Located 16 miles from Destin and close to Fort Walton Beach, Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS) is an airport serving north west Florida and the south of Alabama.
For those flying in and looking to rent a cheap car, Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport has the industry’s top rental car agencies conveniently located close to the baggage claim area.
Fort Walton Beach (Photo: Domenico Convertini via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)
To determine which rental car companies offer the best vehicles across our three categories (Most Affordable, Best for Luxury, Best for Minivans), TravelMag.com carefully researched prices, availability, policies and customer reviews of the 12 car rental companies operating out of VPS. Here are our findings:
Most affordable: Dollar
Despite the quantity of agencies, there isn’t a great choice of really cheap car rentals at VPS. Amongst them all, Dollar had the best deals with prices on average at least $30 cheaper than the competition. As is often the case with user feedback on car rentals, companies either receive five stars or one and Dollar is no exception to the rule. However, we did see a trend of favourable comments towards customer service and the speed of pick up. Moreover, Dollar’s counter is easy to locate so you can quickly get behind the wheel of your rented car. If, for whatever reason, you’d prefer to hire from another car rental agency, then we’d recommend Alamo that offers a diverse fleet of vehicles and boasts better customer feedback than Dollar.
Best for Luxury: Alamo
Once again, it was Dollar which had the cheapest rates in the luxury category, however, we opted for Alamo as the best option at Destin Fort Walton Beach Airport. Alamo’s fleet includes luxury vehicles, like the Cadillac XTS and large, top of the range SUVs, like the Ford Expedition. And if you want to enjoy the sunshine, you could always opt for their Ford Mustang Cabrio. Alamo is also the highest-ranked rental car company at VPS with an overall score of 9.4/1o on rentalcars.com. Users appreciated the speed of Alamo’s pick-up and drop-off times, the cleanliness of its vehicles and the overall value for money.
Best for Minivans: Dollar
Families looking for a minivan to explore this neck of the woods should head to Dollar. Dollar’s fleet includes minivans, such as the 7-seater, Nissan Quest and the 5-seater, Hyundai Santa Fe and the popular SUV, Toyota Rav4. As mentioned before, Dollar picks up mixed customer reviews, however, the difference in pricing between their cheapest minivans and those belonging to other agencies is so great, we decided they deserved the recommendation. For those people who’d prefer an agency with better customer feedback, then we’d suggest either Alamo or Enterprise.