Child Seats and Renting Cars in Europe
Discussion
Hello
I am going on Holiday for a few days. Our Daughter is 11 months old and therefore needs a car seat. I am torn between paying the £36 to hire one for 3 days as an additional charge from the car hire company - or taking one with us and paying the additional baggage. I am guessing the car hire company provided version will be very basic.
I am going on Holiday for a few days. Our Daughter is 11 months old and therefore needs a car seat. I am torn between paying the £36 to hire one for 3 days as an additional charge from the car hire company - or taking one with us and paying the additional baggage. I am guessing the car hire company provided version will be very basic.
It depends where you are going. Spain has recently (well, a little while ago now) introduced stiffer regs and, as a result, most companies renewed their seats which is why the charge has gone up from what used to be 2 Euros a day to between 4 and 8.
I used Centauro in Spain on 2 occasions, since the change, and the seats they have provided have been excellent. I confess I have recently boooked with a company called Firefly and will have to wait and see if the same applies. Before the change, I had some right crap.
I am therefore happy to book car seats now for my 3 year old but my 7 year old has a Trunky backpack/booster seat which serves a great double function.
Though i didn't book through Vueling (with whom i booked flights), their hire car list provides a nice summary of charges and who does full to full fuel and who does full to empty (though in prcatice you jyust pay more for the former anyway).
I used Centauro in Spain on 2 occasions, since the change, and the seats they have provided have been excellent. I confess I have recently boooked with a company called Firefly and will have to wait and see if the same applies. Before the change, I had some right crap.
I am therefore happy to book car seats now for my 3 year old but my 7 year old has a Trunky backpack/booster seat which serves a great double function.
Though i didn't book through Vueling (with whom i booked flights), their hire car list provides a nice summary of charges and who does full to full fuel and who does full to empty (though in prcatice you jyust pay more for the former anyway).
Puggit said:
Car seats are free in general, even with charter carriers.
We used rental seats once, never again.
This 100%. Even if you dont want to take your normal seats, a cheap car seat bought in the UK will be much better than a rank, sick covered, old car seat that you may get at an airport hire desk. We used rental seats once, never again.
mike325112 said:
Puggit said:
Car seats are free in general, even with charter carriers.
We used rental seats once, never again.
This 100%. Even if you dont want to take your normal seats, a cheap car seat bought in the UK will be much better than a rank, sick covered, old car seat that you may get at an airport hire desk. We used rental seats once, never again.
Take your own. They're bulky but they will usually be carried F.O.C as airlines understand you need them.
After renting seats from the hire company, never again. As said above there is no sense in paying to hire a seat which invariably will be of poorer quality than the one you have at home.
Given the airline has to carry them free, aside from the hassle of carrying them to the terminal, I can't think of any negatives. You can also guarantee that you'll know how to fit them correctly. I've seen some shocking attempts at installation so you'll have the hassle of refitting anyway if you rent.
Given the airline has to carry them free, aside from the hassle of carrying them to the terminal, I can't think of any negatives. You can also guarantee that you'll know how to fit them correctly. I've seen some shocking attempts at installation so you'll have the hassle of refitting anyway if you rent.
ATM said:
I am flying with Jet2 and they give a free 10kg allocation for infants. We have a travel cot to take and this is almost 10kg on its own.
Our baby is easily over 10kg [95th percentile of weight for her age] and therefore now is in a forward facing seat.
Have you asked them about car seats...?Our baby is easily over 10kg [95th percentile of weight for her age] and therefore now is in a forward facing seat.
We always hire and have never had a problem. All the hire cos we've used have just pointed at a room full of seats and asked us to choose so we have just gone for the cleanest/newest. Much more convenient than lugging car seats, as well as all the other baby clobber, through the flight
ATM said:
I am flying with Jet2 and they give a free 10kg allocation for infants. We have a travel cot to take and this is almost 10kg on its own.
Our baby is easily over 10kg [95th percentile of weight for her age] and therefore now is in a forward facing seat.
many hotels / b&bs etc will supply you with a travel cotOur baby is easily over 10kg [95th percentile of weight for her age] and therefore now is in a forward facing seat.
Benny Saltstein said:
After renting seats from the hire company, never again. As said above there is no sense in paying to hire a seat which invariably will be of poorer quality than the one you have at home.
Given the airline has to carry them free, aside from the hassle of carrying them to the terminal, I can't think of any negatives. You can also guarantee that you'll know how to fit them correctly. I've seen some shocking attempts at installation so you'll have the hassle of refitting anyway if you rent.
There are many negatives since the seats got better - modern airports are huge and finding the rental desk is hard enough and it always happnes everyone is queuing for the same supplier. In airports like Malaga and Barcelona, car hirers are based outside the airport, via shuttle, another PITA. As I've said above, a few years back, the seat quality was dire but in the pst couple of years, they have pretty much replaced them all with good seats.Given the airline has to carry them free, aside from the hassle of carrying them to the terminal, I can't think of any negatives. You can also guarantee that you'll know how to fit them correctly. I've seen some shocking attempts at installation so you'll have the hassle of refitting anyway if you rent.
Surely you can hire a travel cot? Most private rent villas can supply one. Hotels must surely have them?
Bought one of these from Asda last night. Cost £35 and its very light. They also sold a travel cot for £27 but we're sold out. I need to take a cot because we're visiting some family for 2 nights and they don't have a cot - then we're going to do a few night in hotels.
http://m.direct.asda.com/Nania-TeamTex-Trio-Car-Se...
http://m.direct.asda.com/Nania-TeamTex-Trio-Car-Se...
We take our own and put it in one of these http://www.amazon.co.uk/Travel-Carseat-Family-Ecli... which also enables you to fill in the spaces around the car seat with last minute stuff.
Edited by SwanJack on Wednesday 13th March 09:32
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff