Cape Town car hire recommendations

[squawk7700]

Hi all,

Any tips/tricks for a better rate and/or real experience with any of the rental companies in CPT? Woodford comes up cheapest on Kayak.

Looking for a fortnight in November to explore the region. Additionally, personal opinions on driving around Cape Town city itself versus Uber? We will certainly need a car to get around the winelands and down to De Hoop, but wasn’t sure whether to drop the car back at the airport before we head to the city. Looking for safest option with least amount of hassle, am wary of taking a wrong turn in Cape Town with potential dire consequences!

Thanks!

[MonkeymaN]

I was in Cape Town a couple of months ago. I hired a car from Avis. Both Avis and Hertz had reasonable rates, under £200 for a medium car for 8 days.According to the tripadvisor Cape Town forum, and Trustpilot reviews Woodford don’t seem to have the best reputation. The tripadvisor forum was also useful for driving tips and routs to avoid.
Whether or not you need a car in the city, depends on where you are staying and if there is parking available. Ubers are cheap and reliable are would work well for a few days in the city. On a previous visit I used the City Sightseeing busses to get around the main tourist sites, which worked well.

[Amy C]

Back in Feb we went to CT and beyond for 16 nights. 3 nights in CT itself which we used Ubers for. Really cheap, reliable, plentiful. Then hired a car from Woodford via rentalcars.com. Picked up from their immaculate town office and dropped off at airport. Fantastic service, upgraded brand new car, £236 for 12 nights. Had no issues with them whatsoever.

[Sandgrounder]

I used Avis last year, albeit picking up from Joburg and dropping at CPT. The service was once, I’ve got President’s Club so I booked a cheap car and was upgraded. I filled it full at the station in the airport but they still went back and squeezed a litre in and billed me for it. Little rip offs like this are common in SA, it’s not worth getting wound up over it for a few quid. I didn’t realise I had a tag for the highway tolls for the first couple on the N1, they took my cash anyway 🙂 only a couple of quid, probably makes a difference to them but not to me, quite amusing really.

Uber were mainly fine in CT, I spotted one guy turning his data off just before he dropped us at the cricket so the charge kept ticking up, I was on to it though and cancelled the job in the app a minute after we got out. You can’t leave a review then though 🙂 Sharp guys.

[TooPoorToBeHere]

I’ve had that with Uber but Uber subsequently refunded the whole trip so the crook got nothing.

[LD27]

We spent about 3 weeks in South Africa last autumn, with just under a week in Cape Town. Whilst there we used the hop on hop off bus to get a feel for the city. There are two routes and a Constantia loop. We stayed at the O&O at the Waterfront. We used Uber all the time in Jo’burg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth with no issues – often two females travelling together. All vehicles entering hotel car parks etc had their windscreen licenses zapped before they were allowed to enter.

We had two rental cars – one from Cape Town (down town depot) to Port Elizabeth (airport) and one from and to Hoedspruit Airport. Both were booked through BAH and were Avis. We booked cheapest/smallest and got upgrades for both. Cars appeared quite new compared with son’s experience in 2022. Agents at pick up and drop off were very thorough and explained everything we needed to know. We were concerned we were going to be ripped off on our travels, but we weren’t. We usually asked hotels best place to fill up with petrol, which worked very well. As posted above, you do not need to get out of car to pay as they bring card machine. But it is useful to have some cash to give a tip.

[squawk7700]

Some fantastic advice here, thanks very much.

We’re starting in Franschheok (after landing in CPT) and spending the last few days in Cape Town itself. I think we’ll aim to pick up at the airport on day one and drop off downtown nearer the end, then rely on the City Sightseeing/Uber to get around the city with less stress than having to plan our own routes etc.

[RobH not Rob]

The Westin is a great hotel option right on the Citi Bus sightseeing routes.

[LM42]

Hello squawk7700, I was looking into car hire recs for Cape Town and noticed your query from last year. We are doing a v similar itinerary in early March this year – wondered if you have any advice? Who did you hire from in the end? and do you have any advice regarding driving to De Hoop (from Franschhoek, as we will be doing). Not sure if you’ll see this post but thought I’d give it a try! Thanks.