Renting a car at Palma de Mallorca airport (PMI)

At Palma de Mallorca airport, Son Sant Joan, you can rent a car in one of two ways: at a desk inside the terminal itself, on the arrivals level, or at an office outside the airport grounds that a free shuttle takes you to. Both are perfectly legitimate; what changes is the time you lose, what you end up paying, and the queue waiting for you on a Saturday in August.

The practical rule for Mallorca is short: book far ahead if you are travelling in summer, read the fuel and deposit policy before you pay, and film the car from top to bottom before you leave the car park. On an island where the car is what opens up the Serra de Tramuntana and the northern coves, the problem is almost never finding a vehicle — it is reaching the desk knowing exactly what you have signed up for.

How pick-up works at Son Sant Joan

Son Sant Joan is a European-scale airport, with several boarding modules and an enormous concourse, but all the car rental is concentrated downstairs, in the arrivals area. If your company has a desk in the terminal, you will find it in that concourse, on the same level you walk out of baggage reclaim, and the car will be in the airport car park. If it does not, the shuttle meeting point is usually outside, across the parking area, and the signage is not always obvious with a suitcase in each hand and a child hanging off your arm.

A desk inside the terminal

• In favour: from plane to car with no transfers, which is worth its weight in gold with child seats, surfboards or a lot of luggage.
• Against: at the summer afternoon arrivals peak, the concourse queue can swallow a long hour of your holiday.
• Online check-in helps, but it does not always skip the queue: ask whether the company hands over the key in a locker or with a code.

An off-site office and the shuttle

• In favour: this is where many independent and local agencies are, with more restrained rates and a more personal welcome.
• Against: you add the bus transfer in both directions, and that weighs heavily when you return the car for an early-morning flight.
• Before you fly, ask in writing exactly where the shuttle stops and how often it runs at night and first thing in the morning.

Airport, central Palma or a village: where to collect

Not everybody should collect at the terminal. If you spend your first days in Palma, a parked car is an expense and a nuisance: the capital walks well and the regulated zone is unforgiving. If, on the other hand, you land at night and sleep in the north, every extra transfer is paid for in tiredness. This table sums up the four real scenarios on the island.

Summer rules everything: high season and shoulder season

Mallorca does not have flat demand across the year, and that shapes the whole rental market. The summer peak crams into a few weeks a volume of arrivals you never see the rest of the year, and the island's fleet is what it is: new cars do not arrive by boat because a lot of people turned up that weekend.

• In July and August, booking months ahead is not overcautious: it is what everybody does who does not want to be left with the leftovers.
• The shoulder season hands you the island's best driving: empty mountain roads, accessible coves and far more choice of vehicle.
• In winter there are cars to spare, but some resort-area offices cut their hours or close; check before you count on them.
• In high season, road access to the terminal clogs up at peak hours. Leave your accommodation earlier than the satnav tells you to.

Checking the car in poor light and dropping it off at dawn

Plenty of flights leave Palma at the very first hour, so returning the car in full darkness is the norm rather than the exception. It is also when most charges appear afterwards, because nobody inspects a bumper properly in the dark and in a hurry. Give it a few minutes and you save yourself an email argument three weeks later.

1. 1Before you leave the car park, film a slow video of the whole car: all four corners, the underside of the bumpers, the roof, the wheel rims and the windscreen.
2. 2In poor light, use your phone torch and get close. Kerbed rims and windscreen chips are the most common charges on the island.
3. 3Ask for any pre-existing damage to be written into the handover report and keep it until your deposit is released.
4. 4On return, repeat the video with the time visible. If you leave the key in a locker, photograph the odometer, the fuel level and the key already inside the box.

Surcharges, fuel and deposit: where the nasty surprises hide

Almost no rental surprise is really a mystery: it comes down to four or five items that are poorly explained at the moment of booking. Ask about them before you pay and the desk stops being frightening.

• Airport surcharge: a premium for operating inside the airport grounds. What matters is not that it exists, but whether it is already inside the price you are looking at.
• Fuel policy: the cleanest is to collect with a full tank and return it full. Be wary of prepaid-tank formulas, because what you do not burn rarely comes back.
• Deposit: it is a hold on your credit card. Ask how much is held, when it is released and whether they accept a debit card, because many offices do not.
• Excess: with basic cover, part of any damage stays on you. Understanding that figure before signing is what prevents the row afterwards.
• Extras: an additional driver, child seats, a bike rack or permission to take the car onto a ferry are contracted separately and should be declared.

Driving around Mallorca without drama

The rules are the same as everywhere in Spain, but the island has its own character behind the wheel: narrow mountain roads, a lot of cyclists and villages with streets designed for carts. These are the points that genuinely matter.

• Limits for cars: 120 km/h on motorways and dual carriageways, and 90 km/h on ordinary roads outside built-up areas.
• In town: 50 km/h on roads with two or more lanes per direction, 30 km/h on roads with a single lane per direction, and 20 km/h on single-platform streets shared with pedestrians.
• Alcohol: the general limit is 0,5 g/L in blood, equivalent to 0,25 mg/L in exhaled air. For novice drivers with less than two years of licence and for professional drivers it is 0,3 g/L in blood, equivalent to 0,15 mg/L in exhaled air.
• Equipment: a high-visibility reflective vest must be reachable from inside the cabin. The emergency warning system is in transition in Spain, so check the DGT website — the national traffic authority — for what the car must carry before you travel.
• Low-emission zones: Palma restricts access to its centre according to the DGT environmental sticker, enforced by plate-reading cameras. The rules and the scope change often; check the DGT and the ayuntamiento, the city council, before you drive in.
• Parking in the capital: white lines are free, blue lines are the regulated zone and need a ticket from the meter, and yellow lines mean no parking. Underground car parks save a lot of laps of the old town.
• Serra de Tramuntana: tight hairpins, pelotons of cyclists and single-lane stretches with passing places. A small car is a smart choice, not a sacrifice, and it pays to refuel on the plain because filling stations are scarce up there.
• Summer access restrictions: some approaches to the northern headlands and coves close to private cars during certain hours in high season. The ayuntamientos and the Consell de Mallorca, the island council, manage this, it changes every year and it is worth confirming on the day.

Where DRIVO fits into all this

DRIVO is a European marketplace for renting vehicles directly from trusted independent and local rental agencies, and also from private owners, across Europe and North Africa. What it solves at an airport like Son Sant Joan is the part that goes wrong most often: the price. You see every cost before you pay, including DRIVO's service fee, which appears as its own line and is refunded if you cancel free of charge or if the agency cancels. Confirmation is instant, free cancellation runs up to 48 hours before pick-up, and the security deposit and what the rental includes are visible before you book rather than at the desk. At checkout you can add an optional full-protection add-on to lower the excess. Support runs through WhatsApp and an in-app concierge, and listings and support are available in five languages. Beyond cars, the catalogue covers vans, motorhomes and campervans where local supply exists — which on Mallorca is exactly what people touring the island without a fixed hotel are looking for.