Does anyone have any recent experience renting a car in Sardinia and Puglia? Looking for affordable and reputable companies that you may have had experience with. And are there any to avoid? Thank you!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
17382 posts
In the past decade or so I’ve been using www.autoeurope.com, a broker based in Maine, for my rental needs. They work with the major companies in Italy (Avis-Budget, Hertz, Europcar, SicilybyCar, Sixt, etc.).
I’ve driven to Puglia twice from my house in Tuscany in the past 3 years. I had a Hertz car one year, and a Europcar car the next. I’ve been to Sardinia last over 15 years ago. The last two times I remember having an Avis car one year, and Hertz another. At the time I was renting directly with the car companies’ websites, after doing some searches with Expedia or similar engine. But since I started using www.autoeurope.com, I use them. Great service. I always purchase the zero deductible coverage directly with AutoEurope. It’s about $6-8 more a day, but peace of mind. The deductibles are 1,000€ and all you need is a scratch that you are responsible. If you don’t want to purchase that extra coverage inquire with your credit card if they would reimburse you the deductible. Not all credit cards cover Italy.
Posted by
6514 posts
Used Hertz in Puglia twice, no complaints. Bari downtown location is a plus.
Used Europcar on Sardinia, and they gave us quite the beater. Only an outstanding bout of luck and some utterly fantastic Sardinia guys saved us from a flat, so I’m still irked by that. I’m hoping to return to Sardinia this year and will again check Autoeurope but I usually book direct (was less than impressed with Autoeurope when I finally used them, but I’ve scarcely seen a negative word written about them on three travel forums I read). I’ll try to get 4WD next time, but it depends on your plans if you’d need it (we did!).
We have Chase Sapphire and use that for car rental protection, but I am someone who refuses to concern myself with intentionally obtuse financial arrangements.
Posted by
253 posts
Pretty much what Roberto said is true. I don’t use autoeurope always but it’s a great site. Car rental in Italy is much more expensive than other European countries like Greece (really cheap) or even Germany, slightly less than Italy, or France. I can’t speak to Sardegna because the last time we were there was in 2002 and we rented scooters the entire time there. Sicily in 2018 and Puglia in 2022 we rented through autoeurope and it was pretty painless although the rental process and ca pickup in Catania airport was much more complicated than Bari airport where we collected the car within 15 minutes of landing.