Many of the tourists who annually visit the islands wonder which option is best to discover and explore the island they’re traveling to. We’ve already given you 12 reasons to do jeep safaris and now we’ll assess the pros and cons of both options, doing a jeep safari or renting a car and touring the island on your own.
Pros
– Comfort and tranquility. Most jeep tours will pick you up at your accommodation, as long as you’re staying in the assigned pick-up zones, and you won’t need to worry about anything else but enjoying the tour.
– Guided route. Tours are always done with a guide, who provides all the information about the most interesting places we visit.
– Safety and experience. The tours are done with professional and experienced companies. The drivers are experts who know the route and the cars’ capabilities. If there are any incidents during the tour, the organizing company is prepared to solve them. Meanwhile, the routes are created bearing customer satisfaction and safety in mind, as well as respect for the environment, the place’s laws and regulations, and the knowledge acquired through many years of experience searching for the best routes.
– Accessibility. Many of the sites we visit are only accessible through jeep safaris. If you damage a rental car by driving through one of the various jeep tour routes, car insurance and the car rental company won’t cover the damage to the vehicle or anyone in it.
– Language. If you don’t speak Spanish, you can enjoy the experience in any of the languages offered in the tour information.
– You don’t need a driver’s license.
– The option to discover the 8 must-see places in the Canary Islands by jeep.
Cons
– Less flexibility on the route. Unless you choose to take a private tour, jeep safaris are often subject to set times and routes.
– Price for more than 2 people. Including the costs of insurance, fuel and car rental, it’s cheaper to rent a car when there are 3 people or more.
– They won’t pick you up outside the assigned tourist areas. If you stay outside the pick-up areas established for each tour, you’ll have to go to one of these areas on your own to do the tour.
Pros
– Flexibility on the route. When you make your own route, you can decide where and when to go.
– Price for more than 2 people. Starting from 3 people, the price of the gasoline, insurance and car rental is usually cheaper than the total price a group would pay for the tour.
– More planning. Any route that you want to do on your own requires more organization and research to know where, how and why to visit certain places.
– Car insurance doesn’t cover going through certain places. To access many of the places that need to be reached by dirt and stone roads, car rental insurance doesn’t cover any incidents that may occur in these areas. For example, in Fuerteventura you can only reach Cofete beach in a safari jeep. In Gran Canaria, some of the sections of the jeep tour can only be covered in organized 4×4 tours, and the same is true for the Tenerife jeep safaris and Lanzarote routes.
– Unfamiliarity with the place. Many of the tours done by jeep require prior knowledge of the route, or else there’s a good chance of having some type of major setback
– Restlessness on the route in case of any type of incident. Depending on where you are and where you’ve been with the car, if you have a problem, neither the rental insurance nor the car rental company may be liable for the damage caused to the car or the people affected by it.
– Language. If you don’t speak Spanish, you may have communication problems under certain circumstances.
-Need to have a valid driver’s license and a minimum of 2 years of experience to be able to rent a car.
