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Renting a car - St. Thomas / St. John

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Renting a car - St. Thomas / St. John

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(@beach76)
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Just a note for anyone thinking about renting a car. We were in St. Thomas a couple weeks ago and had a FABULOUS time!!! My brother in law lives on St. Thomas so he told us about some great out of the way places that we needed a car to get to. We found Daylight Bakery on our own just driving around (see my review on Yelp). We went through a big rental agency via Kayak and it was stressful and a bit confusing actually renting the car but at the end of the experience, was well worth it. Extra fee for 2nd driver ($7.50 a day) and we bought the limited CDW ($11.99 a day). It ended up being about $500 Sunday to Sunday, advertised as about $34 a day as the base rate. If we didn't have a true credit card they were going to charge us like $25 a day for extended CDW because we tried to use a debit card (with a MasterCard logo on it) to rent the car. Also, let your bank know you will be traveling so they don't decline your card. We tried to reserve a room on St. John a couple weeks before we went and and the card was declined because we hadn't told the bank yet!! We reserved the car a month in advance and on the shuttle we met a woman who had reserved on-line that morning so her name was not on the list at the rental desk. They gave her a car anyway but talked about how now someone whose name WAS on the list wouldn't be getting their car! When driving or riding, you MUST wear your seat belt!!! They will stop you if you don't wear it!!!!!! Anyway, we got a Toyota Yaris which was great because it was small enough to drive but you have to be careful because it bottoms out on speed bumps. Lots of people, especially on St. John, rent Jeeps. We liked the Yaris for its small size but we didn't dare go down any dirt roads. We used Waze on the iPhone to navigate, the driver would drive and the passenger would say "right turn ahead" or whatever. Driving on the left takes concentration but you are going slow enough usually to not die. We had no real problems and only a couple times did we forget to drive on the left and head into oncoming traffic. A lot of roads are not on Waze but it gets you close to where you want to go. Driving on the islands is like being on a roller coaster but the freedom lets you do your own thing and I highly recommend it. We took the car barge to St. John for a couple days and that was easy and fun. Again, you have to really pay attention because the roads are narrow, twisting, and there is usually a drop off the left side of the pavement if you drift. Do rent a car, it will make your trip a lot more fun.

 
Posted : February 7, 2015 3:38 pm

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