Car hire with 3 bike boxes

[mikehhhhhhh]

Three of us travelling to Mallorca in April with a new problem - for the first time all three of us are taking bike boxes.

it's always been a gamble hiring a car with one bike box, what do we hire with three?

Trying to avoid the obscene cost of hiring a van, does anyone have any experience and have found something that fits?

[usr]

Multiple trips might turn out to be the least bad solution? On the other hand if there's one island where the airport transfer industry knows how to deal with bike boxes, it must be that one.

[maxim809]

What kind of bike boxes are these? (Sizing)

[jekyll man]

Hire 1 car between you (Hyundai i30 size).
1 drives, the others get the bus transfer

[Lina]

If you're in any of the larger cities/villages or in a resort so that you don't need car to get food and other daily necessities and don't need car for some other reason on a daily basis get one of the dozens of companies that do airport transport for cyclists to take you to your destination. It's gonna be cheaper than a single day of van/huge SUV rent.

[mikehhhhhhh]

I've managed to find a Berlingo 5 seater for a great price.

Whether 3 bike boxes will fit or not is another matter, but I think I've maximised my chances.

[jfranci3]

Ship the bike box to the hotel.
Hire a hotel van or airport shuttle to move bikes from airport to hotel.
There's usually also airport luggage delivery services for delayed luggage. The airport luggage dept will know who does this locally if you cant find someone on the internet. I see this https://callandridemallorca.com/luggage ... -mallorca/

Fly with a piece of cardboard, window anchors, and some straps. Stack everything on the roof. If you have a travel roof rack and the cases are soft, you can mount the bikes on the roof and collapse the cases.

Keep in mind a bike case will take the whole hatch and rear seat area of any car. Unless you're getting a minivan, you're not getting people in the back seat.

[diecast]

I've managed to find a Berlingo 5 seater for a great price.

Whether 3 bike boxes will fit or not is another matter, but I think I've maximised my chances.

Have you done this now? I'm curious to know how you got on with the Berlingo and 3 bike boxes - it'd be useful to know for future planning. Thanks!

[mikehhhhhhh]

I've managed to find a Berlingo 5 seater for a great price.

Whether 3 bike boxes will fit or not is another matter, but I think I've maximised my chances.

Have you done this now? I'm curious to know how you got on with the Berlingo and 3 bike boxes - it'd be useful to know for future planning. Thanks!

Yeah, berlingo with three bike boxes, three suitcases and three people was fine.

If you ever order one, ask them to remove the bulkhead (I saw ones with and without, but the ones with were removable)

In fact to begin with, because I was out there a week before the others and didn't want to pack my bike half way, we actually squeezed all that plus my bike out of its box on top.

One box was a BBA triathlon easyfit which made it a bit of a squeeze. I think with three normal boxes you'd be comfortable!

[Greeners]

We just came back from Mallorca. Expecting to take a bus up to Alcudia, the taxi drivers were touting for business outside the airport offering 120euros for the drive, we got it down to 80 euros just by being a little arrogant & stating we were getting the bus. That was between 2 of us in a Merceded Sprinter minibus. From landing on the runway & being on our bikes was about 2 hours!
Don't write off public transport over there. It's fantastic & cheap. The return bus to the airport was about 4 euros!

[mikehhhhhhh]

We just came back from Mallorca. Expecting to take a bus up to Alcudia, the taxi drivers were touting for business outside the airport offering 120euros for the drive, we got it down to 80 euros just by being a little arrogant & stating we were getting the bus. That was between 2 of us in a Merceded Sprinter minibus. From landing on the runway & being on our bikes was about 2 hours!
Don't write off public transport over there. It's fantastic & cheap. The return bus to the airport was about 4 euros!

I paid 340eur for the Berlingo for two weeks and that took three people over three airport trips and a few trips to Palma, dinner etc.

I can't see public transport ever being worthwhile if I'm honest, unless you're trying to save every last penny and will never travel anywhere off-bike beyond where you're staying.

[alanjob]

I had a similar issue when traveling with two friends and all our gear. We ended up renting a large SUV instead of a van—it was still spacious enough to fit our bike boxes (with some creative packing) and way more cost-effective.

If you can, look for an SUV with foldable rear seats or extra trunk space. Sometimes, checking with local rental companies in Mallorca directly can yield better results since they might be familiar with accommodating cyclists.

On a related note, when I needed a vehicle for a trip in South Florida, I used https://realcar.miami/locations/fxe, which had some great options for large cargo needs. Maybe something like that could work for you if you ever need it elsewhere.

[RoadDonk82]

No idea about bike boxes but I was pleasantly surprised lately discovering that Honda Fit (Jazz in other areas) fits 2 Evoc Bike Pro Bags, 2 big suitcases, 2 backpacks and 2 people. This is a very small car, not even a b-segment.
My experience is that some bigger cars are just too short or the seats don't fold horizontally making everything more difficult. This means that wagons increase your chance of fitting the boxes, especially wagons without a silly sloppy rear end.

Another thing is that it's Spain which means taxis might be reasonable priced. You will have to check Mallorca specifically though. We took a taxi on Tenerife on December 30th, got a van to fit our bike boxes/suitcases/backpacks and paid only 65EUR for 50 minutes drive (from Sur airport to Puerto de Santiago).

[gloscherrybomb]

Ironically it may be cheaper to rent multiple small cars and put the rear seats down. I have a similar challenge when I take my BBA easy fit and have the little one with me that needs a rear seat.

[poulhansen]

Can't you get airport pickup from the hotel. Most hotels have minibusses.