Car hire Malaga aiport, advice? (with kids!)

sunflower_lass

We're hoping to holiday in spain in May, and will hire a car from Malaga airport. I appreciate it's not the cheapest way, but our kids are aged 4 and 2 so we're prepared to pay more to get a slicker service! Queueing for hours to be avoided at all costs!

I'd really appreciate if anyone can advise us on how to make the whole thing easier/faster! Things you might be able to help us with include...

• Which car hire company is most convenient in the airport?
• Is there anyway we can bypass queues and go straight to the car?
• Will they bring kids car seats to the car, or do we have to go and find them?

Any thoughts/tips/ideas hugely appreciated, thank you

bagand96

Avoid Goldcar.

- Most companies will have desks in the airport and cars in the airport car park.  Just be sure when you book it is an airport service and not a "shuttle service"
- Some of the bigger international car hire brands have loyalty schemes which offer a priority desk, or priority straight to car park service.  But it varies from branch to branch so you'd need to research.

It's worth looking on trip advisor forums for Malaga and see recommendations/warnings etc.  Often local firms can be a good option and offer zero excess and full insurance included.  But you do need to do your research, not all local companies are the same! 

Malaga Forum, Travel Discussion for Malaga, Spain - Tripadvisor
Costa del Sol Forum, Travel Discussion for Costa del Sol, Spain - Tripadvisor

Avoid Goldcar.

sunflower_lass

bagand96 said:

Avoid Goldcar...

Great advice to get me started with my research, thank you kindly

Grumpy_chap

sunflower_lass said:

We're hoping to holiday in spain in May, and will hire a car from Malaga airport. I appreciate it's not the cheapest way, but our kids are aged 4 and 2 so we're prepared to pay more to get a slicker service! Queueing for hours to be avoided at all costs!

I'd really appreciate if anyone can advise us on how to make the whole thing easier/faster! Things you might be able to help us with include...

• Which car hire company is most convenient in the airport?
• Is there anyway we can bypass queues and go straight to the car?
• Will they bring kids car seats to the car, or do we have to go and find them?

Any thoughts/tips/ideas hugely appreciated, thank you

Are you going to need a car during the trip other than for the transfer to hotel?

I've never hired a car from Malaga airport but travelled through many times and taxi's have always been available with no queue.  (Not sure if that changed since COVID as our last trip was Dec 2019.)

bigfer

I use malagacars.com or centeuro. Both off site and not had any issues with them as yet. Both have reasonable waiting rooms. Queuing seems to be mandatory at care hire pick ups. Never understood why, in most cases you have a booking and you only need to provide a passport, driving license and credit card.

Chris_English

There are a number of cheap but terrible companies at Malaga, working from a distant corner of one of the car parks. Gold car as mentioned is one of the worst, but there are others.

There are also some small but very respectable firms operating in the same way, but unless someone recommends one that they know to be good I’d recommend going with one of the big names. I tend to use Europcar or Avis.

531063

As above avoid Goldcar also Interrent is part of the same company