Renting a car is by far the best way to travel around Winnipeg and Manitoba as public transport is limited to a bus services. Some of the great day trip options available to visitors include Spruce Woods Provincial Park, Pembina Valley and the splendid lake town of Gimli.
Winnipeg International Airport (Photo: Robert Linsdell via Flickr / CC-BY-2.0)
On site at Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG) there are four rental companies: Avis, Enterprise, Hertz and National, with the counters located on the main level of the 4-tier Parkade.
To select the best of the multiple options on offer, Travelmag.com have conducted research across several dates to come up with the results shown below. We’ve split our findings into three categories: Most Affordable, Best for Luxury and Best for Minivans – so all the major bases are covered.
Most affordable: National
Before looking at the most affordable cars at YWG, it is worth knowing that Canadian winters can be extreme and drivers need to take great care when driving on icy and snowy roads. Drivers unfamiliar with such conditions should drive cautiously and if in any doubt, you should rent a vehicle more suited to icy conditions and get extra insurance. Outside of winter, we’d recommend National as the best company for cheap car rentals. Looking in late spring, they offer 5-seaters like the Ford Focus GPS, Hyundai Accent and the Kia Rio at under $90 per day. National receives the best overall customer feedback on rentalcars.com obtaining an excellent overall score of 9.2/10. Open: Monday to Sunday; 7.30am – 1am.
Best for luxury cars: Hertz
With only four agencies to choose from in YWG airport, the choice of luxury cars is rather limited. Alamo has the largest selection but when it comes to price, Hertz has the best daily prices offering a Toyota Corolla at a remarkable $65 and the popular SUV Ford Edge at $110 per day. In addition to its excellent rates, Hertz gets very good customer feedback and if you book through rentalcars.com, Hertz offers an extra incentive of free cancellation 48 hours before pick-up, unlimited mileage and some of the lowest waiting times at the airport. Open: Monday to Sunday; 7am – 1am.
Best for Minivans: Thrifty & Alamo
The Dodge Grand Caravan is one of the region’s most popular minivans, so it’s no surprise to find so many of them at Winnipeg International Airport. In this competitive category, most of the rental car companies have prices starting around $85 per day, but on our sample dates Thrifty was renting them out at a mere $68 per day. For slightly larger groups, Alamo rents out the 8-seater Chrysler Town and Country. This vehicle is a slight notch up on similarly sized minivans: known to be easy to drive, it has a plush interior and is surprisingly fuel efficient. Thrifty Open: Monday to Sunday; 7.30am – 12am.