Choosing the Right Car For Your Vacation
What kind of transport will do the trick if you’re exploring Western Australia and you need a car hire?
Hamersley Street down from the Court House
Broome is a great place to visit because it’s big enough to offer just about everything you want in a vacation place. It’s strategically positioned as a good launching place if you’re aching to visit the vast, beautiful lands of the Kimberley.
Arriving in Broome
You’ll find Broome situated on a peninsula that runs vertically, north and south. Both sides of the peninsula offer you many exciting places to travel and wonderful sights to see, with all three borders surrounded by water. You can fly in via the Broome International Airport and arrange a car hire for Broome right at the airport. The airport, by the way, is at the northwest corner of the peninsula, so once you choose a vehicle you have the rest of the area to the south awaiting you.
The good news is everything is within a 15 minute drive unless you have a Dampier peninsula trip planned.
Let Your Destination Be Your Guide
In making your decision on a rental vehicle, you must consider where you’re going. Most agencies have several types of cars or four-wheel-drive vehicles available. Your choices start with a typical passenger vehicle like the Holden Barina or a Toyota Corolla, which holds five passengers.
Those types of vehicles are best for traveling on sealed roads, if you like to do a lot of sightseeing and shopping in the main areas. If you’re traveling in the dry season, expect to pay about $58 to $68 per day. In the wet season—say, November, for example—you’ll pay about $5 less per day.
One of these vehicles makes a good choice if you just want to golf at Roebuck Bay, but if you plan on driving out along the Bay’s alluring beaches you’ll need something more robust.
The same holds true if your destination is exciting, pristine Cable Beach. There you will find 22 kilometres of sparkling white sand for your pleasure.
It’s also home to one of the world’s most famous secluded nude beaches, but there are also stretches where clothing is worn. Instead of a traditional car hire, Broome in this area requires a sturdier choice, something that travels well off the road. Four-wheel-drive vehicles make it possible to drive pretty far out on the beach during low tide.
It’s a good idea to ask the car rental agent about the area you plan to visit. For example, at times 4WD vehicles are temporarily banned in order to protect the flatback turtles that breed there.
Most car hires in Broome offer a variety of four-wheel-drive (also identified as 4×4 or 4WD) vehicles. You’ll find that a Suzuki Jimny, for the person who likes manual drive, holds four people in crisp air-conditioned comfort. A Suzuki won’t cost much more than a Corolla.
Traveling the Great Northern Highway south of Broome, toward the Eighty-Mile Beach perhaps for some of the most spectacular sunsets off the Indian Ocean, a 2WD car hire from Broome will do the trick. The roads aren’t sealed from the Great Northern Highway turn off to80 mile beach but they are suitable for a vehicle less rugged than a 4WD.
Most places will offer something like a Toyota SUV with automatic transmission if that’s your preference, which holds five. Expect to pay $89 for a 4WD of that size. As with most rentals, you’ll pay about $5 more per day in the height of summer and you’ll pay $5 more if you hire the vehicle for a day rather than for a week. They’re great for going to more out-of-the-way places like a drive south, down to Miniyirr Park, if you’d like to steep yourself in the culture of the Aborigines.
Ask For Value-Added Deals
There are many self-drive packages available so that you can hire a car for a day or more with extras included. Ask your dealer what type of mileage per day is free with specific car hires. In addition, you might get some tickets to specific attractions such as Willie Creek Pearl Farm—keep in mind that it’ll cost you $10 more per day in high season.
Another special deal that comes with a car hire in Broome is a trip to Cape Leveque, where you can stay in a safari tent. You can rent something like a Toyota Prado that seats as many as eight people, have unlimited mileage, and enjoy two nights’ accommodation in the tent. Other deals might provide a car rental and also a ticket for a camel ride.
In the end you really need to plan your trip before you decide on a car hire.
Broome offers so much that your choices are endless. When you query rates be certain that all taxes and fees are included.
Talk to the car hire agent for advice or updates on local conditions at any given time, and you’ll be on your way to having a wonderful adventure.
Alternatively, consider a scooter or bicycle hire as everything you need to soak up Broometime really is within a 10km radius.
For everything you need to know about Broome, make sure to visit the Broome Tides blog.
