Car Hire at Knock Airport: The best companies

Knock Airport (NOC), officially known as Ireland West Airport Knock, is situated 5.6km southwest of Charlestown in County Mayo. Catering for over 750,000 passengers per year, Knock Airport is Ireland’s fourth-busiest with multiple flights to the U.K. and other European cities.

A Ryanair flight on the tarmac at Knock Airport (Photo: David Precious via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)

While the car rental counters are located in the the main terminal, the cars are parked a 5 minute walk from the airport. If it’s raining and you’re with a group, we advise you to draw short straws to see who fetches the car to pick up the rest of the passengers.

To select the best of the multiple options on offer, Travelmag.com has conducted thorough research to come up with the results below. We’ve split our findings into the following categories: Most Affordable, Best for Luxury and Best for Minivans – so all the major bases are covered.

Most affordable: BUDGET & EUROPCAR

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Your best bet for cheap car rentals at NOC airport appears to be with Budget, but there’s very little in it between them and Payless. On our sample dates, Budget had three types of cars under $30 per day, while Payless had two, so your choice of agency might well depend on car preference. At NOC airport, Budget’s fleet includes the Renault Clio, Volkswagen Up, Volkswagen Polo and Ford Ka, all of which were under $29 per day, while Payless had identical cars at a few cents more. Coincidence? Not really, as both companies operate under the same corporate flag. Europcar is known to go easy on the extras so despite advertising higher daily prices, it actually ends up comparing very well to its competitors.

Best for luxury cars: BUDGET & HERTZ

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Once again, Budget has the lowest prices in the luxury car category. Budget’s cheapest ‘premium’ cars come in the form of a Hyundai ix35 and the the Kia Sportage – not everyone’s cup of tea, but a compact SUV all the same, with a relatively modest carbon monoxide foot-print of only126g/km If you’re looking for something more upmarket, then Hertz was offering an Audi A6 for rent at a little over $100 per day. The Audi A6 is a fantastic car, ranked one of the best in the very competitive luxury midsize segment.

Best for Minivans: HERTZ AND PAYLESS

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Rather surprisingly, it was Hertz that had the cheapest daily rates on minivans on our sample dates, with the high-tech and sophisticated Peugeot 5008 rented out at $126 per day. More of a SUV than a minivan, the stylish and ultramodern Renault Grand Scenic seats seven comfortably, and boasts among its many features an impressive multi-media R-Link 2 navigation system equipped with a state-of-the-art sound system. For larger groups, Payless rents out the spacious Toyota Hiace, while Avis has the 9-seater Opel Vivaro among its fleet.