Situated at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains, near the glacier-caved hiking mecca of Pikes Peak, the city of Colorado Springs is a nature lover’s paradise. Among its most revered attractions is the Garden of the Gods, where intrepid visitors come to enjoy climbing, hiking, cycling and even horseback riding, stopping only to take snaps of the park’s stunning red rock formations that adorn so many postcards.
A statue stands prominently in downtown Colorado Springs (Photo: Paul Sableman via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)
While most visitors to Colorado Springs tend to spend much of their time in the great outdoors, such is the scale of the city and its surroundings that many also choose to rent their own car during their stays for maximum convenience. You can find a number of car rental agencies in and around the city, each offering their own fleet of cars catering for varying budgets and needs. To help you find the right deal for you, we’ve selected what we consider the best agencies based in the downtown district and at the airport, as well as our favourite RV rental company for those wanting in-car amenities such as beds and kitchenettes. Here’s our pick.
For downtown rentals in Colorado Springs, we’d recommend Enterprise. Although their downtown office is only open for limited hours – especially on weekends – when we conducted some online searches for week-long rentals we were persuaded by their impressive selection of cars, from basic but reliable models like a Mitsubishi Mirage priced at $312 per week, to more premium options such as a Nissan Maxima for $418 per week. For something big and sporty, we also found a Ford Eco Sport costing an impressive $397 per week. For returns, there’s an after-hours service that lets you drop the keys off in a drop box so you don’t have to worry about the rental desk being open.
Situated 6 miles southeast of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Airport has a total of seven car rental agencies, which can all be found in the baggage claim area, as well as a handful of off-airport companies that are reachable via courtesy van services. Our choice for the best agency based at the airport is Budget, thanks to the sheer variety of their fleet. Among the best deals we found were a Ford Fiesta for just $269 per week and a Lincoln MKZ for $394 per week. The rental desk is open from 6amto 12am daily, and Budget’s car lot is a short walk from the terminal, so you should be on the road in no time. For after-hours returns, a drop box is located at the right end of the desk counter.
Outdoorsy is a peer-to-peer marketplace that invites RV owners to advertise and hire out their vehicles to people needing a short term RV rental. They come in multiple sizes and styles, from 2-person trailers to much more spacious vehicles that can sleep larger groups. One big advantage of booking an RV through a company like Outdoorsy is that you’ll often find much cheaper deals than with normal rental agencies. When we searched for RVs in Colorado Springs, we found numerous options available for pick-up across the city. Among them were a truck camper for $1,253 per week that sleeps 4 and can be picked up from the city centre, or delivered to you within a 120 mile radius. For something bigger, there was also a Rockwood Mini Lite Caravan available for an extremely affordable $861 per week that sleeps 8 and can be collected from a central location or via delivery within 50 miles. If you wish to attach insurance protection onto your package, there’s the choice to add a variety of indemnities, too./div>
