In Abu Dhabi, car rentals are quite easily available. From the time a person lands in the Abu Dhabi International Airport, to the time of boarding the flight back for return, various types of car rental arrangements could be booked well in advance for the maximum comfort of travel in Abu Dhabi. Major international car rental operators like Hertz, Avis, and Thrifty operate in Abu Dhabi. Car rentals could be booked through one of them for traveling inside Abu Dhabi.
Thrifty offers the cheapest car rentals among the three major operators. Their economy model car rental for 24 hours is $23.16 or 85 AE Dhinars for a Toyota Echo or a similar model. Avis charges $50.41 for a day for a similar car rental in Abu Dhabi.
For a mid-size Toyota Corolla type of car rental, Thrifty offers a day rate of $40.87, while Hertz charges $53.41 for the same type of car rental. For a standard Mazda 6 model type of car rental, Hertz rate is $95.10 for a day, while with Avis, the rate is $76.29.
For those who wish to travel in style and comfort in Abu Dhabi, Thrifty provides car rental of Luxury Chevrolet Caprice at $74.93, while the rate for specialty Lexus GS 300 is $122.62. For luxury car seekers, Hertz offers a variety of car rentals, ranging from Honda CRV 2.0 at $116.62 to Chrysler Grand Voyager at $187.74. Avis ranges of luxury car rentals are $99.46 for Nissan Altima 365 to $122.62 for Chevrolet Caprice.
For those who prefer utility vehicle car rentals for inland travel, Thrifty provides Nissan Pathfinder SUV at $88.56 and Toyota Previa van at $81.74 for a day. For desert travel comfort, 4-wheel drive cars, vans and jeeps are also available at competitive car rental charges. However, the availability of these car rentals has to be verified in advance and a clear, confirmed booking has to be made before starting for Abu Dhabi to avoid discomfort after landing there.
There are several other local car rental agencies in Abu Dhabi as well as in Dubai and Sharjah. The hotels would be able to provide full details of local car rental operators in these places. However, travel to the hotel had to be undertaken either by a taxi or by a bus in such a case. Still, the rates offered by the local car rental agencies are likely to be much cheaper than that of the three major international car rental operators. On the other hand, the disadvantages in choosing a local car rental operator could be the limitations in the choice of vehicles, as well as a language problem with the driver. The international car rental operators would be able to ensure that the driver assigned to the traveling person is one who is conversant with the language of the traveler and the local language. Hence, it is most advisable to arrange a car rental booking well in advance with the international car rental operators like Thrifty, Hertz, Avis, etc., while traveling to Abu Dhabi