Theft questions in the hilltowns

What items are you traveling with? In other words, what are you packing in your luggage? If it is the usual ensemble of dirty clothes, toiletries and miscellaneous items (adapters, maps, etc.) that are easily replaced, it seems as though your husbands concerns are unwarranted. Keep your cash, cards and passport on your person.

I haven't traveled in Spain by car before so I don't have a specific sense about where you'll be stopping. My question to you and others is how DO thieves know that your car is a rental car? The cars we've rented have no sticker or marking on them. If everything, and I mean everything, is locked in the trunk, you park where other similar cars are parked in a regular lot or on the street, you don't get out of the car making last minute adjustments of your possessions, you aren't speaking English loudly to one another as you walk away...how would thieves know that you were prey?

We never leave any visible objects in any car, in any country. Maybe you've read about heroin and other addiction problems in ritzy parts of the U.S., like my own Bergen County, NJ. Rick's books, I think, give exactly the same advice.

One major unknown is what car you have rented, and what car is actually delivered to you at the rental station. Cars in Europe tend to be smaller than the macho vehicles that make the most profit for manufacturers in the U.S. And for the hill towns (especially Arcos and Ronda, which I've been to) you need the smallest car you can get your stuff into. You are going to be folding in the mirrors to get through arches and around corners.

That means you're going to have a hatchback (did you know that Masters of the Universe Mercedes makes tiny hatchbacks?) with a soft windowshade-cover that will probably reveal exactly what you have done inside the car.

One of my favorite Spain rentals was a Ford Fiesta Diesel Wagon (manual transmission OF COURSE) that got phenomenal mileage. AFAIR, it was slightly SMALLER than a Subaru Legacy Wagon. This vehicle is not sold in the U.S.

Edit: Another reason to use a small car is that if you visit a moderate or large city (say, Seville), you will likely park in an underground parking lot with annoyingly narrow stalls and passageways. You'll bless how small the car is when you get down there! BTW, I have often heard of people renting an automatic transmission and there being none available at the time of pickup.

Even in Arcos, with outdoor lots (and Rick's famous "Bogus Parking Wardens"), there's not a lot of space to maneuver.

Edit #2: As they say, you can't read Irony without access to the Ironica Typeface. I referred to Rick's Bogus Parking Wardens because at least if some elderly pensioner with a yellow vest gets 2 Euros from you, he's going to pay some attention to the cars in the lot! In that sense, the isolated roadside parking space we used near Italica (a Roman site near Carmona, Spain) felt much safer after I gave the guy 2 Euros.

As someone who has had his car broken into in New York City (they had the good manners to smash only the vent window), and whose uncle had two car batteries stolen at different Thanksgivings on the West 101st Street, I reject the suggestion that there is no crime against the pure (that is, liberal) of heart.

Thanks Tim for the great advice on the size of the cars and the fact that they are probably hatchback.

Of course we always take our money, cards, passports etc with us but who wants the hassle of replacing your clothes and connecting cords when you are trying to use the time to explore if you don't have to.

It looks as though the best option is to get to our base place and drop our stuff and then explore.

Thanks everyone.

I'm sorry, I am apologizing in advance for being negative but… Why are Americans so afraid? This site spends so much time being afraid of robbery in Europe. Yes, it happens, but to limit what you do due to this fear seams outrageous to me, at least when you are doing something perfectly normal. Keep your valuables in your purse or cross body bag and enjoy your vacation. It is unlikely your car will be broken into while you stop along the way unless you put a red flag on it by your behavior. Hatchbacks do have a screen that hides what is in the back of the vehicle so I don't understand that comment. However, again, that stuff is not that valuable and if worse comes to worse you can go shopping, but it is unlikely you will need to do so. You went to Europe to see things, so look and let go of what might happen. And if something does happen, enjoy the experience of meeting people who you would never have met otherwise as experience and memories is what life is about. Otherwise, just stay in your house here at home where you might be safe. IMO, sorry. (I'm only halfway thru my morning coffee so I might be too blunt and ornery, but there it is.) Wray

Wray, did you read my first paragraph? Every time I go to a township committee meeting, the subject of American suburb drug addiction comes up. Your reply would be quite appropriate for a thread about unsubstantiated street crime in Naples or internet myths about abductions from sleeper trains.

When a staggeringly experienced, left-leaning writer like Rick Steves advises people not to leave objects visible in their car, it does not constitute an unfair slur on Europeans, or even, in this case, unemployed Spaniards. It's just a piece of prudent advice.

@Tim, I was actually responding to the the poster's idea to not stop along the way for fear of theft from her car. If you read my post, you will see that I think a hatchback conceals the luggage adequately under the screen; I prefer hatchbacks in my general life. I never leave items visible in my car either, but to not stop along the way due to fear, I can't abide. I don't see what left leaning has to do with this either. Rick advises to be secure, but I don't believe he would advise to never stop along the way, but maybe I misunderstand his philosophy. I have chosen to live in a mixed socioeconomic and mixed racial urban environment and I see my friends from white America who visit me are, at least at first, unrealistically afraid because they see people who don't look and live like them. Don't go to a foreign country with this fear. I am perfectly aware of security, but, as you say, crime happens in any environment. One makes oneself reasonably secure and lives. That's all I'm saying, live! If you want to stop, stop. Don't worry so much about stuff. It is only stuff. Wray

And I'm asking (see my above post) why would my car in Spain be any different from a local person's car in Spain who parks along the road or in parking lots with other similar cars every day. If precautions are taken to have all things stowed away, not make last minute adjustments to the back contents of the car and there's no broken glass littering the area, why not stop along the way?

Btw, I don't count clothing, maps, toiletries and adapters as irreplaceable items. They would be stowed away in the back of the car, my valuables would be stowed away on me.

1.) With all due respect, RS's guides are not the bible, are simply one point of view, as legitimate as anyone of ours in the forum, local or visitor.

2.) It's very true that unfortunately some Americans do travel abroad with an arrogant attitude and believe 'everybody is out to get them'. Obviously that's fruit of their profound ignorance and, with that attitude, I wonder why they travel at all in the first place. These are those that quite often bring back home bad experiences because of their bad omen. Fortunately it's a tiny minority though.

3.) Crime do exists in Europe, as it does everywhere else, and it can be as violent as in the suburbs of many US cities, so without being paranoid it's best not to fall into a false sense of security either. Having said that, as it happens in the US, crime (and violent crime) is less likely -and even almost inexistant- in rural areas than in it's in more urban areas. Yet it's simply absurd though to pin it to "unemployed" people as stats show that most crime, even minor crime, is perpetrated by 'career criminals' (as in 'thugs') many of which might have regular jobs too. So unemployment does not make a significant (as in 'major') impact on crime, at least that's not what stats show over here in Spain. Right now unemployment is at an all time high, if that was true, we should be robbing at killing each other much like in The Purge... and we're not, we continue to be one of the safest countries in Europe and far safer than say the US :)) Furthermore, car break ins are crimes of opportunity so criminals don't necessarily have to be local, albeit many are, yet you'd be surprised the scores of tourists that are arrested every year in our coastal cities for committing crimes -for some it's seems to be their way to finance their holiday!

4.) As a general rule, it's unwise to leave stuff inside the car in most European big cities (Barcelona, Milan, Marseille, Rome, Seville, Amsterdam, Paris, Athens...). Full stop. If you have to, leave it only in the trunk and, if you can, try to avoid being seen leaving it there. Also, if you have to leave valuables in your car (in your trunk that is!) avoid parking in solitary streets and back-alleys. Use parking lots or underground parking whenever you can as break-ins there are less likely. Yet in short, AVOID leaving stuff in your car.

5.) There's absolutely NO WAY to distinguish a rental from a regular car as rental companies do use the same exact models that you'll find among many Europeans. Note however that some rental companies identify their cars with a sticker (ie GoldCar among many others) which, makes good advertising for the company but it's really a bad idea for you since it announces to potential burglars that "you're not local".

... yet @Kathleen, in small hill towns as you mention, it is unlikely your car would be broken in (not unheard of though!). Just try to leave stuff out of sight. And don't trust 'under the seat', thugs use mirrors to see those spots!

Hey enric, how do thieves get their mirror into a position to look under the seats? If they break the window to get the stick holding the mirror in, they might as well open the door and bend down. Or does this only work on trucks that have windows at foot level in the cab?

I hope to add some pragmatic thoughts to answer the OP's initial question. We base out of Malaga and rent cars, always hatchbacks. On our trips we store in the hatchback any items we will need for where our day will end, so once we place something in the hatchback we do not reopen the hatchback until the end of the day.
We carry a single bed size black sheet which we utilize to place over anything we leave in the car. We only leave things behind the front seats on the floor and covered by the sheet.
So the above two items fall under not dawing attention to what is in the car and to camelflouging items.
But the greatest success we find is by not parking within tourist areas. We prefer to park outside of tourist zones, preferably in a residential area and either walk or take public transport into the desired area. This tactic takes us out of the prime target area of thieves seeking easy prey.
Note: i advise aganist driving into the old town of Granada as it is full of difficult to navigate narrow lanes and much of the area is regulated by traffic cameras.
Please start using the Via Michelin web base mapping to plot your trip. i also recommend using the google earth street view tool to "virtual drive" your routes to determine landmarks to assist with finding landmarks to pre-identify exits, turns and destination points. This preplanning may help provide an answer to the original question, as you may find stopping and dropping the luggage may only be less of a time hassle then perceived. Besides, at what price do you value "peace of mind"?

It is just as likely that the car could be a small sedan. My Spanish friends have cars that have enormous (relative to the rest of the car) trunks. Even when we parked on the street in places like Seville, we just kept everything in the trunk. Before driving to that spot, though, we did make sure everything was in there that needed to go, so that we didn't have to open it once we parked.

I don't understand what covering things with a sheet on the back seat floor would help. If a thief saw stuff covered by a sheet in the back, wouldn't that make him curious about what was under it? Perhaps you are counting on tinted windows to make the sheet not visible?

... @Tim, they carry their own mirror (or piece of it) :)) As I've seen, they discreetly put it on the front window to see the reflection of what's underneath the seats. If the poor sod driving the car thought he/she could hide the bag/purse/camera, etc "out of sight" by placing it under the seat.... he/she's done for it!

The results of using these tactics are 30 years of driving in europe with out experiencing a car break in. We learned these tactics from a police officer after our car was broken into while visiting the Houston, TX zoo in 1983. So choose as you wish for what ever tactics you believe will protect your belongings.

While I think it's wise not to leave bags in sight in a parked car, Spain is nothing like Italy - where every parking lot sparkles with broken glass from previously parked cars. I felt petty crime was fairly rampant in Madrid and Barcelona. Outside of those areas it just didn't seem like much of a problem. Even during April Fair in Sevilla; we parked in a secure hotel parking lot but could have easily parked on the street both free and safe (about a block from the stadium outside the center).