If you want to explore the island and make the most of your stay in Gran Canaria, it’s definitely a must to rent a car and make some road trips. The island is quite small and you can drive to any part of the island in less than 90 minutes. That is excluding all the stops at miradors, or viewpoints, to take pictures, of course!
Lots of people in the community have rented cars and below are the most popular car rentals (in Las Palmas) listed, in random order. It’s impossible to say anything about their pricing, since the prices fluctuate a lot depending on season, demand, type of car and when/for how long you rent a car. During the pandemic all car rental companies combined had to reduce their fleet to not go bankrupt and in total 70% of rental cars were sold to keep their head above water. Now that tourism is recovering they are increasing their fleet again, but expect higher prices and more problems finding a rental car than before the pandemic.
This car rental agency is located on Calle Luis Morote 48, close to Playa de Las Canteras. You can book your car online, speak with them via WhatsApp and there’s no deposit required. Their rating on Google Maps at the moment of writing this article is 4.8 with 218 ratings.
Cicar has the biggest fleet of cars and is very well known on the island. They are located on Calle Veintinueve de Abril 47 and bookings can be made online or in person at the office. At the moment of writing this article they have 690 reviews on Google Maps with an average rating of 4.1.
Located just around the corner of Cicar, you will find Tirma, one of the first car rental companies on Gran Canaria. They have special discounts for Erasmus students. They are located at Calle Tomás Miller 53 and at the moment of writing they have 206 reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.5.
This car rental company has a lower rating, but is a good option if the car rentals mentioned earlier don’t have availability. The main reason Orlando has a low rating, is because of how they deal with insurance; if you book online and include insurance, they will still make you get a insurance when you pick up the car. So it’s better to book the car without insurance and only pay for the insurance they will sell you when you pick up the car. This way you don’t pay double for insurance!
Share your experiences and recommendations in the comments.