Car hire in Fuerteventura: excess, deposit and what gets added at the desk
Updated October 1, 2026 · 11 min read
The short answer: on Fuerteventura, local firms such as CICAR and Autoreisen publish comprehensive cover with no excess, and Autoreisen takes no deposit at all. Book with one of them and there is nothing left to buy at the desk. At the big international brokers, by contrast, part of the excess sits blocked on your card for up to 30 working days. And even with zero excess, the tracks to Cofete or the Punta Jandía lighthouse come with a catch: the conditions often prohibit them outright. If that is where you are headed, let someone else drive — for most people that means the Cofete Beach and “Villa Winter” Tour at €57.
Check availability and prices for the Cofete and “Villa Winter” tour
This is the article where a wrong number costs you real money, so it is written with a rule: every figure below comes from a company’s own published conditions or an official source, and where we do not have one, it says so. Fuerteventura is a good island to be careful on, because the range between the best and the worst rental deal here is wider than on most of the Spanish mainland — and the best deals are not the ones with the lowest daily rate.
Two words you have to get right first
Excess is the amount you still pay yourself if the car is damaged or stolen, even though it is insured. It is not the same as the deposit, and it is not the insurance premium. A car with a €500 excess and one with no excess can carry the same daily price; the difference only appears on the day something goes wrong.
CDW — collision damage waiver — is the cover that reduces or removes your liability for damage to the rental car itself. It is not the same thing as third-party liability, which is compulsory in Spain and comes with the rental. When a booking page says “fully comprehensive”, look for what it says about the excess in the next line. Comprehensive with a €1,000 excess is a very different product from comprehensive without one.
The deposit is neither of those. It is money blocked on your card as security, released after you return the car. A company can offer zero excess and still take a deposit, or take no deposit and leave you with an excess. All four combinations exist on this island.
What the Canary Islands companies actually publish
The Canaries have a group of long-established local rental firms whose published terms look nothing like the airport brokers, and comparing them side by side is the fastest way to understand the market here.
CICAR states a minimum age of 21 and requires a driving licence held for at least two years. Its rate includes full-risk insurance with no excess, unlimited mileage, taxes and airport fees, and an additional driver free of charge. The one deposit it does take is a fuel deposit: at signing you are charged for the fuel the car is delivered with, and that amount comes back if you return it at the same level. Otherwise you pay for what you actually used.
Autoreisen sets its minimum age at 23, takes no deposit at all, includes zero-excess insurance and a free additional driver, and provides child seats at no charge. Its fuel policy is same-to-same, and it notes that its cars are usually handed over with a half-full tank rather than a full one — worth knowing, because it changes what “same” means when you come back.
Tropic, based in Caleta de Fuste, is the useful counter-example, because it publishes the more conventional model in plain terms: minimum 23 years old with four years’ experience, or over 25 with two; a €200 deposit returned when you bring the car back; comprehensive cover with a €500 excess; same-to-same fuel; second driver and child seats included in the online rate.
Ecocar shows how much the vehicle matters. Most of its fleet is rented with no excess and no card block whatsoever. The exception it names is the Jeep Wrangler, which requires €1,500 held on a credit card until the car comes back. The car that can actually handle a rough track is also the one with the large deposit, and that is not a coincidence.
The lesson from those four is not that one of them is right. It is that “no excess, no deposit” is a commercial product on this island rather than a legal standard — and that you can find it, in writing, before you book, if you look at the conditions page rather than the headline price.
Compare hire cars and conditions for Fuerteventura
How a deposit works at the big international desks
The broker model works differently, and the details are in their own terms. Goldcar’s published rental conditions require a single credit or debit card in the name of the main driver at pick-up, used as security for the fuel deposit and, where applicable, part of the excess: a portion of the total excess is blocked on a credit card or charged to a debit card, the amount depending on the vehicle category. The conditions state a maximum block of 30 working days from the start of the rental on a credit card, and up to 15 days after the car is returned for a refund to a debit card. Buy their top cover and no deposit is taken at all.
Two things follow from that, and they apply to most companies working this way, not only to one.
First, a debit card is not a substitute for a credit card. Where a credit card is blocked, a debit card is often genuinely charged, and the money leaves your account for real. If you are travelling on a debit card, check this before you fly, not at the counter with a queue behind you.
Second, the release is not instant. A block that can legitimately run for weeks is a problem if the same card is paying for the rest of your holiday. Size the card limit to the deposit, not to the rental price.
On fuel, the same conditions are worth reading closely: if the company has to refuel the car, you pay for the fuel plus a further €50 as an express penalty clause. Filling up before you return it is not a tip, it is the difference between a €10 top-up and a €60 one.
Age, licence and the surcharges
Spain’s legal minimum driving age is 18. No rental company on this island rents at 18. The published minimums we found are 21 at CICAR and 23 at Autoreisen and Tropic, and — the part people forget — how long you have held the licence matters as much as your age: two years at CICAR, four years at Tropic unless you are over 25.
Young driver surcharges for under-25s exist at some companies. We are not printing a figure, because the ones we could find were on aggregator pages rather than in a company’s own conditions, and a made-up number here would be worse than none. It appears on the booking page when you enter your age; enter it honestly and compare the total, not the daily rate.
On documents: GOV.UK states plainly that a UK licence holder does not need an International Driving Permit to drive in Spain, and adds only that you should check whether the hire company requires one. If your licence was issued outside the EU, ask the company in writing before you book.
The clause that matters most on Fuerteventura
Here is the sentence that is specific to this island, and it is the reason this article exists. Tropic’s conditions put it without any softening: driving anywhere that is not a surfaced road is completely prohibited. Not discouraged, not excluded from cover — prohibited, which makes it a breach of the rental contract.
That single line decides several famous days out. The road to Cofete over the Jandía ridge is an unpaved track. So is the last stretch to the Punta Jandía lighthouse. The moment a normal hire car leaves the asphalt there, the zero-excess cover you paid for stops being the thing you thought you bought, and a punctured tyre, a cracked sump or a recovery from inside a natural park becomes yours entirely.
There is no single island-wide rule: conditions differ from company to company, and some will permit unpaved roads, in some cases for a daily supplement. If that is what you want, get it on the rental agreement in writing. A verbal yes at the counter is not a contract term, and modern rental fleets are tracked.
Four tours for the day you should not drive yourself
When the track is the actual point of the day, the honest answer is to let someone else drive it. These four do it for a living, in vehicles licensed for the job.
| Tour | Duration | from | Rating | suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cofete Beach and “Villa Winter” Tour | 4 hours | €57 | 4.8 ★ · 1,817 | couples and solo travellers who want the beach and the ruin |
| Cofete Beach Jeep Safari | 3 hours | €65 | 4.5 ★ · 2,578 | anyone who just wants Cofete and an early finish |
| Jeep Safari Cofete & Punta Jandia Lighthouse | 5 hours | €85 | 4.5 ★ · 161 | anyone who wants both prohibited tracks in one day |
| Wild North and Corralejo Tour From the South | 7 hours | €77 | 4.8 ★ · 1,076 | guests in Morro Jable and Costa Calma who want to see the north |
The Cofete Beach and “Villa Winter” Tour at €57 is the cheapest of the three Jandía runs and also the best rated: 4.8 stars from 1,817 reviews for four hours that include the viewpoints, the beach and the ruin. The Cofete Beach Jeep Safari at €65 is the shortest at three hours and has the most reviews, 2,578. Only the Jeep Safari Cofete & Punta Jandia Lighthouse at €85 also covers the second stretch of track discussed above — five hours, 4.5 stars from 161 reviews.
Check dates for the Cofete Beach Jeep Safari
We have covered these drives individually: the Cofete jeep safari, the Villa Winter tour and the run out to the Punta Jandía lighthouse. For more off-road trips, see buggy and quad tours.
Five minutes at the desk that are worth having
- Photograph the car before you leave, all four corners, the roof, the windscreen and the wheels, with the timestamp on.
- Read the fuel level written on the contract and compare it with the gauge. Same-to-same only protects you if the starting figure is right.
- Ask which card the deposit goes on, how much, and when it is released. Get the answer before you sign.
- Ask whether unpaved roads are permitted and have the answer written on the agreement if you need it.
- Decline nothing you have not understood. A cover you cannot explain is one you should not be buying at a counter under time pressure.
None of this is unique to Fuerteventura — but the tracks here are, and so is the unusual quality of the local all-in offers. Both are reasons to spend ten minutes on the conditions page before you spend a week regretting it. If you are still deciding whether to hire at all, we work through that question separately.
Our recommendation
For most people: a local firm with comprehensive cover and no excess, and for the day on the tracks, the Cofete Beach and “Villa Winter” Tour at €57. CICAR and Autoreisen both publish zero-excess cover, and Autoreisen takes no deposit at all — between the two of them, the island’s asphalt is covered. Four hours to Cofete for €57 at 4.8 stars from 1,817 reviews save you a breach of contract and the tow truck. Compare hire cars and conditions for Fuerteventura.
On a tight schedule: the Cofete Beach Jeep Safari at €65. Three hours instead of four, 4.5 stars from 2,578 reviews — the most reviewed track drive on the island. In return, Villa Winter is left out, and it still costs eight euros more.
For both tracks in one day: the Jeep Safari Cofete & Punta Jandia Lighthouse at €85. Five hours, and it is the only one that also covers the final stretch to the lighthouse. At 161 reviews it has far fewer than the other two — that is the price of getting the rarer route.
For guests in the south without a car: the Wild North and Corralejo Tour From the South at €77. Seven hours from Morro Jable and Costa Calma, 4.8 stars from 1,076 reviews, Popcorn Beach, El Cotillo and a volcanic crater. That is the long day you would otherwise have to drive yourself — and with children, it is a long one.
If you are driving yourself: photograph the car, read the fuel gauge and get it in writing whether you are allowed off the road. Those three minutes are the real insurance cover.
