Hiring car infant seats on holiday

We're heading off to Menorca in a couple of weeks, when we were there last year we hired a car from Avis with a front facing child seat for Carpenter Junior. Now this year we will have two children, Carpenter Junior II being only two months old. I've already emailed AVIS and they tell me they can only supply a front facing car seat suitable for a baby 9 months and older. This would seem to suggest that we'll have to bring our own car seat for Junior II, what a nuisance? Has anyone else done this or is there something I'm missing??

I've used Carjet before in Spain and found them pretty good, and their website for Mahon airport in Menorca that their car seats are 'suitable for young children from approximately 6 months of age until 2-3 years of age'.

[broken link removed], also good, distinguish between
'Child Seat For Baby (0-12 Mnth)' and
'Child Seat for Toddler (1-3 Yrs)'.

Might be worth checking out? I've found both companies to be pretty on-the-ball in terms of responding promptly to queries, etc.

Thanks Dr, will check it out.

You'll probably find that the cost of a couple of weeks rental exceeds the cost of buying additional seat(s) and bringing them with you.

That's true. Also, your own one is probably better suited/of better quality than the one you might get from a car hire company. If (like many recent models) it has a carrying handle and maybe one of those rocking-chair bases with little storage compartments:
— it can come in very handy in a situation where you need your hands/arms free. With five of my own, believe me, I know a bit about the 'sherpa' syndrome...

IIRC, most airlines don't count these as part of your hand luggage allowance and will usually arrange (as with a buggy) to have it waiting for you at the bottom of the steps when you disembark.

I guess it depends on how long you're going for and how much other gear you've to lug with you...

We're only going for a week and we really only want to hire a car for a couple of days, so hiring a seat is not really an obstacle. Thanks for all the feedback folks, I especially like the "sherpa" analogy!

Just on this issue, hiring a car seat in Ireland is extremely expensive. We were charged €45 for one days rental of a car seat ( from AVIS ) when hiring a car last year. When one of my brothers used to come on holidays with his children to Ireland he used to buy a new seat each time and leave it behind him when returning home. It was cheaper ( much).

God, that's appalling! On the Argus site I linked to above the charge is €2.00 per day for each seat; ditto for www.doyouspain.com.

Yeah, was pretty annoyed at the time- it cost almost as much as the car itself. Just looked on avis.ie now and saw the following :

Child safety seat €40.00 including VAT and are available on request only
Suitable for weights 9-18 KGS / 20-40 LBS.

Click to expand...

Maybe it was (only) €40. We were caught unaware because we booked last minute in a hurry, got a quote for the car and enquired on the telephone as to the availability of the car seat afterwards without thinking of asking for the price - never thought it would be as much.

Rented with a local company in the end, basic car was provided with basic baby seats- more than did the job. I'd never consider bringing our own child seat with us, too much baggage to carry as it is and apart from that isn't there a good chance that your seat could be damaged in this way? Thanks for all the feedback folks.