Lanzarote is a fantastic place to visit and the aim of this guide is to make it easy for you to find good quality, affordable and safe car hire for your stay there. This island has a lot to offer and having a car to get you around is a fantastic idea. Let’s start by looking at some of the reasons that having a hire car in Lanzarote is a good idea.

Why You Should Hire A Car In Lanzarote

When you land at Lanzarote’s Arrecife airport, you will need to get to your hotel or holiday villa. Depending on how you booked your holiday you may or may not have transfers to your ultimate destination included in your package. However, if like many people you booked your own trip using one of the multitude of low cost carriers that fly to the island such as Ryan Air, and then booked a hotel yourself you will probably be left to fend for yourself to find your way to your accommodation.

The first option that many people will go for in this situation is to catch a taxi. This is certainly a convenient way to get to your destination but it can also prove to be very costly. In fact, when you start to look in to the cost of car hire you will see that just for the money that you will save by not having to get an expensive taxi makes hiring a car in Lanzarote a great idea.

So there are the financial considerations, but why else should you think about getting a car in Lanzarote. Well you will probably find that you are staying in one of the resort areas as this is where most of the hotels and complexes are located. While this means that you have everything you need on your doorstep, it also means that everyone else who is visiting the island is staying there as well. It can be crowded, and you can be sure that the beach that is local to where you are staying is going to be overwhelming at some times. By having a hire car at your disposal, you have a method of getting away from the crowds easily. You don’t have to rely on the public transport system or be constrained by tour company schedules. With a hire car in Lanzarote, you can decide to drive to the other side of the island at a moments notice. This flexibility to explore under your own steam, along with the ease and saving of transfers to your accommodation are certainly the main reasons to hire a car in Lanzarote.

We have established that hiring a car in the sunny island of Lanzarote is a great idea, and this is certainly true if you are travelling with a family and have lots of luggage. Now we need to consider your options for getting the absolute best deal on your car hire, so that you have as much money left over for your trip as possible. This is you holiday after all and you want to enjoy yourself the best that you can.

Organising Your Lanzarote Car Hire

If you have been to Lanzarote airport, you will know that there are a lot of car hire companies based there. Due to the competition, this is probably the best place to hire a car from rather than through your rep at your holiday resort. By buying direct from the car hire company rather than going through the middleman at the hotel or tour company you can negotiate and make sure that you are paying the lowest possible prices. If you do go through your holiday company you are paying for the convenience.

The best thing to do, in our opinion, is to sort our your car hire before you even leave home. The reason for this is simple. The Internet has so many powerful comparison sites that you can quickly and easily search through a large amount of car hire quotes to find the best deals for you and your trip. Before you start this search phase there are a few things that you need to think about.

1. What size car do you need?
   The smaller the car you get the cheaper it will be, not only to hire but also for the fuel cost. If you are just travelling as a couple, the smallest car they have will be fine, unless you have a lot of extra gear with you such as golf clubs or windsurfing equipment. The roads in Lanzarote are not too busy, so you will be comfortable enough travelling around in a small vehicle. If you are travelling in a family, especially one with young children you may need more space, so you need to consider and check the amount of boot space on offer in the cars. For those travelling as part of a group, it may seem logical at first to get a couple of cars, but you may find it cheaper to get a minivan. Compare the options, and remember the fewer vehicles that you have, the fewer designated drivers you need.
2. Manual or Automatic?
   In almost all cases Automatics will cost you more money. As there is less traffic, and some hilly roads in Lanzarote, manuals are more fun to drive anyway, however if you are used to driving an automatic this may be a better option for you. This is a personal choice; we just want you to be aware that automatics will cost you more money.
3. What extras do you need?
   If you are traveling with young children you are going to need to hire car seats. Lanzarote is pretty easy to find your way around so you aren’t really going to need satellite navigation. If you have sporting equipment you might way to get a roof rack.
4. What about insurance?
   This is where it starts to get very complicated. We could write thousands of words just on this particular aspect of hiring a car in Lanzarote, so we’ll try and keep it simple. The first thing that you must do is to make sure that you read and understand all the small print before you hire a car. Unfortunately every car hire company uses different terms and conditions so you are going to find that they all word things in slightly different ways. These days, you normally get a standard crash damage waiver (CDW) included in your hire. This means that should you be in an accident, you won’t be liable for the damage to the car. However, check the small print on this. There will almost certainly be a large excess to pay. This is where the options start to kick in. You often get harassed in to paying extra for the excess to be waiver. Your CDW will have a number of exclusions, and will not cover windscreen or tire damage. Again if you want these covered you are going to have to pay more. The key with insurance and financial extras is that you need to read everything, make sure you understand it fully and ask questions if you don’t. This is one of the reasons why sorting your hire in advance is a good idea, to give you time to research these elements.
5. Any other charges?
   These are something to watch out for. Often car hire companies will try and levy additional charges for things such as airport pickup, one-way hire, fuel and cleaning. Make sure that you understand what you will be liable for before you commit. There are literally so many possibilities here it is impossible to list them all. Every company is different so just make sure that you understand all the charges you will have.

By this point you are probably thinking that hiring a car is a complicated business. It’s not too bad, we just want to make sure that you understand everything so that you can get the best possible deal on your Lanzarote car hire. If you don’t understand these things, you are just more likely to find that the car hire costs you more than you expected.

Searching For Best Lanzarote Car Hire Deals

OK, so you’ve established the kind of car that you need and what extras you require. You need to put all of your details in to one of the many car hire comparison sites and see what they give you. The best thing to do is to let the search do the hard work and then you can just analyse the best prices it brings back to pick the car that is best for you. As you can see, we have hammered home in this article several times the need to check the small print, so guess what you will be doing when you get some quote back. Yes, you guessed it, read everything fully.

Once you understand which quote is best for you get it booked. You can often opt to pay for it by credit card now or when you get there. There are positive and negative points to doing it both ways. We recommend that you pay up front, and then you have it easier at the other end as you can just collect the car.

Picking Up Your Hire Car In Lanzarote – What to look for

Whether you book your car hire in advance using our guide above, or arrange you hire once you are in Lanzarote, there are certain things that you need to do when you actually pick up the car. These will protect you both financially and physically, and you should follow our checklist whenever you pick up a hire car, anywhere in the world.

1. Check the bodywork
   A visual check around the car for bumps and scratches should be done before signing any documentation. Take any pictures of abnormalities that you spot.
2. Check the interior
   Again notify the car hire company if anything seems out of order.
3. Check the basic safety
   This means seatbelts, lights, brake lights, windscreen wipers and brakes. It is far better to check these before you drive to the other side of the island and find the lights don’t work. It is also a good opportunity to find out how things work.
4. Note the mileage
   Most car hire agreements come with unlimited mileage, especially on a small island like Lanzarote. However, check the small print!
5. Check the fuel level
   Make sure it corresponds to the hire agreement (whether you are given the car with a full or empty).

If you follow this basic and easy five-point plan you will ensure that you have a safe and enjoyable car hire experience.

This guide was put together by lanzarotecarhire.org to help you understand the ins and outs of hiring a car on the beautiful island of Lanzarote. As you can see it is not only the best way to see the island, but it could actually save you money over airport transfers and there are plenty of cheap Lanzarote car hire options for you to investigate. We will reiterate the fact that you need to make sure that you always check the small print thoroughly before you pay and drive away with the car.

Enjoy Your Lanzarote Holiday

So now you have your hire car it’s time to head to your hotel, villa or resort and get out exploring the island. The car hire company will usually give you a map that will be adequate for most holidaymakers’ needs. This map should also have the emergency contact numbers of the car hire company on it. We recommend that you take advantage of having the car to explore parts of the islands that other tourists can’t reach without a car, but don’t spend you whole time driving around. There are lots of nice bars, restaurants and beaches to enjoy. So follow our advice, sort your car hire in advance, check your car when you get it and you will have a nice relaxing and easy holiday in the beautiful island paradise of Lanzarote. Don’t forget when it comes to Lanzarote car hire or any car hire check the small print!