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We're going to be hiring a car for our 3 week Whistler break to both transport the two bikes in their bags from the airport to apartment as well as then move them occasionally between Pemberton and Squamish etc. I'm hoping someone from experience knows which size as a minimum we should go for hire wise, economy, compact etc. doesnt really help with relating them to day to day cars as we can't exactly specifiy we want a mondeo estate!
Last year had a golf Jetta which took an evoc bike bag and the world traveller easy enough for one with both front seats fine, they have plenty of euro cars on the site like focus's too which would probably be the minimum. then it gets a bit weird with estate being premium and SUV's being not.
A regular SUV would probably do 2 fairly comfy, distance isn't massive so fuel probably not the biggest issue - I'd add in the comments about bike bags and fully folding seats though - Hertz have RAV4's or equivilent which I've done 2 packed bikes and 2 big hold alls in before
Cheers for that, when you book them online though they tend to just give you a category rather than the actual car. Can you request the acual car once you get there to pick it up then?
IIRC I had an Ibiza last year which easily took a hard bike case. Probably would have taken another and at least 1 case. I would try to find out specific models, because in a lot of cars the limiting factor will be the size of the tailgate opening which is often considerably narrower than the luggage space inside. I'm guessing most estates and SUVs would take it easily.
Can you request the acual car once you get there to pick it up then?
Do it before you go, otherwise you're stuck with whatever they happen to have in the lot when you get there.
Generally you can't pick the car just the group but when I've had 2 I've added it to the notes though I normally get an upgrade (not always a good thing). It is also possible to call them to check out what they have, Each company will have 1 or 2 cars for the group.Depending on the time and how busy they are some swaps might work but the comments is the best place.
Take a look at someone like rental cars and then check the deal direct with the company (they will all list contacts for the offices just check the time difference)
Ahhh okay so maybe a call to find out what cars they have per category and decide based on that.
Yeah though something like the RAV 4 basic size would be about right really, if you do it enough you will know how to drop the seats and ditch the parcel shelf in under 5 mins. Also get the directions through Vancouver downloaded to google maps before you leave!!
Good tip, I'll make sure I download the map through my TomTom app.
On the other hand, given yvr is a massive international airport and assuming you're not dealing with a tiny company, just book the smallest/cheapest you can, and when you turn up ask them for something with a hatchback. A lot of the US/canada fleet are sedans, but they have the odd hatch in each class. I got upgraded to an xc60 (from chevvy spark or equivalent) last time I did this.
A bit more hassle but a uhaul van collected form vancouver would likely be a lot cheaper than even small cars. A bit more hassle but was so much cheaper when i looked it would be worth it
I used Avis and booked a large SUV - what I got had it’s bonnet in Alaska and it’s arse in Mexico. It swallowed 2 bike bags 3 massive evoc bags a buggy and a car seat as well as 3 people. Parking it was by touch !