Travelers who arrive at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport will spot a number of kiosks and teller windows operated by car-rental companies. There are about seven options in total, ranging from large international chains to smaller, regional companies. To help cut down on your selection time, TravelMag has done the heavy lifting in the form of comparing all the options to give you the three top choices for cheap rental cars. We’ve even broken things down by category: most affordable, most luxury options, and best for families.
El Dorado Airport, Bogota (Photo: Reg Natarajan via Flickr)
Since most international and domestic flights (terminal 2 is an extension of Avianca Airlines and serves only certain domestic locations) arrive and depart from terminal 1, travelers will want to head to entrance three at the north end of the terminal to find the rental companies. They are located on the first floor, most of them adjacent to the actual entrance. We looked at a number of criteria when evaluating the rental companies, including price range, customer services, options, customer reviews, fleet availability and company policies to determine which company was best in a certain category. Here they are.
Budget easily takes the prize for most affordable of the major rental companies at El Dorado Airport. You can find an economy-sized rental for a little less than 20 dollars per day (before taxes and fees), which is a steal. This is compared to Avis, whose economy cars begin around 30 dollars per day. Once you get into the standard and full-size vehicles the prices become more comparable. But for those who don’t mind a smaller car, the price is hard to beat. However, let it be known that this particular branch of Budget has accrued more negative user reviews than the other two options on this list.
It’s a shallow pool as far as luxury vehicles on offer at El Dorado International Airport are concerned. That said, Localiza, a South American chain, has some nice premium options, including the Chevrolet Cruze LT 1.4 Turbo, as well as Ford Ranger diesel 4x4s for those interested in traversing the Colombian terrain. The higher-end sedans start out around 45 dollars per day, while the better SUVs and trucks can top out at around 100. It is worth noting that Localiza also gets generally positive customer reviews. Also, be on the lookout for the occasional deal. On certain weekends Localiza offers a special where customers who book three days receive the fourth day free.
Avis has this category nailed, as some of its compact vehicles (big enough for 5) are a little cheaper than even Budget. You can rent one of these compacts for around 35 dollars. Also, whereas Budget has limited or even non-existent SUVs in their fleet, Avis is positively teeming with them. Standard SUVs start as low as about 45 dollars for a Renault Sandero and top 80 dollars per day for the larger, elite SUVs like the Mazda CX5. Certain SUVs are large enough to accommodate 7 people, and they have infant and child seats available for rental. One added benefit is that Avis enjoys mostly positive users reviews.
