How to Find Your Perfect Winter Car Hire
You may have already seen some of your friends social media profiles with pictures and videos of them enjoying skiing and snowboarding holidays. Over the next couple of months it’s only going to get more common! We’re seeing a large number of bookings continue to come in for Italy, France and Switzerland (amongst others!) for those escaping on a snowy holiday.
Winter car hire is fairly different to Summer car hire though, not only for the obvious reason of snow and icy temperatures, but also for the reduced fleet levels that car hire firms hold compared to the hotter months.
Due to this, it really is worth considering your car hire for your winter getaway a little earlier than you may for your summer holiday. We’ve put together our top tips for car hire during winter.
Book Early!
Demand for rental vehicles tends to be lesser in winter compared to summer. Due to this, many hire companies will purchase a load of cars for the hotter months and then sell these in October as the period of higher demand has passed by then. This affects customers as there are less cars about for hire. We would strongly suggest that you book your hire car as soon as possible.
Remember, with us, Clarify Car Hire, you get free cancellation so if the price does decrease between the time you book and the date you travel you can easily rebook and cancel your original vehicle with no admin fees.
Local regulations
It’s not unusual for higher altitude towns and ski resorts to require you to have snow chains or winter tyres. And even if they don’t, you may find that the country has rules regarding needing these if temperatures drop below a certain level or if it is a specific time of year.
Make sure that you read up on the regulations where you are going before you book your car hire. This will give you the power of knowing exactly what you need. There’s nothing worse than turning up at the car hire desk and realised you are in the dark about what the local laws and regulations are. A great site to have a look at what you may need is the AA.
Do you need Winter Tyres or snow chains?
Once you’ve looked at the area you’re going to and the local regulations there you should be able to see if you will need winter tyres, snow chains or in some places both. Most of the time it is a case of having one or the other, but there are occasions where you may be required to carry snow chains even if you have winter tyres fitted.
In this case, it is worth thinking about which you would prefer. If you’re going to a lower altitude town or snow and freezing weather is unlikely then you may be fine with snow chains. However, if you’re nervous about fitting chains or you’re going to somewhere that you know is likely to be icy and snowy, you may find winter tyres are the best bet.
Winter tyres are sometimes preferred due to them being lass faff than snow chains. If the conditions change you don’t need to get out the car and scrabble about with chains, however snow chains are said to be better in really icy and snowy conditions. So, it really is a case of assessing where you are going and which you feel will be more suitable.
On Clarify Car Hire, we have a really helpful filter for snow chains or winter tyres. This means when you have run your quote you can select the filter and the results that show will be inclusive of the option you have chosen:
Optional extras
If you know you need some extras, such as child seats or GPS devices, which we know can be helpful when navigating mountain roads, make sure you compare cars with these included. This is because the cost of these extras can make a big difference to the price of your hire, sometimes the company with the most expensive cars has the lowest cost extras making them the cheapest overall!
Our handy way to add extras to be able to compare the car and extras as a total package is at the top of the results page and looks like this:
We hope this helps when you come to book your winter hire but if you need any further information or assistance please get in contact with us.
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