Car hire for 5 including gear

A snowHead

I know a lot of Snowheads swear by hiring a car for transfers, and have a lot of associated knowledge, so I'd like to tap into that.

What size of car would we need to sensibly transport 5 people with luggage, including one set of skis and one snowboard?

(To get to the airport, we travel in a Ford Focus with just 2 of us in the front, the skis and board in the back and cases in the boot, so it feels like we might need quite a big vehicle for 3 extra people and their luggage Puzzled

)

A snowHead

Ford galaxy (7 seater) or similar.

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Yes, I was thinking a 7 seater is probably the answer. It's amazing how much space skis take up in a car Happy

I was wondering about a Handirack, but it seems a bit of a risk to assume it will fit any car you pick up.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We do ok with an estate with 2 adults and 2 kids with bags plus skis. For five then the estate option is not going to work if you have a reasonable anount of luggage and the gear so the people mover as advised above sounds the best bet.

Or with that number a private transfer might work out ok. Depends how much you want the responsibility for a rental plus doing the driving but can be handy depending on the resort esp if self catering.

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For that kind of load I get by happily with either a golf estate or mondeo estate sized car. Skis inside the car on the passenger side - one pair in front (running just inside the door, into the footwell, one in the back similarly positioned). When driving to the airport in the UK I do 5 people + bags + 2 sets of skis in a Merc c-class estate.

I have a handirack for use in resort when we have 4+ pairs of skis and they are wet. I can't see why it wouldn't fit absolutely any car with a solid roof.

If you're renting with hertz from GVA, one of the options is (I think car class D) a small 7 seater e.g. VW Touran/Ford C-max. I've used these sometimes and they swallow a huge amount of luggage.

Edited to add - I do only have a 1 hour drive tho, 3hrs might make me think about a bigger car!

After all it is free

I have cheapo non-padded bags, even so I sometimes take the skis out of their bags in the car. Since most of our skis have rail bindings, I may also remove those, at which point the skis take up minimal room. A lot depends on the car I'm given. Similarly normal bags can be a very inefficient way to pack a car- it's not unknown for me to empty the contents of the last bag into the boot loose, to pack around the other bags.

Snowboard - I've also transported one sideways on (i.e. base against inside of the car door) in the same fashion without any problem. IIRC the back part of the bindings came off (intentionally!)which made it easier.

Handirack/airbags - if you had a roof airbag, I can see it would be a problem. Similarly downwards-deploying curtains (as opposed to sideways) would be affected. Probably a relative risk call on your requirement for airbags...

All that said, I used to get 5 people + winter mountaineering gear in a Fiesta and drive for 9 hours, so my view on what fits in a car might be different to yours...

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5 bods in an estate + luggage ? Guarantee someone will have a holdall/suitcase on their lap or on the floor with their knees up by their ears wink

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We had a tourneo 7 seater last week. We were 3 people with bags and 2 ski bags. We struggled to get it in. For the return we were 4 people with same luggage...i was staying an extra week...again it was a push but there was more room for the passengers than we usually have with an estate for 4 people with bags and 3 ski bags.5 people in an estate is a push and no guarantee you will get what you ordered.

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If you've got two of you who can drive, sometimes it's a lot cheaper to hire 2 small cars than one big one.[/quote]

You know it makes sense.

2 small ones is the way to go. Use one with 2/3 rear seat folded and passenger seat all the way forward (skis feed into the space cleared by passenger seat being fully forward) with a driver and a passenger in the seat behind the driver and the other with 2/3 folder and two in the front, one on the back. In this set up I reckon you would get away with 2 VW Up!s. We've managed 6 adults plus gear in an Up! and an Astra.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

In/on the Grand Scenic pictured in the thread I linked to above, we managed to get six people plus all our touring gear for the week. Okay, we didn't travel very far like that but we could have managed an hour or so at a push.

A snowHead

Our group has an inflatable roof rack for our board bags, then an estate car does us fine.

A snowHead

Perhaps I've missed it but you don't say where you're flying to and hiring? If it is Geneva then it may be worth going to the airport's car hire landing page at http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-72/ This links mainly to the '.ch' rental landing pages. Sometimes (not always) these local sites have vehicles on them that aren't shown on the '.com' pages. In particular, I've noticed that sometimes, there are small cars, mini-vans and 4x4s on the .ch site, that are not the .com one. You don't have to pretend to be Swiss-resident to book once you'd found something, it's just that the links seem to be different.

Or you can just go direct to the www.avis.ch etc. pages. If you are a member of a professional body, you may also get discounts. I am a member of the Institute of Directors, and I got a big discount in December with Hertz - ended-up at under £30/day all-in for a small 4x4.

But beware, some of the really small cars may be for local-area use only i.e. the assumption is that you'll only be using them in the Geneva/lakeside area. These may not necessarily come with winter tyres, so it coud be a false economy. Just check on the spec if you're hiring a compact car and the price looks too good to be true.

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For the last few years we have always had a 9 seater van ( vw transporter, Renault traffic etc) only 5 of us but perfect for space and luggage. If you are doing some touring whilst away it's so easy to get all the kit in and out and plenty of room for the passengers.

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Much experience of this , done it many times .

First myth 2 cars are cheaper , before thinking this consider 2x fuel 2 x tolls 2 x parking

So is it cheaper.

Tourans etc don't have as much boot space as a an Octavia estate but the octavia works for 4 not 5

The honest answer every time in our experience (5 adults and 2 ski bags plus luggage) is a galaxy sized 7 seater

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@summerseat, + 1
Not only do you have all the space you require, it is more versatile, also you have more room/head height getting into ski boots/gear.
Although I would caution the car hire companies(Dick Turpin inc)all seem to charge a disproportionate amount for a vehicle which costs less than a large car.
Do shop around

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@harvsurrey, You're right, it's not necessarily cheaper. But it often can be. Even considering the other costs. I'd argue that in most cases the price differential between two smaller cars and one large on is pretty small, so it then comes down to convenience. For some groups of adults having two cars can be much better and they will probably have more total space. For other groups, such as a family, a single large MPV makes more sense.

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Never totally clear cut I grant you

Last week we missed out on a £500 9 seater van deal from thrifty because we didn't book it

Next day it was 1k , with cheapest 9 at 800

We got a galaxy for 450 tolls and parking Geneva Val diesere Geneva for 2 cars can nudge 300

Last year out 7 seater was snapped up for 270 from avis

You just have to be smart when looking and hope the £ does not dive further.

After all it is free

I've struggled for space with 4 let alone 5 pax in an estate. I don't even look at them now the kids are adult size

7 seater all the way

One advantage of two cars is if someone in the group is delayed. Your OP implies the other three are arriving separately? With two cars you can at least let three of you press on to your destination while the forth, second driver, waits. If you opt for two and everyone is together, you can use one as a luggage car and the other as a people car, and choose accordingly. But generally, I'd think that an MPV or minivan would suit better.

For people arriving on different flights, I generally recommend having a train contingency plan agreed in advance, for anyone who is badly delayed e.g. you'll only wait an hour at most for anyone delayed, then they have to make their own way to the station nearest to your destination for pickup later. I've had to wait for someone delayed and after a couple of hours, we'd wished we'd agreed in advance that we could press on and they come by train later.

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@LaForet, makes a good point about arrivals on different flights. 2 cars then gives the flexibility.

On one trip we had six adults and two cars booked. One flight (mine) was delayed but I only had hand luggage so they picked up one car, put 3 people and as much luggage as possible in it and off they went leaving two people to await my arrival. Worked out fine and we arrived first as the first car went via the supermarket.

Help!!

Car hire for 5 including gear

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