Renting a car at Seville Airport (SVQ)

At Seville-San Pablo airport you can rent a car in two ways: at a counter inside the arrivals building, or with an off-airport agency that collects you by shuttle. The first is quicker when you land; the second is usually keener on price, because it does not pass on the concession fee charged by the airport operator.

Almost nothing that goes wrong at SVQ is about the car. It is about the small print: the airport surcharge, the fuel policy, the amount blocked on your card, and the state of the bodywork when they hand it over first thing in the morning, before there is any light in the car park.

How pick-up works at Seville-San Pablo

SVQ has a single terminal, so there is no way to end up in the wrong building. As you leave the baggage belt, the rental counters are in the arrivals hall itself: contract, card, keys, then finding the bay in the adjoining car park.

If your agency is off-airport, your voucher will give you a meeting point, usually in the car park area, and a courtesy bus. Read that instruction before you land: the shuttle does not always leave from the arrivals door.

• Keep the voucher and booking number downloaded on your phone: coverage inside the building is patchy.
• The main driver needs a valid licence, an ID card or passport, and the credit card in their own name.
• If two of you will be driving, declare the second driver at the counter, not afterwards.

Airport, city or Santa Justa: where to collect the car

The airport does not always win. If you are taking to the road the same day you land, collect at SVQ. If you are spending your first days in the old town, collect it on the day the day trips start: the centre is a maze of narrow streets, largely pedestrian.

The airport surcharge and the extras that show up at the end

The surcharge for collecting at the airport is nobody's invention: agencies with a counter inside the building pay a concession fee to the airport operator and pass it on in the rate. What is questionable is not that it exists, but that it appears at the end, once you have already decided. The same goes for the second driver, the child seat or out-of-hours handover.

The only real defence is to ask for the total before you pay. On DRIVO the price is shown in full before you book, with the DRIVO service fee on its own line, and the security deposit and what the rental includes visible from the listing. The charges are shown at the start instead of at the end.

• Ask in writing what the price covers and what it does not, and keep the answer.
• Cover sold at the counter almost always works out worse than arranging it when you book: decide beforehand, not with a queue behind you.
• Handover or return outside office hours is usually charged: confirm it before you pick a dawn flight.

Fuel, deposit and excess

The fuel policy

The one that causes least trouble is full-to-full: you take the tank full and return it full, with a receipt from a petrol station dated the same day. There are service stations on the airport approach roads; fill up there rather than at the last one on the ring road, which tends to be closed at dawn.

The deposit and the excess

Almost every agency blocks, rather than charges, an amount on a credit card in the main driver's name. That block covers the excess: the share of any damage that falls to you. If you want to bring it down, do it when you book; on DRIVO there is an optional full-protection add-on you can add at checkout. Releasing the block depends on your bank and can take days to clear from your statement.

Inspecting the car in poor light: the decisive moment

Many flights leave Seville first thing and plenty arrive at night, so the inspection often happens in a badly lit car park. That is exactly when the scuffs appear that nobody will acknowledge later.

1. 1Switch on your phone torch and film a slow video walking right around the car.
2. 2Aim the light at what you cannot see standing up: bumper skirts, wheel rims, the roof and the pillars.
3. 3Check that everything you have seen is noted on the damage report before you sign and, if something is missing, have it added.

Returning the car without an argument

The return car park is signposted from the last access roundabout and sits a few minutes' walk from departures; with an off-airport agency, add the shuttle time. Fill the tank on the airport approach roads and keep the receipt dated that day.

1. 1Empty the car: door pockets and the seat-back pocket are where chargers get left behind.
2. 2Repeat the same round of photos with the odometer and the fuel needle visible, and ask for a signed return report or the contract-closed email.

Driving in Seville and heading out on day trips

The airport sits north-east of the city and joins the ring road by dual carriageway, so getting into the centre or out onto the motorway is straightforward. East lie Córdoba and the campiña farmland; south, Cádiz, Jerez and the coast; west, the sierra de Huelva and El Rocío. That is the real reason to rent a car in Seville.

In the old town, by contrast, a car is a burden: streets reserved for residents, single-surface roads shared with pedestrians, and controlled parking. The practical move is to leave it in a public car park on the edge of the centre and get around on foot or by tram.

• Speed for cars: 120 km/h on motorways and dual carriageways, and 90 km/h on conventional 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-surface streets shared with pedestrians.
• Alcohol limit: 0.5 g/L in blood (0.25 mg/L breath alcohol). For novice drivers who have held a licence for less than two years, and for professional drivers, 0.3 g/L in blood (0.15 mg/L breath alcohol).
• A high-visibility reflective vest reachable from inside the cabin. The emergency warning-signal system is in transition in Spain: ask the agency what the car carries and check with the DGT, the Dirección General de Tráfico, Spain's national traffic authority.
• Toll motorways, the ones designated AP-, are paid by card or with a VIA-T electronic toll device; other high-capacity roads are free.
• Low-emission zones: several Spanish cities restrict entry according to the DGT environmental sticker (0, ECO, C, B or no sticker). The rules change often: check the DGT website and that of the ayuntamiento, the city hall, before you travel, and ask the agency which sticker the car carries.