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Rental car in Cabo?

Rdub79

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My family has a week reserved at Hacienda Del Mar last week in feb. This is our first time to the area. Should we look at renting a vehicle for the week? Any suggestions on activities or things we should put on our list to do? Thanks!
 

geist1223

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There are several threads that discuss rental car and Cabo activities.

In February there will be all sorts of whale trips. Also Whale Sharks up at La Paz. All activities will pick you up where you are staying and return you after the activities. There are snorkel trips. The snorkel trips take you to Chileno or Santa Maria. You can drive to these two locations. Also most commercial snorkel trips now require you to wear a flotation device. Kind of hard to go under the water while wearing a flotation device. We take our own snorkel gear. We normally drive to these beaches arriving about 8am. No wind, no waves, no crowds. When all the snorkel boats arrive we get out and eat the meal we brought.There are bathrooms but I recommend taking your own toilet paper. You will need one or two beach umbrellas. You can buy these at many stores. We wear skins when we are at the Beach on on the water. Patti wears a 2 piece one. I wear one that goes from my wrists to my ankles and all parts in between. But remember to keep your feet in the shade or heavy with sun screen. There are several options to swim with the Dolphins. Most are in large pools like Sea World. We prefer the one in the Harbour at San Jose del Cabo. There is riding camels, Zip lining, desert tours in ATV's, etc, etc.

We always rent a car in Cabo. There are some rental firms that advertise less than $10 per day. But then they will not rent you the car unless you pay for Insurance. Which will cost you $300 - $500 per week. You are reimbursing the Rental Company for Insurance they are required to already have by Mexican Law. We normally rent online from Hertz before we go. You decline the Insurance and they move on with the Rental. I recently talked to an Ex Pat. His car insurance for the Year with total coverage is $500 per year. So think of the profit the Insurance companies are making on having the tourist pay for car insurance.
 

mjm1

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We just went to Cabo earlier this month. It was only our second trip there and the first time renting a car. It was very easy to drive. We stayed at Grand Solmar at Lands End, so we’re close to town, but we drove to Todos Santos one day and then to San Jose Del Cabo for the Art Walk. We also made atrip

We rented from Budget online and ended up pre-paying as they discounted it from $248 to $175 for the week, including liability insurance, for an intermediate size car. The discount came when they contacted us about prepaying. We declined the CDW as we use our Chase Sapphire Reserve, which provides that coverage if we charge the rental on it. Budget has a desk close to baggage pickup and had a van to take us to their location, which was about five minutes away. The staff was friendly and everything went smoothly. We would definitely use them again.

Best regards.

Mike
 

oldbuyer

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Your resort location means you will probably need a car rental unless you want to experience the collectivo buses which we do use.
TPL insurance which is mandatory is typically $15/day and it's nearly impossible to BYO liability insurance that they will accept in Mexico. CDW can be covered by a travel CC like Sapphire mentioned above. Resort rentals have an additional concession fee which makes them about $10/day higher vs picking up a car at the airport or in Centro Cabo or Centro San Jose. I just set up 4 one day car rentals for this month at an average cost of $27/day at Enterprise. Alamo has also been reliable for us in the past.
The bus is fun- just go out to the highway and flag down Suber Cabo or Dieserto (big buses). Pay in MXN pesos or the driver keeps the change and a few more for the Forex conversion:). I think the fare is still 36 MXN pesos O/W/person (about $2USD). The little white buses around town are 13 MXN pesos per person O/W.
 

oldbuyer

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Forgot to mention.
If you rent at the airport don't be surprised if they offer you a free car rental-you must attend a TS presentation. Just say no gracias until they give up. If you want to go on a presentation take no less than $300 cash from an airport OPC as they have the highest presentation budget.

Be aware of the refueling scam. No self service in Cabo - they sometimes don't rezero the pump. Only pull up to a pump that you watch them clear it before buying any fuel. Tell them how many pesos you want to buy and no mas por favor.

One more airport scam I've seen. When you return the car they might skim your card number and make several large purchases by the time you leave the car rental place and land at home. Alert your credit card company. I only use one CC for car rentals in case it gets compromised. For everything else I pay cash and in MXN pesos as it saves you about 10% vs USD.

Get your pesos from a BANK ATM as those rates are regulated daily- not at the little atms on the marina or near the bars! Those are privately owned and pay out at any rate the owner chooses.
 

simon63

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I usually arrive at Fiesta Americana (they have an office of National Car Rental), so I rent a car at the airport for 1 day and leave it the next day in my resort without extra cost. Hacienda del mar is next to Fiesta Americana, may be you could leave the car in this office and give a tip for return you to resort.
 

geist1223

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I have done self service gas at many locations - the airport, in San Jose, on the highway to La Paz, etc.
 

easyrider

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We were in Cabo for a couple of weeks in early December and rented a car from Budget. The Canadian redhead lady at the counter put the pressure on to upgrade or buy insurance. We didn't change anything. The liability was included and our Amex was used to protect the car but that redhead lady checked a box that cost us $60 on our two week rental. I explained that we didn't purchase what ever the box was but had to catch a flight so left. Anyway, they got me so heads up. Even with the extra $60 it was only about $300 for two weeks so not too bad.

Bill
 

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toxicesq

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Hacienda del Mar has an on-site rental car rental company called Ten Car Rental (tencarrental.com). It's an independent company that I think may be owned by the owner of HDM. I have rented from them several times and have been very happy with their well kept car and their services. Their price includes all insurance and they have a "No Worries" program that has a 0 deductible for any damage to the car. I didn't really believe it, but the first time I rented from them I had a little incident with the rear quarter panel and they were actually unconcerned. "No Worries." I had to ask them if they wanted to see the damage. I reported the damage to my AMEX auto policy and was told by AMEX that Ten wasn't even responding to them about claim. Never heard another word about it. They have a location at the airport as well as at the timeshare. I generally prefer to take a shuttle to and from the timeshare and rent and return the car onsite to avoid having to transfer luggage at the car rental place.
 

Rdub79

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That is awesome information. Thank you!
 
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