Car rental or public transportation

[stilltraveling]

Rental cars are targets for thieves and bandits (yes, real highwaymen, stagecoach robber types). You can rent a taxi for an entire day for about the same price as most rental cars, but the taxi driver serves as a guide for free!

[eagles100]

Originally Posted by elchante

Oh, and I'm going to guess and say that it's probably 25 to 30 miles between the two (Jocotepec & Vista de Lago).

Elchante: being 25-30 miles between the two places, how long does that take about, going on the carretera?

[eagles100]

Originally Posted by stilltraveling

Rental cars are targets for thieves and bandits (yes, real highwaymen, stagecoach robber types). You can rent a taxi for an entire day for about the same price as most rental cars, but the taxi driver serves as a guide for free!

Do the rental cars have stickers on the bumpers to indicate they are rentals? I think they stopped doing that in Canada a while back to stop thefts in those cars since most travellers have stuff with them on their vacation.

[elchante]

Originally Posted by eagles100

Elchante: being 25-30 miles between the two places, how long does that take about, going on the carretera?

I've never actually timed it, and I don't go to Vista del Lago very often, but i would guesstimate 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how busy the carretera is. In October, the traffic should not be too bad. However, you have to slow down going through Chapala since you will be going through the middle of town and then have to drive fairly slowly north to catch the highway to Vista del Lago. From then on, however, it's smooth sailing on a nice road with only a few topes.

As your arrival gets closer, feel free to contact me via this webboard or my blogsite to set up a time that you would like me to show you around the Joco area.

[eagles100]

So do you all agree that the cost of a taxi is about 120-150 pesos per hour?

What are the taxis like? Are they recent vehicles? Do most have a/c?

Do most of the taxi drivers keep their windows down? I'm terrified of bees and generally never have my car windows down.

[eagles100]

We have made a decision ......... we are gonna rent a car. Our travel agent has made the reservation. It's gonna be Dollar Car Rental and the price for 2 weeks, before the insurance, comes to $229.53 US. I'm waiting on the price of insurance and know it's a bunch. If others want to rent a car, there currently is a rebate of 5% with Dollar, the code is: LAT05 which covers Mexico. What Google can find you huh?

Thanks to all for your replies; it was a kinda 50-50 on the responses and we saw the validity of both choices.

Side-note, United Airlines changed our flights and now we get to leave from our home town instead of driving 12 hours to go out of a larger airport, thanks again to our travel agent who fought to have the tickets changed without penalties. It would have been $150 each to change the tickets even though they changed our flights which meant we would have arrived in Guadalajara in the evening instead of the afternoon which would have entailed getting a room near the airport. We won't drive in Mexico at night.

[chicois8]

Just perfect, you can use the $150 to pay for the rent a car...

[eagles100]

Originally Posted by chicois8

Just perfect, you can use the $150 to pay for the rent a car...

Well yes but being we are 2, that's $300 so that pays for the car rental minus the insurance.

[chicois8]

I ment your 300 dollars will be needed for insurance, I always figure about $375 a week to rent a car in Mexico...

[eagles100]

Originally Posted by chicois8

I ment your 300 dollars will be needed for insurance, I always figure about $375 a week to rent a car in Mexico...

Yeah, I realize the insurance is expensive, a bit too much.