Rent a car in Croatia
By Renting a car in Croatia, has become quite popular and quite cheap over the last year, actually so much that there was a lack of cars in the summer months last year, a friend of mine who is working as a fleet manager for a car rental company told me reason why.
Do to the crises in 2008 early bookings for cars was low for the last seasons, so many car rental companies have less cars avalible, according to my friend most car rental companies have lowered their fleet size by up to 40% today compared to 2008.
According to him, car rental companies will in 2013, order same number of cars as 2012, which means there could be to few in the main season this year also, so if you are planning renting a car in Croatia in June, July or August, you might not want to wait to long before you do your booking.
Some general information about renting a car in Croatia:
Cars can be rented in all airports and in all major cities and tourist resort. Most companies offer option to pick up and return car in different locations.
On most of the island, like Vis, Brac, Hvar, Korcula etc you have car rental companies situated in the ferry harbour very you arrive on the island. Cars are relatively expensive on the island, so I might be cheaper renting it on the main land, even if you pay for the ferry transfer, not all car rental companies allow you to bring the car to the Islands so remember to check this before renting.
This is a general tips (not only related to Croatia) which has helped me a few times, I always take picture of the car with my digital camera, if possible I always makes sure that the guy from the car rental company Is on the pictures, in this case you can avoid many discussion about damages to the car.
Best company to rent car:
Well from my experience such thing as a best car rental company does not exist, during the years here in Croatia, we have rented cars from most of the larger companies, and we have had both good and bad experiences, in majority of case we had absolutely no problem and everything was 100% like agreed.
I normally start looking (Normally also book) for rent a car here (click on banner), where you find offers from most of the car rental companies present in Croatia.
After following discussion about car rental companies in forums and on other blogs, I see that my experience seams to be quite similar to what others also have experienced.
If you have any experience or good tips about car rental here in Croatia, you are more then welcome to leave a comment so that other readers can benefit from this information also.
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Hi re rental cars .
When we rent the car (in Croatia) do we have to declare we are going to go into Montenegro and Bosnia??
Friends of mine ran into this problem . Or is it just another scam?
Thanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew, well i know that most companies require that you inform that you will take car to Bosnia or Montenegro, i also know that several rental companies charge extra for going there, so ask when you rent what rules / prices the have if you also go to BIH and Montenegro with the car.
Morten
Arghh! Everything is so confusing. We are seasoned travelers and have been to Croatia once, but have so little time to research and US dollar keeps fluctuating.
We arrive at Split airport 17 September and depart from same airport 27 September. We will base out of Trogir for 5 days, then travel to to other parts of Croatia. My husband wants an automatic transmission car, but small is OK.
Which car agency will offer us best deal?
Your web site is terrific!!!!!!!!
Thanks for any help.
If you respond to xxxxx that would be helpful as we manage a small B&B in French Quarter New Orleans and have so many guests and emails to respond to, I can’t keep up with going back to blogs to check responses (It’s a ‘mom and pop’ run place and I am the only one who knows how to type or do emails).
Hi there !
We were thinking about driving a rented car from dubrovnik to split in Aug and was wanting to leave the hire car parked in split for the three days we were there then drive it back down again.
We thought about dropping it off in split except it would be more expensive as they have one way fees.
Do you know of anywhere we could park our car….possibly for free???
Would love reply back thanks !
Frances
Hi Frances, there are one relative large parking next to ACI marina other alternative is to go to private living areas, also there is some larger supermarketparkings which could be an option, i although do not know what happens if you leave car for several days. Farily close to centre there are payed parkings for 3 kuna / hour (nights free) which mean you would maybe would have to pay a total of 20 Euro for 3 days parking.
Morten
Hi there,
Thanks a lot for your comments !
I’ve got a question…
Some international rent a car companies don’t want to make an insurance if you go with a car on ferries… Since I want to go to Cres, Losinj, I need a car (we make a +/- 25h travel during 2 weeks).
Do you by chance know a compagny (local I suppose) accepting ferries travels with a rented car ?
Thanks a lot !
Philippe
Hi Philippe
I never heard about not allowing rented cars on ferries before, which company told you that?
If this is a general rule, i would also not be abel to help you with any companies from Split.
Best,
Morten
Thanks for your quick answer !
So… Autoeurope is NO. VIP neither. Here is a part of their answer :
“We’ve Tie-Ups with many Rental-Car Suppliers round the Globe like HERTZ, Alamo, Budget, Dollar, Fox, AVIS, GM Car-Fleet, etc, and the Terms and Conditions vary from Supplier to Supplier.
Some Suppliers/Partners Allow Travel by Ferry with the Car, and some do not [as you are aware of the Fact].
However, the Permission to visit the Locations you’ve mentioned is Not Allowed by our Partners, ”
The locations mentioned were Cres / Losinj…
BUT I’m still waiting an answer from Economy car rental. They accept (general conditions) at a good price (+/-26€/day all insurances included) BUT according to the local partner COULD over bill the ferry use….
😉
Another local compagny (rentacarsplit.net) accepts without problems but at a much higher rate…
Not easy 🙂
Hi Phil,
that sounds very interesting, i have lots of travellers contacting me regarding going to the island, but i never heard about this before, ones i have time i will investigate the issue and publish some information about this, me feeling is that many people are not even asking if they are allowed to take the rentet car to the island or not, they just assume they can do it as it is in the same country.
Thanks for all the information.
Best, Morten
Hello! This seems like a nice place to ask, and I am glad I’ve found it, cause I need some rental car companies recommendations. What are your experiences so far? I got a reference from my cousin for some cheap travel rentals
I realise there wasn’t any comments for the last two years, but still hoping to get some answers! Thank you very much in advance.
Hi Valeria,
check if you can find something here.
Best