Getting Around the Costa Blanca Without a Hire Car

Torrevieja, Benidorm, Orihuela Costa, Guardamar. When a private driver makes more sense than renting — and when it does not.

A hire car is the default for a Costa Blanca holiday, and for a fortnight with day trips it is usually the right call. For a long weekend, a wedding, or a trip where somebody would rather not be the designated driver, it is a lot of paperwork and a lot of parking for the sake of four journeys.

Where a driver wins

Arrivals and departures, where the alternative is collecting a car at midnight and returning it before a dawn flight.
Evenings out — Benidorm, Alicante city, dinner up in Altea — where nobody has to be the one not drinking.
Groups. One van beats two hire cars and a convoy that loses each other on the N-332.
Anything with luggage, golf clubs or a pushchair, where the boot is the real constraint rather than the seats.

Where it does not

If you want to leave the villa on a whim every morning for two weeks, rent a car. We would rather say so than sell you twenty transfers you did not need.

The practical bits

Bookings need at least two hours’ notice. We run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which mostly matters for the flights nobody wants — the ones that land after midnight or leave at dawn.

Chauffeurs speak English. If the address is an urbanisation rather than a street number, put whatever detail you have in the notes: the villa name, the block, the nearest roundabout. It saves a phone call at the gate.

Plan a transfer