Do any of you good people have any recommendations for good car hire, without the excessive insurance costs? We have previously picked up a car at the airport, but would be open to suggestions if the books balance in our favour!!!

Thanks all.

The company advertised on the home page are ok. They quote in euros so you need to see how they currently compare with someone like www.holidayautos.com who woll quote in sterling.

The car hire company that advertises on this site are more than ok, they are very good. Good clean reliable cars, good prices, we have been useing then for the past 5 years now and have only had one car we were not that happy about but we able to change it very quickly, that was years ago now.

algarvedriver.com

My only gripe with algarvedriver.com is that they tend to have only one rep working the arrivals hall at the airport. I have also used them a few times and one year I was kept waiting a long time to be sorted with my car. Pretty annoying when all you want to do is chill out by the pool!!

Phil wrote:My only gripe with algarvedriver.com is that they tend to have only one rep working the arrivals hall at the airport. I have also used them a few times and one year I was kept waiting a long time to be sorted with my car. Pretty annoying when all you want to do is chill out by the pool!!

We have had to wait a bit once but the longest wait I had was with Europcar and that involved a massive queue, most of which was outside and it wasn't that warm.

The other thing I'm not happy with YOR (algarvedriver) about is you cannot identify their rep very easily and have to interrupt one of the others to ask. Saying that, it's still a good deal.

I always use Sixt. They are based at the airport, just outside arrivals. Because not many English people use them, there is never more than one person ahead of you in the queue. I am upgraded every time (I hold a Sixt card - available free), the cars are always less than 1 year old with low mileage. When I found a cheaper company last year for my 3 week summer break, they matched the price.

On return it takes only a few minutes to return the car and you are back in the airport building within 60 seconds or so.

Definitely recommend them. Last summer when I arrived at the airport I saw the queues for some of the other car hire places who only had one person working on the desk. When Sixt are busy, they have 4 or more people working to ensure there are no queues.

We use Economy Car Hire. You pay on advance in sterling, and insurance is included in the price. Never had a problem with them.

I have just returned from three weeks in CVO and used www.algarvedriver.com in conjunction with www.Insurance4carhire.com and it worked like a dream. If you add in a little complication like we changed cars three times because we needed different size vehicles as our friends arrived and departed. All I can say is well done Steen, a good job for personally making it happen.

Agreed about identifying the YOR rep - he is never very obvious - I normally only spot him because I recognise him but for new clients it must be very annoying - Perhaps Steen could have a word / buy him a big carvoeiro.com T-shirt or something?