Our first full day here in Cape Town, and although the skies are blue and it seems like a sunny day, it’s still freezing for our Borneo-warmed bodies. We dressed-up as if for the ski-sloped and took my mom’s energetic dog for a walk, using him as a means to explore the neighbourhood I haven’t seen in 4 years before picking up our Cape Town Rental Car.
I lost my driver’s license some time ago and I was unable to get it replaced while in Malaysia, so before we could pick up our rental car, I had to get that sorted. The plan was for the Journo and the Sausage to hang about the local mall, N1 City, whilst I crossed the road to apply for a new license and get a temporary one for our travels.
Driver’s License Shuffle
N1 City has changed much with loads more parking and shops, so I knew the 2 of them would be occupied for at least as long as it took me to get sorted. We also had our first South African breakfast at Maxxi’s, a place my mom visits every now and again for breakfast. It was clearly popular with the retired crowd. Breakfast chips also featured on our plates for the first time here. Yup, chips for breakfast.
I took me about an hour and 90 minutes to sort out my driver’s license – this includes a damn long walk to the Goodwood Traffic Department, which technically is just across the road from the mall, but practically has only one entrance, and as I walked the wrong way around the block, it was at the far end of the totally fenced-in property. I also needlessly queued for 15 minutes in the wrong line because the signage wasn’t clear, and then had to wait about 30 minutes to get my eyes tested. And now I have to wait 8 weeks for the actual license, managing with the immediately-issued temporary license until then.
With my license sorted we were ready to secure our Cape Town car rental.
Cape Town Car Hire With Aroundabout Cars
Even before we left Malaysia I did some research about car hire in Cape Town, because not only is car hire expensive, but often you’ll end up with a small car and limited mileage, which could seriously cramp your self-driving holiday style. After much research, I discovered that the best-value car hire company in Cape Town is Aroundabout Cars.
With Aroundabout Cars car hire we managed to get the best rate for our 14 – 30 day rental period as well as unlimited mileage. With the Sausage, being Malaysian, as the primary driver and our Super Cover insurance rate, we also got a total excess waiver. Super Cover is simply a more complete insurance cover option, and the excess waiver means that, should the worst happen and there is an accident or the car is stolen, we wouldn’t have to pay any excess .
Oddly enough, if I, with my South African passport, registered as the primary driver, we would be liable for something like R2,500 in excess.
I had spoken to Megan, the fun and friendly Aroundabout Cars rep, via Skype (aroundaboutcars) to arrange the pick-up of the rental car. She instructed us to go to Imperial Rent-a-car first and then come around to their offices situated almost on the corner of Bloem and Loop street. We wanted to rented a car with 4 doors as the Sausage and myself are tall people and 3 doors would be just too cramped. Plus, on our travels we would have a decent amount of luggage, so we needed to rent a slightly roomy car.
Our rented car, given the other options, was a Toyota Yaris, and we were expecting the hatchback. However, after we filled out the necessary forms at Imperial, we were taken to the car only to see it was the bigger Toyota Yaris sedan. Bonus! We drove over to Aroundabout Cars, sorted out the payment and were on our way with our rented Toyota Yaris 1.5 sedan for R225 per day with unlimited mileage and a complete excess waiver.
Cape Town Travel Tip 2: According to my research Aroundabout Cars has the best deals for car hire in Cape Town (and they do other parts of the country too).