CAR RENTAL OR CAR HIRE IN CUBA.

Many customers have had several questions regarding car rental in Cuba and its major cities, we will try to cover the most outstanding remarks on hiring a car in Cuba.

In Cuba there is a company (Transtur) in charge of transportation and it is sub divided in branches, there is a branch for buses, another for taxis and finally another for car rentals .

The car rentals can be located under the branch names like Cubacar, Havanautos, Rexa and Transtur itself. Via is another rental company which is part of the Gaviota Group. Regardless the branch names all the rental policies and conditions are very similar so we will refer to those conditions later in this article.

The cars

First we must remark that in Cuba all cars are offered and rented by category and not by car brand or model meaning that the customer might see that there are several car brands and models within on category (economic , compact , high , deluxe , jeep 4 x 4 etc...) and the fact that he/she selects one car does not mean that the same brand and model will be guaranteed on arrival to the rental office, they will try to provide the car requested but if not available , will provide any car comprised in the same category.

Transtur has a policy for car rental to keep the fleet with as less cars as possible over ninety thousand kilometers of use, cars must be taken to maintenance and revision in their workshops along Cuba every five thousand kilometers or as indicated by the manufacturers, therefore the technical conditions of the cars are acceptable.

The prices

Prices will mainly depend on the type of car rented and the time of the year the service is used.

Cars can be rented for periods that go from 1 to 6 days, then from 7 to 14 days and from 15 to 30 days or more and each period, the more days ( periods ) the car is rented , the lower the rental price per day will be. Prices may vary also depending on the season that might be divided into Low Season (May 1^st to June 30^th and September 1^st to November 30^th  be advised that the first 10 days of November can changed to high season for rentals in Havana since during those days every year Havana International Trade fair takes place and there is a high demand of cars)

The High Season (December 1^st to Dec 14^th, January 4^th to April 30^th, and July 1^st to August 31^st) and the Peak Season from December 15^th to January 3^rd.

Regularly the prices are indicated per rental per day and some operator include in their quote the cost for the daily insurance which is mandatory.

So the cost for a car can be calculated based on the cost of the car rental per day (that is regularly paid to the operators upon receiving the booking confirmation) secondly insurance per day (from 15.00 to 25.00 Cuban Convertible Pesos *CUC depending on the car category and payable at the car rental office at the time of receiving the car if not included in the operator quote) thirdly a refundable deposit left by the costumer ( from 150.00 to 800.00 CUC depending on the car category) and the as the gasoline or petrol the car has in tank at the rental moment charged as per the current prices. Apart from that, if cars are rented at airports there is a sole payment fee of CUC 20.00 and 5 CUC per day if the car is an automatic car. Also a second driver must pay from 3.00 to 5.00 CUC per day to be included in the contract.

All the above can be paid at the rental office at the time of receiving the car with CUC or with a valid credit or debit card but then the prices will be taxed as per the currency exchange regulations. For more info de the Banco Metropolitano pages.

In the next article we will complete this information by adding where to rent a car, the insurance cover and the contract that the custumer signs.

All the information in this blog can be freely reproduced partially or fully only if the source Cuba Destino Caribe is explicit mentioned and a link to the main page http://www.cubadestinocaribe.com is provided.