New Alicante airport

My wife and I have recently flown in and out of the new terminal at Alicante airport.

Our first impression was good, very modern design, open and spacious. There are a few signs that are misleading that had us going in the wrong direction then telling us to go back in the direction we just came from.

You have to go through a shop section before getting to the departure gates, so if you in a rush you have to dodge slow moving shoppers.

The car rental section is located at the one end of the terminal. There appears to be a standard full / empty fuel policy however it would also appear that you get charged a standard price for a full tank of fuel. We were charged €75 even though we had hired a small car which only takes €35 to fill. So remember to add €75 onto your car rental price. I got my own back in a small way by dropping my rental car off with only the smell of petrol left in the tank. (not for the first time).

The lift/ escalator to the car parking structure is right there at the car rental booths and there are signs to tell you which level your car rental company is on. Getting out and on your way is straight forward but you need to careful when returning your rental. My advice is to go onto the airport website where there are photos showing what you need to look out for.

Overall the experience was good but you need to keep an eye on prices of the car rental companies.

I suppose new airports take time to bed in, but   ...   it is a specialised civil engineering area. For this reason airport contractors tend to build only airports wherever they are in the world. So no learning curve there. When I took my son to departures a week or so ago we were damned if we could see any signs for 'departures.' We found it after going around the circuit twice.

Poor signage, not just at airports, is widespread and with faster moving traffic on complex approach roads is actually hazardous. It amazes me that after spending countless millions on these projects they haven't the wit to organise a team to check the place out through the eyes of a stranger. The problem of poor signage is that it is put in place by contractors who are already familiar with the system. The presumption is that the rest of us are too. 

There are still a few hire car companies who do full/full on hires over 3 days.  I used www.hirecarsinspain.co.uk  for a number of years.  They are a broker company based in UK and I used Econorent but I think there are other companies listed who operate on similar lines.  I tried various companies over a period of 7 years and Econorent were the best of the bunch.  I think they also started to charge the extra insurance etc when you picked up the car, or leave a deposit.

Just over a year ago I decided to buy a car.  Each time I go over I check how much it would have cost me if I'd hired a car.  I've paid half of the cost of the car in the first year but I am going out to Spain for longer periods each time.  You've also got to factor in the high cost of insurance, 400+e, but this does include recovery and home start.

I think it's worth it, so much easier than queing at the desks and no hidden charges.  I also did a yearly contract for airport parking but now that Torrevieja has introduced a Airport Bus service I didn't renew it.  This will save me another 200+e so I'm hoping that it will continue.