Rental Cars
I reserved my car ahead of time on the rental car app. For this trip I used Hertz. The Hertz rental cars are in a garage located across the street from the airport. I was able to pick up my car without issue, but the car assigned to me was much larger than what I requested and was brand new.
You may be wondering why that would be a problem! Mallorca’s roads are notoriously small and parking is difficult. I could tell by looking at the car (it was a large Peugeot SUV) that it would be difficult to park in small or tight places and the fact that the SUV was brand new, I would be charged for any dents or scratches made to the car which the chances were exponentially higher parking a large car!
Also, I could tell the SUV would be difficult to navigate because the windows were quite small, making it hard to see out the back window and blind spots. I should have exchanged the rental, but by the time my family and I had made it to the car, everyone was very tired and wanted to go to the hotel as soon as possible and the rental car staff is not co-located with the cars. There wasn’t anyone in the garage to ask for assistance.
I should have listened to my gut! The SUV was very nice, but it was very difficult to navigate during the week. Plus, I was always stressed someone would ding it. Rental car agencies are becoming a lot more diligent in charging customers with minor dings to the cars. In many places, companies are now relying on full body auto scans versus utilizing their own people to check the car for dings which I have heard are not always accurate. As such, I highly recommend doing the following when renting a car (this goes for anywhere in the world):
Roads
There are highways that can help you traverse the island efficiently, but the mountainous topography makes the smaller roads a lot more difficult to navigate even for experienced drivers.
Many of these roads are narrow and wind up and down the mountain ranges.
With so many turns, it can be difficult to see the road ahead.
As such, drivers need to maintain slower speeds to avoid hitting cars in the incoming direction when rounding the turns.
Share the Road!
Roads in Small Towns
Roads in Small Towns
Cycling is an extremely popular sport in Mallorca. In the week I spent there, I have never seen so many avid cyclists on the road in my life! They love going up and down these mountainous roads, especially in groups, so drivers really need to be careful not to hit them.
I am happy for the cyclists to have this beautiful playground, but I can’t remember a time I was this stressed driving! It was difficult navigating narrow roads with numerous sharp turns and so many groups of cyclists.
These conditions also doubled my estimated driving times all week so I had to constantly change my schedule because I could not do as much as I had originally planned. GPS systems will give you an estimated time for arrival and will take traffic into consideration but not cyclists!
Roads in Small Towns
Roads in Small Towns
Roads in Small Towns
The roads are also very narrow in the towns and in the city of Palma. Some were so narrow, my SUV would not fit in them! There were a few times I had that issue in the first part of the week where I had to quickly put my car in reverse and turn around. I would first make sure the coast was clear – if it wasn’t, I would put emergency lights on and waved cars on until I had the room to back up and turn my car around.
This was an ongoing problem in the first few days that I wound up devoting every night researching ahead of the time, maps of the roads and parking options of the places we were going to visit the following day to figure out what I could do (or not!) with the car.
For parking options, I also had to take into consideration finding parking close to the places we were visiting so we didn’t have to navigate far with a wheelchair.
I would use resources like Google Earth & Maps and Apple Maps to determine 1) road size – did I think the car could navigate the roads or would I have to leave it somewhere else nearby; and 2) parking options close to where we wanted to go.
These resources are useful in using the satellite option or “on the street” view of the location. I was able to see what the places looked like, how narrow the streets were (you can tell a few different ways – if any cars are parked on the street, and if so, their size).
Also, where the cars are parked, some streets are so narrow, the cars park on the sidewalk - not on the actual street and they are usually wider than the sidewalk taking up more room in the street, making the roads even narrower. I was able to determine in advance what my options were for the car and plan accordingly.
Parking
Before traveling to Mallorca, I looked at guidebooks and online for information on driving so I knew the general rules of the road and some of the street signs.
What I wasn’t prepared for until I had to deal with it on the first day of driving were the rules for parking – parking garages and street parking.
