Car hire in Spain – hints and tips on car hire at Valencia Airport
Compare prices - Find cheap car hire in Valencia Airport
Valencia Airport - VLC is in the top ten of Spain’s busiest airports.
The historical city of Valencia, founded over 2100 years ago, is the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona with a population of 800.000. If you add the whole metropolitan area together the population rises to 2.3 million.
Valencia airport is also called Manises Airport and is called so after the area where it is located. Manises Airport is a little smaller than the nearby Alicante Airport which has more direct flights to the UK
At Valencia Airport you will find the following car hire companies: Avis Rent-A-Car, Hertz, Europcar, Atesa, Goldcar, Centauro Rent-A-Car, Auriga Crown, Furgo Car, PepeCar amongst others.
Some of the hire companies at Valencia airport have got a representative who will turn up at the airport and deliver the car to you in person. It is mostly the budget hire companies who operate in that manner. The cars are however usually totally compatible to the standard of car you would receive from the internationally known car rental brands (Avis, Hertz etc.) which are usually run on a franchise basis by a local firm.
Around Valencia – parking and driving in a hire car in Spain
Valencia Airport is called Aeropuerto de Valencia in Spanish. The Metro connection from Valencia Manises Airport is definitely worth considering if you are just visiting Valencia for a day or two. See Map of Valencia Metro.
There are good parking facilities in Valencia if you chose to hire a car from the airport. There are many underground car parks, for example at the Plaza de la Reina in the city centre. You can also usually park under the many El Corte Ingles department stores in Valencia.
You can easily find yourself stuck in traffic when there are big events on in Valencia. The Formula 1 Grand Prix is a good example of this, and you are almost certain to encounter some congestion if travelling around Valencia in a hire car during the event.
The old part of the city is not vast and is easiest to navigate on foot – see map of Valencia centre. There are however massive benefits in having a hire car if venturing outside of the city centre of Valencia.
Here is an overview of Spanish towns and regions.
Motorways in the area around Valencia in Spain
Valencia Airport – VLC is about 5 miles west of the congestion hot spot in between the Autovia A-3 heading west to Madrid, the A-7/AP-7 (coast road) to Barcelona going northbound and the AP-7/E-15 along the coast travelling southbound along with the A-7 going south-west via Sierra Mariola.
The A-7 motorway in Spain (Autovia A-7) is the longest domestic motorway in Europe and stretches from the French border north of Barcelona, along the Spanish east coast to Gibraltar (city of Algeciras)
It is worth mentioning that there are two types of motorways in Spain: Autovias and Autopistas. Autopistas are designed as transnational main transport routes whilst the Autovias usually connect smaller towns and cities and can therefore have quite a few twists and turns. The Autopista and Autovia motorways sometimes overlap each other in Spain. On the southbound route by Valencia the Autopista motorway is called E015.
Autopistas such as the AP-7 by Valencia are often toll roads whilst the Autovias such as the A-7 by Valencia are free to utilise. When hiring a car in Spain you can expect the Autopista motorways (indicated by AP and a number) to be newer, safer and with better services than the Autovias.
See overview of motorway network in the Valencia metropolitan area.
Spain car hire at Valencia airport - hints and tips
It is often quite cheap to hire a car at Valencia airport.
The smallest group of hire car is often available starting around £45 for a week’s car hire in Spain. Most of the time, it is even possible to hire a car from the class above at the same rate as the smallest group. When hiring a car in Spain from this group you are often provided with a Seat Ibiza or Ford Fiesta. It is usually possible to hire an MPV (VW Touran, Vauxhall Zafira etc) for around £175 for a week’s car hire in Valencia.
If you are lucky you may even be able to find larger minibuses seating up to 9 people at around £265 for a week’s Spanish car hire at Valencia airport.
As always when it comes to hiring a car in Spain, the top tip is to book it well in advance to receive the best rates. It is not unusual for car hire prices to double at tourist destinations such as Alicante and Valencia during the peak of the tourist season in July and August, so make sure you get your booking in early.
When searching for mini bus hire in Valencia in April 2011 for use in July the price was already at £495 for a week.
Car hire in Spain – terms and conditions
There can be a huge difference in car hire terms and conditions in Spain.
All vehicles are comprehensively insured as dictated by law, but some hire companies offer a very low excess, some even none at all. Others may include an excess of €1500 or more for theft and/or accidental damage.
You can read more about the specific terms of your car hire in Spain in the ‘rate details’ of your Cartrawler hire quote. You can take out a collision damage waiver which is an excess insurance for about £5 per day if the excess quoted is very high. It is worth noting that some damage is still the responsibility of the customer..
The terms regarding petrol are also very different from one firm to the other. You will often receive a bill for a full tank of petrol/diesel when collecting the hire car in Spain. When delivering the hire car in Spain it is sometimes best to leave the tank as empty as possible as you will not get a refund of the payment you made on collection. There can be a massive difference in the terms and conditions – read more about this under the ‘price details’ of the car hire quote for Spain in Cartrawler.
Flying to Valencia Airport in Spain from the UK
There are cheap flights available to Valencia flying with either easyJet from London Gatwick or Ryanair from London Stansted. Valenzia also benefits from an excellent selection of domestic services.
