November Trip

S

steelpe

SBH Insider
Well, after a bit of a delay, my wife and I are planning on traveling back to the island for this upcoming Thanksgiving. We currently have our flights (ouch!) and villas booked. This time we will be traveling with our 8yo daugther who will be experiencing the island for the first time.

As our continuing plans unfold, I will have lots of questions that I will have (sorry in advance).

-In regards to a rental car, we have an option to rent an electric vehicle. Has anyone done this before when visiting the island. I am not necessarily a “green” person, but am more interested in not having to go to the petrol station during my stay. I wonder how compatible these electric vehicles are with villas?

-In regards to my daugther. She is not an overly picky eater. We make her try almost everything once and she is somewhat a sport about it. Will we be able to share out plates with her?
 
We have an electric car at home and looked into renting one on the island last winter but after checking, found that our accommodations did not allow for charging so went old school gasoline. I'm thinking you'll want to confirm with your villa owner because each one is setup differently. However, I wouldn't do it because of ease. I don't think we have ever had to refill mid-week and we just make one stop across from the airport at the end of our vacation to refill the tank before returning the rental car to avoid the surcharge.

Children in restaurants are usually very happily accommodated. No one will mind if you share your food with her. I would be cognizant that needing a table for 3 likely means a high end restaurant is giving up a table for 4 and so is arguably losing a few hundred dollars. I'm sure they won't actively complain, but in fairness, you might consider letting them know when making the reservation that it is two adults and an eight year old so they can know to squeeze you into a 2 person table as a tight and happy family and make it win win for everyone.
 
We own an electric car on-island and do love the convenience, but do check with your villa owner/rental company in advance as some villas do not allow charging or do not have an available plug in the garage, etc. Also, it can be tricky not to blow the fuse when charging the car and doing other things. For instance, at our home, I cannot run the oven, dishwasher, clothes washer or an iron while the car is charging and having the a/c running. Something I have learned the hard way!
 
We have rented the Renault Zoe the past few times on the island, but only because our hotel (Le Village) has some charging stations. Important to note that these are NOT Level 2 charging stations, but simply pulling from a standard voltage outlet. With that, charging times are much longer. If you make the mistake, like we did once, of letting the car go a few days without charging and you get down to 30%, you'll easily be looking at 15+ hours to recharge to 100%.

You'll be best off if you charge daily or every other day overnight.

Other than that, we've found the EV to be far better suited for the hills of the island than most of the smaller engines in these sub-compact rental cars. The Zoe absolutely flies up the hills when you need it to, and it feels nice not having to worry about dealing with the gas station so long as you have access to easy charging.
 
Happycamper said:
We have an electric car at home and looked into renting one on the island last winter but after checking, found that our accommodations did not allow for charging so went old school gasoline. I'm thinking you'll want to confirm with your villa owner because each one is setup differently. However, I wouldn't do it because of ease. I don't think we have ever had to refill mid-week and we just make one stop across from the airport at the end of our vacation to refill the tank before returning the rental car to avoid the surcharge.

Children in restaurants are usually very happily accommodated. No one will mind if you share your food with her. I would be cognizant that needing a table for 3 likely means a high end restaurant is giving up a table for 4 and so is arguably losing a few hundred dollars. I'm sure they won't actively complain, but in fairness, you might consider letting them know when making the reservation that it is two adults and an eight year old so they can know to squeeze you into a 2 person table as a tight and happy family and make it win win for everyone.
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An interesting and highly considerate suggestion... However, we are bringing our 9 year old in June and I certainly will not be doing this. We do always order something separately for her. And the amount spent on wine will typically justify the four-top.
 
Thank you for all of the information.

In regards to the car, it's pretty much in line with what I was thinking. For a week trip I usually only visit the petrol station the night before we leave. However, we are staying 9 nights this time (to make up for some lost time). Also, my wife is glacial with getting ready to go out in the morning, never mind when she is on vacation. So I am envisioning lots of trips with my daugther around the island while my wife gets up and gets ready (probably requiring an extra trip to the petrol station).

We used to rent a Terios, however, I remember reading they were discontinued by the manufacturer. What is a suitable alternative, preferably something that we can store luggage in as we need to switch villas 1/2 way through our stay? Our current options are a Renault Duster and a Suzuki Vitara. I have no experience with either of these. I would like something somewhat small... but a Jimny is not in the cards as we need to be able to transport our luggage to the villa.
 
We rented Terios through Gumbs for years, then Odile encouraged us to try an Ignus - whatever on earth it is - and it is a Wonderful and Economical replacement for the Terios! Ample storage, quick response and takes the big hills easily. Try Gumbs, our favorite. Odile will take care of you!
 
Check out the VW T-Roc convertible! There’s trunk space. The rates are not too bad either for the weekly rate.
 
steelpe said:
Thank you for all of the information.

In regards to the car, it's pretty much in line with what I was thinking. For a week trip I usually only visit the petrol station the night before we leave. However, we are staying 9 nights this time (to make up for some lost time). Also, my wife is glacial with getting ready to go out in the morning, never mind when she is on vacation. So I am envisioning lots of trips with my daugther around the island while my wife gets up and gets ready (probably requiring an extra trip to the petrol station).

We used to rent a Terios, however, I remember reading they were discontinued by the manufacturer. What is a suitable alternative, preferably something that we can store luggage in as we need to switch villas 1/2 way through our stay? Our current options are a Renault Duster and a Suzuki Vitara. I have no experience with either of these. I would like something somewhat small... but a Jimny is not in the cards as we need to be able to transport our luggage to the villa.
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We have had a Kia Soul we rent from Turbe. We are both very tall people and the car is comfortable. Has 4 doors and guests in back are not crammed in. The service has been wonderful for the several months we have been here.
 
Steelpe, we drove our daughter around in the back of a mini convertible and she loved it and we have the smiling photos to prove it. She was 24 at the time and didn't mind the squeeze so an eight year old probably wouldn't even notice that the back seat is minimal. I really like having a small car on island and would do the extra drive back and forth for luggage in exchange for being able to navigate and park in Gustavia more easily. If the T-Roc has trunk space maybe that is a good alternative.
 
Happycamper said:
Steelpe, we drove our daughter around in the back of a mini convertible and she loved it and we have the smiling photos to prove it. She was 24 at the time and didn't mind the squeeze so an eight year old probably wouldn't even notice that the back seat is minimal. I really like having a small car on island and would do the extra drive back and forth for luggage in exchange for being able to navigate and park in Gustavia more easily. If the T-Roc has trunk space maybe that is a good alternative.
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We haven't officially decided on a vehicle yet. I have always been intrigued by a mini, but for me, I'm not sure it's worth the extra cash (wife probably wouldn't want to drive around with the top down.... and I would probably be scared of damaging the vehicle in some way). As I stated, we were forced to switch villas 1/2 way though our trip, so at this point we will need to transport our bags multiple times. Therefore, we are looking into a small SUV.
 
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