The Joy of Car Renting in Sardinia

I mentioned we had an experience renting a car in Sardinia last month, and here is the story you have all been waiting on the edge of your seat for:

We had a reservation for an automatic smart car with Thrifty for 200EUR for the week.  After waiting over an hour in their line, we find out their credit card machine isn’t working.  This would be fine, expect we have a fancy Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and the credit card numbers and name aren’t ‘raised’.  And since they were using the old system of copying the cards with carbon paper, they refused to take our credit card.  What about cash?  Nope, that wouldn’t do either.  And we were told there was nothing they could do – even though we had both a valid credit card and plenty of cash, they would not honor our reservation.  Thanks Thrifty!

So what did the guy behind the counter do to help?  He leaned over and said he would write down some other places that we could check for cars.  But the thing is – the rental car building is a small place with 20 counters all around – he only wrote down the names of the companies we could see by turning around.  Man, thanks dude!

This left Noah scrambling around the building looking for a car, because this is peak holiday season, and most cars are already taken.  We finally get ‘lucky’ with a small local business where the owner agrees to rent us the same smart car for only 450EUR.  Oh, and we have to pay 300EUR cash now as a deposit since the machines are down.  He writes down our credit card information, and we agreed to come back the next day to pay the 450EUR assuming the machines are back up. 

The next day we return as agreed, and the machines are up. We pay the 450EUR with our credit card, and ask if we can get the 300EUR cash back now.  He lets us know that this is a deposit, and we will get it back when we return the car at the end.  Ok, except that we have an early flight out – will he be there at 6am when we need to drop the car off?  No problem!  He lets us know that his hours are 6am-10pm, and of course he will be there.  Ok, but really?  6 in the morning??  I ask twice, and Noah asks for the third time.  We just don’t really believe this laid back island-Italian man.  But what are we to do?

Fast forward to the last day of our trip.  We have an 8am flight out, and arrive at the airport at 6am.  Yes, this is very early, but we assume the whole car thing will take at least 30 minutes to deal with.  When we get to the building, do you think the guy is there?  Of course he isn’t.  At 6:30 we decide to go check our bags, and return 15 minutes later to a still empty counter.  Now it is reaching 7am, and still no sign of the guy, and it is starting to look like we will be spending 750EUR for this stupid car that was supposed to cost us 200EUR.

I write out a note explaining that he wasn’t there as agreed, and he owes us a 300EUR credit on our credit card.  I then take about 25 photos of the car, and film myself returning the key.  Yes, this was a bit extreme, but I was determined to get my deposit back. 

At 7:10 we give up and head to the airport to get through security.  Our flight is in less than an hour.   As we are walking in the terminal, I realize I don’t have the rental agreement in my bag.  I ask Noah if he has it, and he can’t find it.  Uh oh – we definitely need this to fight for our money (or at least in my mind, as I am envisioning many emails and international calls to get my 300EUR back).  Noah says he will run back to check that I didn’t leave it with my urgent note on the counter.

When Noah catches back up to me, he lets me know that he has the cash!!!  When he returned to the building, the man was just showing up (7:20 at this point).  He asked Noah if he wanted to rent a car, and Noah says, “No – I am returning it and I need my cash deposit back”.  It must have been the look of irritation on Noah’s face, or maybe he realized that we were the couple that he swore he would be there at 6am for, but he reached into his cash register and handed Noah the cash.

Now this is really the kicker in our minds.  The guy never even checked the car, or checked to see if we actually returned the keys!  So what was the point of the cash deposit?? 

Ok, my rant is over.  Sardinia was an amazing vacation sandwiched between a horrible car rental experience.  And I will be boycotting Thrifty from now on.

An Italian Paradise

We spent 6 amazing days/nights in Sardinia to celebrate my birthday.  Ever since Noah’s 22^nd birthday on a beach in Greece, he has been saying that one day I will have a birthday in an amazing beach location – and 5 years later we made it happen!  Now Noah isn’t the only one who gets to celebrate his birthday in amazing locations.

Our vacation to Sardinia, a Mediterranean island south of the island of Corsica (France), was the first trip I planned when we moved here.  I randomly chose Sardinia after staring at Mediterranean Sea destinations on our giant map of Europe on our living room wall.  And I was very happy with my choice – Sardinia is full of beautiful beaches and delicious seafood.

Our trip started off rocky when we tried to pick up our rental car, but I will leave that story for a separate blog.  Instead I will pick up with us arriving at our beautiful hotel – the Hotel Gabbiano Azzurro.  We immediately changed into swimsuits to go check out the beach.  Here are a few shots from the beach, and the view from our hotel balcony.

The next day we took off in our little smart car to explore Tharros – an ancient Phoenician city on the other side of the island.  It was established in the 8^th century BC, and is now an open-air museum.  Half way to our destination was the small city of Nuoro, and we figured we could stop here for lunch.  This was our first foray into the difficulties of finding open restaurants on the island.  We drove through the city around 1pm, and couldn’t find a single place to eat.  Everything was closed.  I remembered reading somewhere that restaurants opened late for dinner, and people ate panini-style sandwiches for lunch.  Ok, but where were the sandwich places??  After worrying that we would starve, we finally found a grocery store.  Not ideal, but it is food!

We finally made it to Tharros a few hours later, and were able to explore the site by ourselves.  No one else was in it (maybe they didn’t want to pay, or were waiting for the guided tour that started an hour later), which was preferable.  We could wander the site at our own pace and immerse ourselves in the history of it all.

After walking around in the heat, it was time to head to the beach.  I had read that the beach by Tharros was the high point of the area, and they were right.  It was a beautiful sandy beach, with sandy bottoms, and crystal clear waters.  And it wasn’t crowded – a plus.  We spent the rest of the day in the water, and Noah decided this was the best beach ever.  Too bad it was over 3 hours from our hotel, otherwise we would have been back every day!

The next day we took off across the island again, but this drive was only 2 hours.  Our destination was Neptune’s Grotto (or Grotta di Nettuno) – a cave at the entrance of the sea.  To get there you start at the top of a cliff, and then traverse the 654 steps that cut along the edge of the cliff.  I was worried it would be a terrifying decent, but the escala del cabirol (goat's steps) were built very solidly and wide, so I felt rather safe.

When we reached the bottom, we entered the cave and were greeted by the cooler air.  While we didn’t go further than the entrance (it cost money, and you had to do a guided tour that was 45 minutes – we didn’t feel like it), it was still a worthwhile adventure.  The entrance to the cave alone was stunning.

Along the road we took to the grotto, we passed a few beautiful old churches.  We decided to hop out of the car and explore them both – the tall church with the tower is the Basilica della Santissima Trinità di Saccargia, and the smaller church is the San Michele di Salvenero.  They are both Tuscan Romanesque churches built in the 12^th centuries using local stone – black basalt and white limestone.   

The next day was a dedicated beach day, and this is when we found Cala Brandinchi – nicknamed la piccola Tahiti (the little Tahiti).  This was another gorgeous beach – with the perfect crescent shape and turquoise waters.  We would return to this beach a few more times during our trip.

We made it back to our hotel for another sunset dinner at the fancy restaurant.

I woke up the next day a year older, to be welcomed by a stormy day.  I wasn’t going to let the weather get in the way of enjoying my birthday, so we grabbed the SLR camera and took off to drive along the coast.  We ended back up at the Cala Brandinchi, and had the place to ourselves.  We had about an hour of rain-free time, and used the interesting lighting from the storm clouds to take quite a few photos.  

But then we started getting rained on, so we took off back north to our hotel.  The weather had cleared here, and we threw on our swimsuits and went to the hotel beach.  I have no idea why we were the only ones on this usually crowded beach, because the water was like a warm bath.  But I got 2 private beaches for my birthday thanks to the rain, so I was a happy girl.  We ended the night with take out pizza and wine, and watched one of our favorite shows I had downloaded on iTunes – Mantracker!!!

We were down to our last full day, and what do you know, we went back to Cala Brandinchi for the day!

We were given another beautiful sunset for our last night in Sardinia, and I was sad to leave the next morning.  But coming home is always wonderful when you have two little dogs greeting you at the door like long lost kings returning from battle.