Rental cars on St Maarten ??

[MagicMouseketeers]

We are planning on renting a car on St Maarten. Is it best to wait till we get there or reserve one ahead of time ? I have heard that there are quite a few agencies at the dock actively persuing your business and that there is no need to reserve a car in advance. Especially in July since it's low season.

 

[WDWADDICTS]

We just got back from the 5/3 Magic Eastern and rented a car in St Maarten.

There are 4 agencies at the dock. Two I never heard of plus Hertz and Budget.

I reserved Budget about 6 weeks out for a midsize fo $50 for the day.

When we arrived at the dock no one was at Budget, in fact the office looked deserted, Hertz and the other two agencies were open. One guy was hawking cars by showing tattered photos of his cars. He said "Budget no come, they have no cars".

I waited for a while as I was 15 minutes early. I finally gave up on them and went to Hertz and asked if they had a car. They said they did for $65 so I rented one. One $65 car in the hand is better than no $50 car!

They drove us a block to another lot and we got a fairly new Subaru in very good condition.

When we returned the car the Hertz guy told me that Budget had not been at the docks for a month as they overbooked at the airport and took all the cars over there.

 

[shirley 38]

Same thing happened to us. We rented from Adventure and when we got there, they were not there.
I really don't remember who we rented off of but everything went very smoothly.
The big thing is people like to rent the Jeeps so they can keep the top off.
By the way you can haggle with them about price.

 

[MagicMouseketeers]

Thanks for the information. It's sounds like it's best to wait until we get there to rent a car.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

WOW....would LOVE to hear a report on what you thought about driving over there! They are maniacs! I kept my eyes closed most of the time...scarier than the Rockin' Roller Coaster!