Island Of Guam Car Rental Choices
If you plan to travel to Guam then you just might need to rent a car. Well here’s a review of my experience.
There are plenty of car rental companies on Guam; maybe between twenty to thirty brands. That’s quite a bit of competition for such a small island with a population of about 170,000 (Guam is about 38 miles from top to bottom). However competition is good right? Well there seems to be a few select car rentals and the one I selected was one of them which, in the end, was a great choice. Although car rental prices on Guam are a little higher than in the States I got a new car for a comparatively lower rate than the other brand name car rental companies.
Their customer service was above average and they’re office is about 5 minutes from the airport. But they did have free pick-up service to the airport and from the airport so no problem. I later realized that since they weren’t inside the terminal they didn’t charge a 10% airport fee like the car rental companies that had a counter inside the airport. So it’s either convenience or price but really it was only a few minutes away from the airport so it really wasn’t a question. The agents were quite friendly and they gave me some directions as well as a guide map of Guam since Guam doesn’t seem to have any road signs (I heard this is from the occasional typhoon that swipes them away.).
Driving in Guam is somewhat of an adventure in itself. Guam is situated between Asia and the States and so please let me borrow this analogy and refer it the driving styles on Guam. If you’ve been in some Asian cities like Manila or Taipei you’ll know what I mean. It’s like the lines on the road and the intersection lights are only useful for decoration.
In Guam it isn’t that extreme. You just have to be careful when going through the lighted intersections because the locals tend to keep on driving through even when the stop light is between yellow and red! It seems even some of the military personnel that have been stationed here for a while have begun the same driving habits. Also some of the older roads are made of corral reef which can become very slippery when driving in the rain. Although one of the perks of living on a tropical island is you’ll find out that many times when it rains it can be sunny at the same. Kind of a nice effect.
As with everywhere else fuel isn’t cheap nowadays however you’ll be surprised to find out it is cheaper than California especially when the fuel is purchased inside the Anderson Air Force Base and US Naval Base Guam.
The car rental companies that I inquired with had the island friendly mentality that seems evident in most Pacific tropical Islands. Since the market is limited they do compete with each other so I’d suggest shopping around and asking several companies for rates however I liked their “client” like service and they gave one of the lowest rates. So I give my props to them and if you plan to travel to the island of Guam check out this car rental company.
