to the unpredictability of getting there, and it wouldn't be untrue.

We like Autoeurope too. They were the original plan with this trip. I even researched to see if they had an agreement with a company in Morocco too for a different segment of the trip, but unfortunately they don't. I like the way those guys do business. If it weren't for the Sunday issue and all the Sunday pickup locations being hours from our port of entry in Spain, I'd use them for sure.

I think Alamo in Algeciras may actually be open. I'd tried our Sunday in April and got "Alamo does not have a rental facility at the location you requested". But I just started playing around with dates to see what they're rates were in general and discovered that Sundays this month were working and kept working through the end of March. I think they just haven't loaded rates past the end of March and it's causing a message that looks a little like some of the other sites warnings about being closed. Still unfortunately, Alamo isn't brokered by Autoeurope or Nova, but at least it appears that they have an office to walk into and a counter to lean on when we do get there. That way we don't feel like we have to scramble to meet someone on a street corner or a port station bench (we've done that in airports, but then the person can at least see if you're delayed).

Anyway - thanks to all and hopefully useful to others coming in this way on a weekend.

Autoeurope is great here in Spain and I have found them to be very reliable.

I also have been very pleased with Auto Europe when I booked in advance in the States.

I've always been pleased with Autoeurope too. If plans change and we arrive when one of their locations is open, we will definitely use them again.

Have you tried looking at www.argusrentals.com and using "Algeciras Port" as the pick-up point?

According to that site there are rentals available on Sundays.

You know, I never thought of Argus for some reason. That's who we've always rented from in Ireland (where they're the rental company itself). At some point I'd heard that they'd started brokering for other companies outside of Ireland too. I even get emails from the people from time to time and I never even thought of them. Thanks Dukey, I really appreciate that and feel a little silly for missing it!

Just returned from a trip to Ronda and Sevilla (flying into and out of Malaga) -- all without a car!

We used the Skybus Spain service to pick us up at the Malaga airport and drive us the 1 1/2 hours or so to Ronda. We had an excellent Brit driver who actually acted as somewhat of a tour guide pointing of the history and interesting sites of the region. We were in a comfortable Mercedes mini-van (people mover), and for us, it was a great way to go. I can highly recommend them.

Our driver mentioned that they also can do day tours (he's taken people from Ronda to Setenil, a small white town nearby, on the way to Sevilla, as an example) so they might be an option for you. Just call or email them ahead of time with where you want to go and they'll give you a quote.

www.skybusspain.com

Also, once in Ronda, you do not need or really want a car. We walked everywhere -- including our 5 and 6 year olds!

Have a fun trip!

Thanks Susan for the additional input. I was looking at the site and they do seem to specialize in making your arrival as simple as possible.

We do tend to travel fairly independantly and on our own though. Not sure why that feels right for us, just always has. I think maybe it's because it makes us figure out how things work and leads us to work with local people as we go. Or we could just be stubborn too, for that matter. It's been a rarity so far for us to use private arranged services. Airport transfers sometime.

We'll be coming out of 3 weeks in Morocco, self-drive + local buses and such. Again, too stubborn, I guess, to accept that we'll want a guide. So anyway, we're hoping that in comparison, Spain is fairly easy to handle in our usual style and that we can treat our few days in Andalucia as sort of a relaxed Sunday drive (literally this time as it turns out).

I'll keep the site on file though - it may well come in handy, as things often don't work out as we'd thought they might.

How about driving to Granda and dropping it there? the office there should be open on a Monday!

annhig - actually, Granada is where we are hoping to drop it off later in the week. We'll then fly out from Granada after staying a couple of days there. We'd just been having trouble finding where to pick it up near the port on a Sunday.

autoeurope can arrange a pickup even when no locations are open, there motto is never say no. they will do anything, a lot of stuff most rental agencies wont consider, and they will guarantee the lowest rates, call 24/7 1-800-223-5555 i guarantee they will get what you want when you want

Sorry - misunderstood your original question. If you arrive late in Algerciras, why not stay the night and pick upi early in the morning?