Electric or hybrid car in Tromsø: which agency to rent from, and what to watch out for

Alright! It’s time to plan your trip to Tromsø. And that brings up a whole pile of questions, starting with the car. Working out whether you need to rent one (and from whom) matters just as much as wondering which hotel to go for or the best things to do in Tromsø. Basically, it’s a fundamental question. But one that depends above all on what you want to do with your holiday.

We’ll get to it in a moment, but renting a car isn’t essential, because you can get by perfectly well without one: there are plenty of tour operators, there’s public transport even if it’s nothing special, and there’s a whole pile of activities.

Still, renting a car gives you flexibility, the freedom to go and find lovely spots, like this one-week itinerary around Tromsø.

On the other hand, if you do want to rent a car, here are the points to watch out for, in short:

• if you’re coming in winter, driving on snow is something else, read the next article to find out how to drive in Tromsø
• book ahead because prices climb fast as the number of visitors goes up
• definitely compare, to find the best prices, to avoid the bad agencies, and also to compare the comparison sites themselves, because they have different commercial deals (we’ll come to that next, but I mostly use Discover Cars, really reliable, and also Rental Cars (now called Booking Cars)
• there’s no such thing as a “best rental company”, as long as you take the usual precautions (photos at the start and at the end), go for unlimited mileage and check the reviews on the comparison sites
• and insurance is strongly recommended, especially if you’re not used to driving in these conditions 🙂

Right, let’s dig into all of that!

Electric car or hybrid (combustion-engine) car: which one should you rent in Tromsø?

This is genuinely the question I’ve been asked most this year: should you rent an electric car, or is it too complicated.

Because yes, Norway is THE country of the electric car, they’re the best-selling cars, everyone here has at least one. It’s true that it has plenty of advantages, the main one being (especially as things stand right now): driving costs a lot less. A charge (the equivalent of a full tank) costs far less than with a hybrid or a combustion-engine car.

On top of that, an electric car is cheaper to rent too.

But there are two questions to face here:

• when you’re travelling, because in winter batteries drain much faster
• where you’re going, so you don’t end up with a charging problem and break down in a Norwegian forest (I’m pretty sure a horror film must start exactly like that)

We’ll go through all of it below, but the season plays a decisive role.

You’re travelling in winter

If you’re going to Tromsø in the depths of winter, renting a car is less obvious. The main reason is range, because in deep cold, batteries empty much faster.

A car with an official range of 500 km will do 250 km here. That’s barely one day of driving around Tromsø. And even less if you head out to see the northern lights.

So honestly, yes you can rent an electric car “but” there are a few drawbacks, let’s sum them all up:

• advantages:
  • an electric car costs less to rent
  • charging also costs waaaay less
• drawbacks:
  • if you’re doing a lot of driving in winter, you’ll need to charge once or twice, so you have to find out where the charging points are
  • if you’re planning to go see the northern lights by car a fair way out (in Finland, for instance), then you need to be really careful, because there aren’t that many charging points. You REALLY have to plan for it and charge whenever you get the chance, even if you still have room to spare.

So for money reasons, I’d say “yes, you can rent an electric car” but plan all of this, especially when you head out for the lights. We’ll go into the details in the organisation section.

A hybrid car doesn’t have these drawbacks. It costs more to rent, a full tank really is expensive, but you’re in the clear on consumption (if you want a hybrid, look at the Toyotas, it’s crazy how little they use).

Oh, and if you’re planning to head to Senja, then I’d advise against an electric car: for now it’s tricky in the tourist areas, meaning the northern and western fjords. Most of the charging points are in the towns down south.

You’re travelling outside winter

That’s a lot simpler. The battery keeps its normal range, which is something decent, between 300 and 500 km, and honestly that’s enough that you won’t have to worry about where to find a charging point.

Your main concern will be knowing where to charge. But you can absolutely head off exploring for the day without any trouble. Charge when you get back and you can set off again for the lights or make the most of the midnight sun.

In short, really, if you’re travelling outside the cold season, an electric car is a real advantage and has no major drawback, it’s entirely up to you.

But I’ll stand by the warning about Senja, because there aren’t many charging points there. So it needs planning.

Renting an electric car takes a bit of planning

With a combustion-engine car, it’s simple. There are service stations just about everywhere in the region, in the strategic spots. And since you get around 600 km of range on petrol (or a lot more depending on the car), there’s not really much to worry about.

With an electric car, though, here’s what you need to ask yourself:

• whether the place you’re staying in has a charging point, and whether you can use it
• where the charging points are in the area
• whether you’ll be doing a lot of driving during the day
• and above all: whether you plan on going out to see the northern lights often in the evening and driving a long way to see them

Some hotels have charging points. It’s fairly rare in central Tromsø, though. Covered car parks like the Fjellet P-Hus have a few charging stations. So do the open-air ones, and even the supermarkets.

Private rentals sometimes offer car charging; for that you have to read the listing carefully, it really is case by case.

So above all, my advice here: have a charging station map.

When you open Google Maps, there’s a little row of search shortcuts at the top (petrol stations, restaurants…) and if you open the full list with the three little dots, you get “charging stations” — tap it and it shows you every station. Really handy, and it works well!

Here are the stations around Tromsø. You can see there are a fair few, but the further out you go, the rarer they get, hence the need to pay attention.

And that really matters when you head off exploring and go looking for the northern lights. You have to PLAN your stops in advance. Really.

Compare and find the best prices in Tromsø!

Do you really need a car to explore Tromsø and the surrounding area?

Not an easy one! Well, actually it is: you can perfectly well explore Tromsø without a car, do all the activities, see the main spots, enjoy the city. You can have fun, you can go sightseeing, in short a car isn’t essential, but it does have plenty of advantages:

• the flexibility and independence, you do what you want when you want! and that’s the really big advantage
• tours generally go to the same 2 spots to show you the region; with a car you can get there for less and, above all, you can discover new places (the Lyngen Alps in particular)
• you can go chasing the northern lights on your own, even if I’d advise taking a guide for the first evening, to put yourself in the best conditions and pick up loads of tips

So basically, you go where you want and you’re less dependent on the operators. Not bad at all!

When do you actually need to rent a car?

This one’s trickier. I’m not going to tell you to rent a car just to have one. If you’re not going to use it, if you don’t feel up to it, then there’s no point. Let’s go through it:

• If you’re coming in summer then yes, I really do recommend renting a car, because you’ll be there for the nature. With hardly any activities left and no northern lights, nature is the whole point. And public transport is next to useless, so you won’t be able to reach the hikes and the finest spots without a car.
• If you’ve got activities every day, something booked with operators, outings (e.g. dog sledding, a boat trip, snowmobiling…), then renting a car isn’t necessarily worth it
  • EXCEPT if you’re planning to go hunting the lights every evening! you can drive out there yourself
  • then again, you can always take a guide every evening. It’s expensive, but it’s easy!
• If you have no experience driving on snow and you don’t feel up to it, then don’t push yourself. In the next article I go through what makes driving in Tromsø tricky. I don’t want to put you off, it’s doable, but you really do have to be careful.
• If you don’t have a driving licence, well, we’re not going to force you 😀

One more thing: having a car gives you a big advantage. It lets you book a place outside Tromsø, somewhere more out in nature. So if you’re not planning on doing many activities from the centre of Tromsø, staying outside Tromsø can be a good idea!

Compare and find the best prices in Tromsø!

Which agency should you rent a car from in Tromsø?

This is the easiest question, because… there’s no right answer! I’ve rented in Tromsø dozens of times, and from absolutely everybody. I had a slight soft spot for Europcar, a French company, but they’ve stopped operating.

So I’ve used Hertz as much as Avis/Budget, and lately I’ve been going through Alamo and Enterprise.

Honestly, because I’m careful every single time, it always goes fine. Meaning: I take photos of the car, I compare them with the damage report and I get in touch if anything doesn’t match. That protects you first of all, but it also shows them they can’t pull a fast one on you.

So I’d say they’re all reliable except… Thrifty. It’s Hertz’s low-cost arm and you can tell. The prices are low because the vehicles aren’t great and the mileage allowance is small. And they charge you a fortune for every extra km, so the final bill ends up hurting far more than expected (that’s experience talking).

That’s another good reason to go through the comparison sites: they give each company’s rating, so you can see whether something smells fishy or not (you get the detailed reviews too, which is really useful).

Price-wise they’re all much the same, but it depends on the period. I ran plenty of test searches to write this article. Sometimes Hertz is the cheapest, sometimes Avis, sometimes Alamo. I genuinely can’t tell you “this company is the cheapest”. Because no clear pattern comes out. Every company has its own algorithms, which are a touch complicated to follow 😀

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Compare to get the best prices!

The car rental market is so opaque and baffling that I’d advise against jumping on the first offer you see. A lot of factors come into play. The agency obviously, the type of car, but also the dates. From one day to the next, prices can swing a lot. The length of the rental as well, and the cookies.

So you have to compare. And rather than slogging through the sites one by one: use the comparison sites!

Comparison sites… compare (yes, I know, thanks for that blinding insight) the agencies against loads of criteria, and let you choose very easily. You also get the agencies’ ratings, which matters a lot if you want to avoid the dodgy ones.

But (otherwise it would be too simple), you also have to compare the comparison sites! Because each one has its own deals with the agencies and its own prices. So on a given date, for one destination, A can be better value than B, but for another destination it’ll be B that comes out on top.

So I use at least two comparison sites:

• Discover Cars
• Booking Cars (formerly Rental Cars)

Here’s a price comparison for the same search on both. You can see that here Rental Cars has more options in the reasonably decent price range, and the two companies don’t push the same agencies (I sorted from cheapest to most expensive).

So I’m not trying to tell you “hey, use this one rather than that one”, just that you should use both (these two, but it works with others, if you trust someone else)

Compare and find the best prices in Tromsø!

4 recommended activities in Tromsø

How much does it cost to rent a car in Tromsø?

Honestly, prices vary enormously and they tend to go up. Back in the day (the good old days!) it was fairly easy to rent for €30 a day, even in peak season. That was greeeeat!

But now prices climb every year. Leave it late and you can easily pay more than €100 a day, and when NATO is running its exercises in the area, it gets horribly complicated.

Right now, booking ahead, you’re looking at:

• In low season: between €30 and €40 for a car like a 208 or a Golf
• In high season: between €70 and €80 for a Corolla or similar

So you can see we’re not far off double the price depending on the season.

I’m also putting the examples below (a week in early December, a week in mid-February) so you can see the price difference.

Don’t forget that if you don’t book ahead, in February/March/Christmas it can easily go over €100 a day!

Do you need insurance in Tromsø

Yes. Plain and simple. Well, if it’s your first time, if you’re not used to driving on snow or in a storm, then honestly yes, it’s essential, because as I explain in this next article, driving in Tromsø comes with a few risks. Mind you, I’m not saying you’re going to crash, but it can get a bit dicey at times (even for those of us who are used to it).

Insurance isn’t particularly expensive compared with the price of the car, usually between €5 and €10 a day depending on the level of cover.

So I’d say an extra €70 over a week is the price of peace of mind.

4 quality places to stay in Tromsø

Find your dream accommodationin Tromsø!

Should you book through a comparison site or direct on the rental companies’ own sites?

Unless you have discounts, special offers or deals through Amex or that kind of club, it’s generally far better value to book through the comparison sites (as I said just above, I use Discover Cars and Rental Cars/Booking Cars).

The comparison sites have their own commercial deals with the various rental companies, so they can offer lower prices.

That said, just to be sure, when I get an interesting result on one of the comparison sites, I go and have a look at the company’s own site (if the comparison site tells me it’s with Hertz, then I check directly on their site). But it’s really, really rare that I find better direct than through the comparison sites.

I ran a very quick example on a search in Tromsø, comparison site versus the direct result. There’s a nice difference, as you can see below.

Don’t rent from an agency at the last minute!

No, renting at the last minute won’t get you better prices, quite the opposite. So my advice would be to reallllly book ahead. And not a few days ahead, several weeks, or even more, as soon as you know the dates of your trip. Otherwise you risk running into a few problems (which I’ve been through myself, of course):

• there are no cars left. It happens, especially now that Europcar has closed, visitor numbers are going up and now and then there are events like NATO military gatherings
• prices go through the roof. Well yes, last minute costs more, unfortunately. I’ve seen people end up with cars at €200 a day by booking on arrival at the airport; I got mine for €90.

Booking ahead gets you “more or less” reasonable prices (everything is relative up here :D). But it’s true that it leaves no room for spontaneity!

What type of car should you rent?

Bear in mind that on the roads around Tromsø, ANY CAR will do the job, as long as you don’t take tiny back roads, don’t head out in the middle of a storm and don’t go off-road.

You see plenty of Yaris, 208s, Polos and Golfs. And having had them, they do the job most of the time.

Is an SUV necessary? It’s useful in terms of comfort and space, especially if, like me, you have a pile of camera gear to carry around, or children (I prefer the camera gear 😀 ). If you get an SUV, it will normally be 4×4. After quite a few rentals, I’ll admit I have a soft spot for the RAV4!

4×4 is useful when there’s heavy snow. But most ordinary mortals don’t go out at a time like that. Still, it’s reassuring, and SUVs also have the advantage of sitting higher than a normal car.

Last winter, for instance, I had a great Skoda Octavia estate, fantastic to drive, but low. And since there’s a lot of snow where I live, I got stuck once or twice! But again, if you don’t do anything silly, it shouldn’t happen to you 🙂

Do you need an electric car?

It depends on one thing: are you going to cover a lot of kilometres, in winter, in particular to go hunting for the northern lights?

Because although the ranges they advertise look nice, in winter, with the cold, that’s not the case at all. It drops to 200 km. And it’s not unusual, especially on the roads south of Tromsø, to drive 200 km without seeing a single charger.

On the other hand, if it’s for normal day-to-day sightseeing, taking a bit of time to charge on Kvaløya or in built-up areas, there’s no problem at all! Electric cars are cheaper to rent and cheaper to run, since electricity isn’t particularly expensive here.

But if, like me, you head out into the middle of nowhere every evening, then I’d advise against it.

Hybrids, on the other hand, are a good option: Toyota fuel consumption is seriously good!

Are winter tyres included?

They’re compulsory, so your rental car will definitely have winter tyres, and 100% of the time studded ones, which is very handy.

If you arrive before they become compulsory, in September or early October for example, you’ll get all-season tyres (4 seasons), which do the job. But if you see that it’s freezing hard, you can go and ask for the tyres to be changed.

Compare and find the best prices in Tromsø!

Don’t forget the basics of winter driving

To keep it short, since I’ve already gone into all of this in the article on what’s specific about driving in Tromsø, here are a few recommendations to follow:

• leave big gaps between you and the car in front, because braking on snow or ice takes much longer
• no sudden movements, no sudden braking, no sudden turns, that’s likely to make the car lose grip
• so you need to look well ahead
• don’t set off when there’s a snowstorm, even if there’s a lovely clear sky for the northern lights 100 km away; if you’re not used to it, you’re likely to run into trouble
• the roads are well maintained, but that’s because the snowploughs are out all the time, so watch out for them 🙂
• don’t park on the road to take a photo, it’s seriously dangerous, even for 2 seconds. Pull over onto the verges, which are kept clear
• watch out for animals on the road, by day as much as by night

In conclusion

There you go, I hope I’ve given you a good picture of car rental and everything around it. If you feel comfortable behind the wheel, I really do recommend renting, for the freedom to go wherever you want (or almost). And also to be able to go hunting for the northern lights by yourselves (even though I still recommend taking a guide on the first evening).

But it isn’t essential — renting a car just for the sake of renting a car is pointless. If you don’t feel up to it, no big deal 🙂 You can have a great time without a car and still enjoy the activities and the landscapes through the tour operators. It’s just more expensive and less flexible.

So if you do go for renting, I’ll say it again: compare and book well ahead. That’s how you’ll pay less. And given what the trip costs, saving a bit here and there feels good 😀

A few extra resources for exploring Tromsø

• Everything you need to know about Tromsø – in this article I’ve put together all the essential info to plan your trip
• Where to stay in and around Tromsø – between hotels with a great breakfast, apartments in the centre and lovely hotels out in nature, you’re spoilt for choice!
• A one-week itinerary in Tromsø – discover the best of Tromsø in winter with these recommendations. And if you’d like to see the whole north in 2 weeks, this itinerary is the one for you!
• What to do in Tromsø in winter – discover the best activities in the snow, like dog sledding, snowmobiling, ice fishing…
• The best guides for the northern lights – here’s a selection of the operators in Tromsø that are worth it for seeing the northern lights, so you avoid the traps
• Where to see the northern lights in Tromsø – a short selection of 10 spots to watch the aurora in peace
• What’s the best time to go to Tromsø – month by month I give you the pros and cons of Tromsø
• Going dog sledding in Tromsø – which are the best operators? I tell you everything!
• Seeing the whales and orcas in Tromsø – there are more and more boats, I help you make sense of it all and point you to the good operators
• Riding a snowmobile in Tromsø – same again, a flagship activity, but careful: you need your driving licence!
• Exploring Tromsø in summer by car – heading out around the city when everything is accessible