With so many car rental companies to choose from, the best place to look for a car rental in Spain is on an aggregator site. These include all the major car rental companies, including Hertz, Budget, National, and Alamo, and show the prices of several different classes of cars in one easy-to-read table.
Is it practical to rent a car in Spain?
Renting a car in Spain will never be your cheapest option, but it could be the most convenient. The basic rental will cost more than your train or bus ticket, plus you’ll pay for tolls and gas.
Renting a car is essential if you want to explore some of the more difficult to reach regions, such as the Alpujarras, the Rías Bajas (west of Santiago de Compostela) or the region around Cádiz and Tarifa.
However, if you are staying in the big cities of Spain, renting a car is a bad idea. For starters, parking in most of the big cities in Spain is a nightmare. A trip that would normally take 15 minutes by car often takes twice as long as when looking for a parking space. Another problem is the traffic: it is a well known fact that you can see traffic jams in Madrid at 5am!
Also, if a city is large enough for a car to be useful, it will have a subway system. Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao have a metro and one is currently being built in Seville. Cities that don’t have a metro system, including Granada, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Toledo, and Segovia, are small enough that they don’t need a car.
Car sharing
Car sharing is one of the cheapest and cheapest ways to travel in Spain and the rest of Europe. It’s safer and more reliable than hitchhiking in Spain, as you can meet the person offering a ride before you embark on the trip (which means you no longer have to make a quick judgment on their character). Carpooling is an old practice.
These are the most popular car sharing sites in Europe:
- Blablacar – French site, with many people traveling from France to Spain, which has gone global in recent years. Purchased or associated with several of the old French ‘Covoiturage’ sites and the German Mitfahrgelegenheit site.
- Compartir.org: Spanish equivalent site that has a loyal user base in Spanish.
