Car Hire in Barcelona - How to Find the Best Deals

Barcelona is one of Spain's most popular travel destinations, offering a wide selection of tourist services to make the most out of your stay in Barcelona.

Barcelona is an attractive and affordable tourist destination. Part of the success of Barcelona as one of the most popular tourist destinations in Spain is the introduction of the low cost airlines some ten years ago. Apart from the hotels in Barcelona and other tourist accommodation facilities on the nearby Costa Brava the local car hire industry has also seen a tremendous increase in the demand over the last ten years.

In the good old days before the advent of the internet car hire in Barcelona was normally booked from a traditional travel agency and you would end up renting a car with Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Dollar, National or Enterprise car hire.

These days things are different though. While you certainly can choose to book your car hire the traditional way with your local travel agent or book your car directly on the telephone with one of the multinational car rental companies mentioned before they tend to be more expensive than prices offered by the majority of the local car hire companies in Barcelona or internet brokers, although not always. It is true that multinational car hire companies normally offer more facilities, especially if you travel for business, but if you travel for leisure you may be better of using one of the internet brokers who offer a wide choice of vehicles from both multinational companies and local car hire companies alike.

Many of these websites have a price comparison facility which makes it much easier to make a choice as not always the websites of the individual rental companies do clearly list all the additional charges they make. Some companies are notorious for offering car rental at a low price, only to add on taxes and other fees later.

Apart from that not all local car hire companies have an instant online booking facility which makes it hard to book a car online, specially if it is a last minute booking or you want to book a car out of the normal office hours of the agency.

Many price comparison websites have regular special promotions which are only available online. These promotions involve offering reduced rates for a set period of time, so even though the base rate already starts cheaper than a multinational companies, you can still save even more money if you take advantage of the many promotions that are offered by the internet brokers.

If you do want to check the prices yourself try to compare at least four to five different car hire companies if possible. Also, if you book well in advance it will help you to save further money. Of course, you can also look for last minute deals at your local travel agency.

Overall, finding cheap car hire in Barcelona does not need to be a hassle. If you follow the advice above, you should be able to find affordable car rental in Barcelona no matter where you are flying from.