Renting a Car in Spain

Renting a car while traveling can be one of the best ways of getting around.  It allows the flexibility to go on your own schedule and see exactly what you want to see.

Working for Enterprise Rent-A-Car has its perks.  And renting cars in different countries is definitely one of them.  So, while in Spain, we decided to take advantage and rent a car to drive ourselves around Andalucía!

Our plan was to go from Sevilla to Malaga, stopping in Ronda, Granada and Almeria along the way.  After comparing our transportation options and considering our tight time frame, we decided renting a car was our best option.  We actually saved time AND money by renting a car.

Our road trip began in Sevilla

We stayed at the Ayre Hotel which turned out to be the perfect location.  It is conveniently located right across the Santa Justa train station and is along the road to the airport.  There was an Enterprise at the train station so we were able to easily walk across the street from our hotel to rent our car.

When we first got to Enterprise they were pretty busy and didn’t have our car ready to go.  We had reserved an automatic car as Louise wanted to drive as well since we planned to drive for many hours per day.  But I was excited at the chance to drive a manual car so I told them I’d take any car that was available.

Since this is Europe and automatics are not common, it is usually more expensive to rent one.  However I really wanted to try a manual car in Europe.  The car they gave us was a Citroen.  It was like a Mazda 3 and lots of fun to drive.

 

Driving in the city was pretty easy but very busy

They follow the traffic signals and stay in the lanes, so it was pretty easy to keep with the flow of traffic.  Once we got out of the city the roads were nice, smooth and looked new.

The speed limit within the city was around 40-50 kilometres per hour.  But the highways outside the cities were 100-120 km/h.   At times we did not see anyone on the road so I may have gone a little faster than the speed limit to get us to our destinations quicker.

On the highways if we did see anyone on the road it was usually a big truck like the 18 wheelers.  Luckily there were two lanes so we could easily over-take them.  Other than the few trucks it was beautiful driving in the country.  There were lots of rolling hills and small little towns along side the road.

Driving from Sevilla to Ronda we saw many of the Pueblos Blancos or white cities.  All the buildings were painted the same white colour which looked very awesome when looking from a far distance.

Since Louise didn’t feel confident enough to drive the manual car in a foreign country she had job of radio DJ.  Close to the city there were some good top 40 stations that even played the Weeknd and Bruno Mars.  We didn’t really listen to any of the other Spanish stations but we did listen to our own music when we weren’t able to get any radio signals out in the country.  Luckily our car had bluetooth and she was able to pair both our phones as well as her iPod.

 

When we arrived in Ronda, the streets were very narrow and the bridge was brick so it was a little more interesting driving, avoiding the experienced local drivers and bouncy cobblestone streets.

 

Parking was also a challenge

Some roads were only wide enough for one car, so if someone was leaving, the other had to back out to let the other driver through.  Right in front of our hotel was this sharp turn where it looked like many cars had cut the corner and left some of the car paint.  Luckily our car was not too big and I had the insurance!

I did notice that all the other cars had some paint missing or damages all over the bumpers.

In Sevilla, we ate at a restaurant where the people who parked in front had been completely blocked in by another car.  The car literally had both bumpers touching the car in front of them as well as behind.

We noticed people parking would touch the other cars, give them a little nudge, just so it could fit into the tight parking spots.  And they did it without even worrying about the other car owners being upset that they had just damaged their car.  Parking is hard to come by so fitting in any spot has to come with some collateral damage.

Overall, driving in Southern Spain was very easy and lots of fun

I loved driving the new manual Citroen as I had never driven that type of car before.  The other drivers obey the traffic laws so it’s less scary than some of the other countries we have driven.

One tip on driving in Malaga, where we dropped off the car, is watch out for the speed traps!

We were a few minutes away from the Malaga airport and photo radar took a picture of our license plate and sent us a ticket a few months later.  The ticket was one hundred euros!  We thought it was a scam at first, but found out it was legit and it’s best to pay in case it gave us any issues when entering any European countries again.

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Decided on a road trip around Spain?  You might also be interested in:

San Jose: Southern Spain’s Best Little Secret

The Best Thing I Ate in Spain

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