Hi Everyone

Sorry Mike and Dot, I am a bit confused. Where does this "free bus" run from/to? I can walk all downhill to the Rojales market area (is that a Thursday) and I thought The Mercadonna was just across the road from that? Are you saying there's a free bus that goes back up the hill towards Altos Golf 3?
Sorry for being a bit dense.
Oh and thank you Jan for the info re car insurance - if I'm out for 3 weeks I shall certainly do as you do.

Hi, sorry to confuse you, I,m not sure if there is a free bus from where you are, we have one from near Lo Marabu that takes us over to the mercadona , not sure if Mike means there is one from where you are, perhaps he or someone can confirm this for you,

Dot

mike wrote:Hi Bella, There is a free Mercadona bus on thursdays that runs to Rojales. Leaves at 9. 930 and 10 30 am and returns at midday or 1 pm. Mike

Hi Mike (and Bella),

Not sure where Altos Golf is but although the free bus does the return journey from the Rojales market/ Mercadona supermarket up the hill and past the golf course, it's first stop is right at the top in the old part of Quesada, near Harrys Bar. It then stops at the small Canales Supermarket near the Sportsman Bar. Then the next main stop is the Quesada Country Club, before doing the downhill journey to the stop by the Gamma near Coopers Bar, Dona Pepa and on to the last stop in Quesada high street (Avda de Las Naciones) near the Town Hall.

Hope this helps explain the free bus journey from the Rojales market (obviously it is in reverse for the journey to the Market.

The timetable is on this link :
market-days-f79/market-days-t21.html

Jan

Thank you Jan and Dot. Altos Golf 3 overlooks La Marquessa golf course and is all uphill from the Clubhouse. It looks like the free bus may go that way but not stop.
I will pick the brains of my neighbours when I return in 12 days (if anyone is around)
Thanks again

I'm pretty sure you'll be better off walking to the market (yes, it's on Thursday) from where I think you are. The blue-tops?

Hi Jan we have an annual car hire insurance. We were under the impression we did not require Anything else other than the normal third party insurance included with the hire of the car hire. But am now doubting I have sent an e mail to questor and had a reply back but still unclear so have sent another. It's an absolute minefield.
We are going to Florida in April and have booked a hire car but now concerned
And also wonder if we were fully insured when we hired in spain. Will let you know.

blackvelvet wrote:Hi Jan we have an annual car hire insurance. We were under the impression we did not require Anything else other than the normal third party insurance included with the hire of the car hire. But am now doubting I have sent an e mail to questor and had a reply back but still unclear so have sent another. It's an absolute minefield.
We are going to Florida in April and have booked a hire car but now concerned
And also wonder if we were fully insured when we hired in spain. Will let you know.

Hi blackvelvet,


I only know about excess insurance for car hire, which we have with http://insurance4carhire.com/. I didn't know you could get an actual annual car hire insurance, so that could be different.

The excess car hire insurance we have is to cover any 'surprise' charges, such as excess which can be quite substantial or damage to the car that is not covered by the main insurance with the hire company such as roof, windows, tyres, undercarriage and headlights. This following explanation is copied from the website:

"When you hire a car, the car hire company will normally include Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft cover. This policy will come with what’s known as an excess, or the charge you’ll have to pay if your rental vehicle gets damaged or stolen.


For example, let’s say you’ve hired a car and your excess is £1,500. You’re involved in an accident that causes £5,000 worth of damage to your hire car. In this case, you’d have to pay your car hire company £1,500 – even if the accident wasn’t your fault.


A car hire excess insurance policy can cover some of these charges for you. But if you buy your policy from your car hire company, you could be paying much more than you need to – up to £20 a day, if not more.


That’s where insurance4carhire comes in. By buying from us in advance we’ll provide you with daily or annual excess reimbursement insurance policies that cover the excess.


In the USA and some other countries, CDW is not included in the rental. That’s why we have a specific USA & Canada policy."


I always ask if CDW is included with the rental, as even in Spain it sometimes isn't included, and ask them to add it on if not, otherwise the excess insurance becomes invalid apparently - something I didn't realise on our first few hires!!

We have hired cars in Florida and that is a real minefield! I would treble check any small print on the hire-car booking small print and your own insurance small print before you go.

Tip...Others may have mentioned this to you about USA / Florida car hire companies - They almost always try to offer you an upgrade at the desk when you are tired and jet-lagged (at more cost). We tested this out - it's because the car you want is unavailable and the rules say they have to give you a free upgrade but they want you to pay for it without knowing. It's a hard sell (they go on and on about the reasons you should upgrade) but it's really worth standing your ground and refusing this, as very often you will find you may be given a better car (upgrade!) anyway, even though they won't tell you outright as they hand you the keys. It has happened to us.

Jan

Guapa wrote:Interesting post, Jan. However, having that cover by insurance4carhire isn't as straight forward as it might seem.

For starters there are car hire firms that will not accept it! They insist you take their insurance or they'll debit your credit card with 300€ or whatever they decide to debit it with.

Another problem is some car hire firms, without their insurance, will not cover you for gear box damage, something their insurance, though costly, does. I took this up with insurance4carhire who say they would not cover that. Just be very careful.

Regarding the free upgrade they take more fuel so a 75€ fuel charge suddenly is more like 90€!

Hi Guapa,

It might not be straight forward but I would rather have it than not.

The companies that will not accept it and insist you take their insurance, or they'll debit your credit card with 300€ or whatever, are within their rights but that 300 euro or whatever will be credited back to if there's no damage and if there is and they do charge excess then it will be credited back to you by the excess insurance, as long as you keep all documentation and are fully covered by the normal insurance and CDW. (except for gear box damage, so it seems??!) But then whether we have the excess insurance or not, that is one risk we appear to have to take.

However, you don't have to take any extra insurance with the hire company such as the voluntary roof, windows, tyres, undercarriage and headlights top up. We always used to take that out with the rental company but don't any more and that mounts up over the 3 or 4 hires we have a year to much more than the excess insurance.

As I said before, any small print is there to be studied carefully but I would rather have this insurance than not!

I think it all comes back to the fact that the insurance I mentioned and use is 'Excess' insurance NOT actual hire car insurance which should cover everything...except roof, windows, tyres, undercarriage and headlights and oh yes... gear box damage.


BTW the 'free' upgrade I mentioned was in Florida but yes, it possibly would be a bigger petrol tank but it would have to be weighed against how long you are using the car and how much driving you will be doing (big long roads out there!).


Jan.