Azores Easy Rent offer both car and bike hire on the island of Sao Miguel, and as you might have guessed from their name, they aim to make the rental process as simple and stress-free as possible. They have brilliant customer reviews, with a 4.8 average on Google, so we booked with them to see if they lived up to the hype!
How easy is it to hire a car in Sao Miguel?
It can be nerve-wracking arriving in a new country for the first time, navigating car pick up and hitting the open road. We found driving in the Azores very easy, and if you want to see everything the island of Sao Miguel has to offer you’ll need a car.
There are a surprising number of car rental companies located on Sao Miguel in the Azores, including most of the larger global companies. Whichever company you choose, we’d recommend that you plan ahead and pre-book your car hire, especially during peak season. Not only does this ensure there’s a car available for you at a good price, but it also means your holiday can get underway quickly and smoothly.
As always when we travel, we prefer to book with a local provider. On this occasion we chose Azores Easy Rent, and found they were incredibly responsive and helpful throughout the booking process. You can complete your reservation online and there are email and phone contact details if you need to ask any questions which aren’t answered on the website. They have a wide range of cars available, including manual and automatic options, so you’ll be sure to find a vehicle you’re comfortable driving.
Car hire Ponta Delgada
There are three pick-up and drop-off locations offered by Azores Easy Rent – Aeroporto João Paulo II (Ponta Delgada), the Azores Easy Rent Office, or in the centre of Ponta Delgada itself. For our trip, we chose to collect our car from the airport and were met at car parking location P6. This was a flat five minute walk from the arrivals hall and easy to do even with luggage.
We were met by a friendly member of the Azores Easy Rent team, who quickly completed all the information needed and handed over the keys. Our car was a Peugeot 2008, one of the cars in the automatic range. It was presented in a beautiful condition, sparkling clean and with plenty of space for our luggage.
Another useful feature of the car was the ability to wirelessly connect our phones via Apple or Android car-play. This was a massive help especially as we had saved all of our pre-booked destinations and saved places into our Google maps account. Navigating your way around a new place can be one of the most stressful parts of driving abroad, so this feature made our car hire experience much smoother.
What’s it like to drive in Sao Miguel?
We visited Sao Miguel in October, which is the start of the quiet season on the island. This meant that there was very little traffic on the roads and driving felt very easy. The roads are likely to be busier during peak season, but driving will still be very manageable. Like mainland Portugal, in the Azores you drive on the right hand side of the road.
Most roads are single-lane highways, with some larger roads and motorways closer to the main town of Ponta Delgada. In the towns you might find that some of the roads are quite narrow and there are one-way systems in place. Parking is easy – there are designated car parks available at most tourist sights and restaurants, and street parking is available in most towns. The car we rented from Azores Easy Rent was one of their larger models, so we had to account for this on some of the narrower streets, but this was no problem and we didn’t get any scratches from parking on the streets.
Trusted car rental with Azores Easy Rent
All rental options with Azores Easy Rent come with Third Party Liability CDW (Collision and Accident) insurance, Theft Protection, and unlimited kms. You may think that as a relatively small island, there’s a limit on how many kilometres you can cover during your time in Sao Miguel. However, with so much to see the unlimited kilometres are very useful! The insurance cover also gives peace of mind, although we’d always recommend you combine this with your own excess cover insurance in case of any accidental damage.
At the end of our trip we returned to where it all began at Aeroporto João Paulo II (Ponta Delgada), where we met another representative of Azores Easy Rent to collect the car from us. The pick-up and drop off service was extremely straightforward and reliable, which is a key thing we look for when reviewing car rental services. We also knew that if there were any problems we could contact the company at any time.
Highly recommended car rental in Sao Miguel
The experience of renting a car with Azores Easy Rent gets five stars from us for these reasons:
- The vehicle is safe, clean, and enjoyable to drive.
- Booking is easy and the team are responsive in their communications.
- Collection and drop-off is straightforward and reliable.
Hiring a car will transform your trip to Sao Miguel in the Azores and reliability is key, so take a look at Azores Easy Rent.
