Goldcar Online Check In Service

Rental car supplier Goldcar are now offering the option of advance Checking-in On-line when booking at the Tipoa Car Hire website.

We assume that the extremely long queues experienced at the Goldcar desks in the Spanish Airports this year in particular, prompted them to create this new service.

Tipoa welcomes any innovations that may save its customers time.

But it is unclear to us how precisely this saves our clients time and, more importantly, avoids long queues.

Strangely, Goldcar themselves seem unable to explain how using their new online check in facility saves the customer time.

Of course, entering your identity document, driving license, credit card details in advance saves Goldcar staff time from having to manually enter this information in the system at the desk when you arrive.

However, it is our understanding that these documents still have to be produced at the counter.

Goldcar already operate an "Express Service" so unless completing the new online check-in forms allows you to use their "Express Service", we do not see its benefits.

If you have already used this new Goldcar service, perhaps you would be kind enough to share your thoughts with us.

You can either email our travel writer Uxía Olsson at uxiaolsson@gmail.com personally, or share your experiences on our Travel Blog so that other travellers can benefit from

your comments.

Did you really save time?, were you asked to show the same documentation again?, would you recommend it to others?

Long queues GOLDCAR Alicante Airport

GOLDCAR July 13th Alicante Airport 

A Tipoa Car Hire client arrived at Alicante airport at 16:30 hrs on the 13th July 2013.

As you can see the queue was very large at the GOLDCAR desk, with an average wait time of approximately 45-60 minutes .

If you experience similar queues at car hire rental desks around the world please email us your photos.

Include please the location the car rental company and the date and time.

We recommend that you factor in the wait / queues when booking the very cheapest car supplier. Other rental car companies that may charge a slightly higher rental rate, have much smaller queues if any at all.

Thank you Mr Eleveld for your photo.

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Review of Green Motion Car Hire Heathrow Airport

Brian based in Dusseldorf, a new Tipoa customer sent us this review of his impressions of Green Motion at London's Heathrow Airport and one of the off airport rental car suppliers:

Green Motion Office next to Holiday inn

Directly outside of Heathrow Terminal 1 after exiting the arrivals hall. is the bus stop is marked BUS STOP 3 and you take the bus number H1 marked "H1 Holiday Inn (M4)" There is a bus every 20 minutes from 04:42 and from 15:22 every 25 minutes. The bus ticket costs £4.50 single and £8.00 return. The journey time is about 15 mins (it goes via Terminal 3).

Green Motion have their rental car office located in separate building opposite the Holiday Inn entrance. I arrived on a busy Monday morning and their office was staffed with at least two people ( that I could see)  They took 15 minutes to process the paperwork. I pleasantly surprised when I was offered a very new Honda Civic with only 8,200 miles on the clock.  The overall process time was about 30 minutes, by time you check over the car.

New Honda Civic rental car

It was a similar experience when I returned the vehicle. Overall time from arriving at the Green Motion office to returning to Heathrow again was 30 minutes.

The bus did stop at two other nearby hotels, both close to the M4 motorway, but the bus journey itself was only 15 minutes.

The whole process ran very smoothly, given I arrived on a Monday morning and departed on a Saturday afternoon. - On this ocassion I can definately recommend booking online with www.tipoa.com and
there is no need to avoid Green Motion as often they are the cheapest option.

I had read on the internet some less than complimentary reviews on Green Motion, but as I was travelling on toe Swindon, their M4 location was perfect, so I decided to try them. I am glad I did as the week before again booking through Tipoa Car Hire, I was allocated SIXT and I was not at all impressed with, as their location was again off airport, and not at all convenient for me at least.

Green Motion Heathrow M4

Brian's review has been edited and we hope it will assist others. If any other customers, wish to provide similar articles on their travelling experiences, then we would be more than happy to publish it to our blog. (good or bad)

Tipoa Car Hire

Meteora- the sky city in Greece

When we talk about Greece, we imagine sunshine, cozy white little houses spread over the hills, decorated in blue, clear sky and turquoise calm sea. And history.

Meteora (Μετέωρα) is one of the largest complexes of monasteries in Greece. It's second only to famous Mount Athos in Halkidiki peninsula. Meteora is located at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly. It's about 70 km on the west of Larissa.
The nearest town is Kalambaka.

There, in the dark green mass of trees, about 60 gigantic rocks (upto 300 metres in height) are reaching high to the sky in different shapes, like towers. The monasteries are uniquely located on the top of those sharp rocks.

The exact date of the establishment of the monasteries is unknown. By the late 11th and early 12th century, a rudimentary monastic state had formed called the Skete of Stagoi and was centered around the still-standing church of Theotokos (mother of God).

In 1344, Athanasios Koinovitis from Mount Athos brought a group of followers to Metéora. From 1356 to 1372, he founded the great Meteoron monastery on Broad Rock. The only means of reaching it was by climbing a long ladder, which was drawn up whenever the monks felt threatened. There used to be twenty- four monasteries; now active are only six or seven. Each monastery has fewer than 10 inhabitants. The monasteries are now tourist attractions.

Although Meteora is one of the top Greek attractions, the place is quite isolated (seclusion is part of the monastery idea, I guess). We reached it with a rented car from Tipoa Car Hire from Thessaloniki airport. It was easy to find it after less than 3 hours drive. From the airport, we crossed Thessaloniki heading for the highway to Athens (E75). After a short drive, we followed highway E90. Both highways required partial toll payments. It costed us about 5 euro in tolls. At Grevena, we took the Exit 15 to Trikala. The road is new but it has a lot of turns (way too many :-)) There are plenty of Meteora signs on the way, so you can't miss it. A road is heading right to the top of the cliffs so you can park very near to the monasteries. Admission ticket for Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron is 2 euro. There's a striking skull room inside (scary!).



You could easily spend the whole day, wandering around the monasteries. The nearest town of Kalambaka is a tourist place so it has a lot of restaurants, taverns and little comfy hotels to stay.

Report submitted by Tipoa customer: Mr Pete Stanack (Evesham)

Returning a rental car at Alicante airport

Returning a rental car at Alicante airport. You may need to fill up the tank before returning a rental car at this airport following the "full out/ full return" fuel policy.

In this case and for your information, there is Galp petrol station opposite the new terminal building.

1. If you head to the airport from the A7 highway, take the exit "aeropuerto" through the road N338. Then in the first roundabout take the road N332 heading to Alicante.
You will be able to turn back in another roundabout and then reach the N338 road back again to the airport and the petrol station.

2. If you already drive on the N332 from any direction and heading the airport, just take the exit to the airport through the N338.

Report submitted by Tipoa customer: Mr David Hunter (Manchester)

Mrs Tip explains where the nearest petrol station is to Alicante Airport:

Centauro rent a car Valencia Manises Airport

Centauro is a Spanish rental car company that operates the Full/Empty fuel policy, when you make a reservation for more than 3 days.

Some useful information regarding their location at Valencia airport (Manises):

Like most of the car hire companies at Manises airport,Valencia Centauro have no desk at the airport terminal . Some rental car suppliers like Avis, Hertz and Europcar do have a desk , but ALL provide their customers with a prompt bus service to the nearby facilities in Manises Polygon, where the rental car fleets are located. This bus collects and delivers the customers outside Departures. On your confirmation voucher it explains this, so whether you arrive by air or to the airport by taxi, for example, you should stand just outside the airport in front of Departures and await the Centauro shuttle bus.

If you are not arriving by air, you can go directly to their office and collect your rental car. When returning a car, then you always go to the same office.

Please note that most spanish car rental companies operate a full out empty return policy. Click here for additional advice on Tipoa's FAQ page

With Centauro if you rent a car for 3 or less days, you have the chance of returning it with the tank full and the initial amount of money you paid as a deposit for the fuel when you collected the car, will be reimbursed.

I recommend that you take this option, as they charge you a premium amount for the initial full tank of fuel. So it is best that you do not return the car empty.

Filling up the tank before returning the rental car is not a problem as there are many petrol stations at Manises Polygon. i.e. just a few meters behind Centauro local there are a Repsol and also a Galp petrol stations.