Do car hire companies in Italy rip off tourists?

 

We have travelled to Italy on numerous occasions and have opted to hire a car on most of these visits. There are Various companies that offer car hire, these include Alamo, Avis, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Europcar, Firefly and Hertz to name a few.

 

 

I have  used price comparison sites such as DoyouItaly, Kayak, Rentalcars.com, Autoeurope and Economybookings to aid my decision. DoyouItaly.com is an Italian business which I have found to have some good deals. When looking at hire company rate's, you need to delve deeper into the specifics, is the car hire company located at the airport premises or off the premises. Do they offer shuttle service to or from airport to hire car offices. This will reduce hassle and stress when you arrive.

 

The question is, is it even worth the hassle and expense of hiring a car, when you could probably catch a train, bus or taxi and therefore avoid the expensive Italian car hire and reduce the hassle of driving in a foreign country. I planned this eventuality into a recent trip to Milan, we had organized to stay outside Verona in Peschiera Del Garda, where we would use a hire car for a week, we aimed to travel back to Bergamo to return the car to reduce stress of using public transport with heavy luggage.

 

After returning the hire car and arriving in Bergamo, we decided to get the bus to our apartment because it would be safe and stress free. The apartment owner had given us instructions regarding the route, bus number and bus stop.  At the airport we asked a bus driver to confirm that the route would take us our destination. He told us yes, but advised to get off the bus at the first stop and get on a different bus, he also helped us by instructing us how to purchase family tickets (family of 4) for two buses  (turns out this was the wrong information). We did get on the bus and stayed on it, without getting off at the first stop, which took us to our correct bus stop. We then bounced our suitcases down cobbled streets, which we later found out was a shortcut to our apartment. Needless to say we booked a taxi on our return journey to the airport.

 

We planned to stay in Bergamo for a few days, whilst  there, we planned to make use of the train service that ran into the center of Milan, unfortunately there was a train strike on the day we decided to go so we were unable to go to Milan that day.

 

So, is car hire a rip off ? It is certainly expensive but if you have a family of four to transport  and depending on the nature of your holiday, I would advise you to book a hire car or use a taxi/shuttle services. It reduces some stress and gives you some independence to explore neighboring towns or cities at your leisure without having to rely on public transport. I haven't had any real bad experiences of taxis or hire cars in Italy and they have always got me to where I want to be on time. If you are confident enough to drive on the right hand side of the road and fancy a bit of independence without relying on Public transport, then this is definitely the way to go.