Car Rental in Sardinia: No Deposit, No Credit card and Full insurance

Car rental in Sardinia starts at one of three airports: Alghero (AHO) in the north-west, Olbia (OLB) in the north-east and Cagliari (CAG) in the south. For one week in late November we found 565 rental offers at Alghero, 765 at Olbia and 1,016 at Cagliari, and 23 companies passed our checks at one or more of them. Locauto is the only one with no deposit at all three airports, just a symbolic 0,01 EUR card authorisation, and it takes debit cards.

Sardinia has no motorways and no tolls, and the average daily price in July is about five to six times the winter price. This guide to car rental in Sardinia compares the three airports and covers the companies we recommend, debit and Revolut cards, deposits, full insurance, one-way rentals between the airports, prices by month, driving rules, beaches you must book and taking a rental car on a ferry to the mainland or to Corsica.

Data last verified: October 2026. Written by Simas Krasaitis, founder of Autorentwiz and former head of car rental at ADCRent.

Short on time? The key facts:

• No deposit: Locauto at Alghero, Olbia and Cagliari, with only a symbolic 0,01 EUR card authorisation at pick-up, on a debit or a credit card
• Debit cards: 9 of the companies we recommend at Alghero accept them, 7 at Cagliari and 6 at Olbia. Budget and Avis block 200 EUR on a debit card, Alamo 500 EUR
• Revolut: Keddy and Europcar accept a Revolut credit card. A Revolut debit card is not accepted, and we found no deals without a card at pick-up
• Ferries: Locauto, Alamo and Sicily By Car allow them for free at all three airports. Most other companies do not allow ferries, or charge a fee
• One-way rentals: from Olbia Airport to Cagliari Airport the fee was about 31-113 EUR with the companies we recommend
• Prices: about 9-10 EUR a day in January, February and November, about 49-62 EUR a day in July and August. Cagliari was the cheapest of the three airports from May to October
• Roads: no motorways and no tolls, so the highest speed limit on the island is 110 km/h
• Quickest way to the right offer: a free consultation by car rental experts on Messenger. We check every company at your airport for your dates and card, and the discount is the same as with our search

To make our list at an airport, a company needs a rating of 8.0 or higher from verified renters at that airport and a separate score of 8.0 or higher for the staff at the desk. Companies without a staff score do not make the list. Locauto is the one exception we always include, because it asks for no deposit and treats our customers well at every Italian airport we work with. That is why a brand can be on our list at one Sardinian airport and missing at another: Avis passes at Alghero and Olbia but not at Cagliari, and Maggiore only passes at Olbia.

Company	Deposit	Card	Ferry	Airports
Locauto	No deposit, symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation	Debit or credit	Free	Alghero, Olbia, Cagliari
Key’n Go	150-200 EUR	Credit only	Not allowed	Cagliari
Viaggiare	150-900 EUR	Credit only	Not allowed	Alghero
Budget	200 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero, Cagliari
Avis	200 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero, Olbia
Maggiore	200-365 EUR	Debit or credit	Free, written permission	Olbia
Sicily By Car	200-400 EUR on cars, up to about 1,400 EUR on vans	Credit only	Free, written permission	Alghero, Olbia, Cagliari
SIXT	300 EUR	Debit or credit on some cars	50 EUR, written permission	Cagliari
RentalPlus	400-700 EUR	Credit only	Free, written permission	Alghero
Alamo	500 EUR	Debit or credit	Free	Alghero, Olbia, Cagliari
Enterprise	500 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero, Cagliari
Europcar	500 EUR	Credit only	Not allowed	Alghero, Olbia, Cagliari
GaldieriRent	600-1,000 EUR	Credit only	48,80 EUR, written permission	Olbia, Cagliari
Last Minute Rent	600-1,000 EUR	Credit only	Free, written permission	Cagliari
Rentsmart24	650-750 EUR	Credit only	Not allowed	Alghero, Cagliari
Dollar	700 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero
Thrifty	700 EUR	Debit or credit	30 EUR at Cagliari, one day’s notice	Olbia, Cagliari
Keddy	800 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero, Olbia, Cagliari
Italy Car Rent	900-1,500 EUR	Credit only	Free, written permission	Alghero
Vitarent	900-1,500 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero
Goldcar	950 EUR	Credit only	Only with Goldcar’s own extra cover	Olbia, Cagliari
NOLAUTO.IT	1,000-3,000 EUR	Debit or credit	Not allowed	Alghero
Vettura	1,000-1,500 EUR	Credit only	150 EUR, written permission	Alghero

The lowest deposit in Sardinia is at Locauto: no deposit, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation, on a debit or a credit card, at all three airports. With a debit card, the next lowest are Budget and Avis at 200 EUR and Maggiore at 200-365 EUR at Olbia. With a credit card, Key’n Go at Cagliari blocks 150-200 EUR and Sicily By Car 200-400 EUR on cars.

At the top of the list, NOLAUTO.IT at Alghero blocks 1,000-3,000 EUR and Goldcar 950 EUR. GaldieriRent and Sicily By Car also sell offers with their own zero-excess cover and a deposit of only 100 EUR, but those offers cost much more per day.

Fly into the airport closest to where you will spend most nights, not the one with the cheapest flight. Olbia Airport is about 262 km from Cagliari Airport by road, about 3 hours, and Alghero Airport about 242 km, about 2.5 hours. With no motorways on the island, a drive back to the wrong airport takes a whole day of your holiday. Among the Sardinia requests we receive, 44% start at Alghero, 30% at Olbia and 26% at Cagliari.

What we compared	Alghero (AHO)	Olbia (OLB)	Cagliari (CAG)
Best for	The north-west: Alghero, Stintino and La Pelosa, Capo Caccia, Bosa	The north-east: Costa Smeralda, San Teodoro, La Maddalena, the ferry ports	The south: Cagliari, Chia, Villasimius, Costa Rei
Companies we recommend	16	10	14
Debit card accepted	9: Locauto, Budget, Avis, Alamo, Enterprise, Dollar, Keddy, Vitarent, NOLAUTO.IT	6: Locauto, Avis, Maggiore, Alamo, Thrifty, Keddy	7: Locauto, Budget, SIXT, Alamo, Enterprise, Thrifty, Keddy
Lowest deposit with a debit card	Locauto, no deposit (0,01 EUR authorisation)	Locauto, no deposit (0,01 EUR authorisation)	Locauto, no deposit (0,01 EUR authorisation)
Ferry allowed for free	Locauto, Alamo, Sicily By Car, RentalPlus, Italy Car Rent	Locauto, Alamo, Sicily By Car, Maggiore	Locauto, Alamo, Sicily By Car, Last Minute Rent
Average price per day	about 9 EUR in February, 62 EUR in July	about 9 EUR in January, 57 EUR in July	about 9 EUR in January, 52 EUR in August
Passengers in 2025	about 1.8 million	about 4.0 million	about 5.2 million

Our airport guides cover the desks, opening hours and the roads out of each airport: car rental at Alghero Airport, Olbia Airport car rental and renting a car at Cagliari Airport.

Autorentwiz tip: if Olbia looks sold out or too expensive for your summer dates, check flights into Cagliari. In June, July and August it was the cheapest of the three airports in our data, and it has more debit-card companies than Olbia. Send us your dates and we compare the airports for you.

Yes, at all three airports. With a debit card, Locauto asks for no deposit, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation, at Alghero, Olbia and Cagliari. Budget and Avis block 200 EUR where we recommend them, Maggiore 200-365 EUR at Olbia, and Alamo and Enterprise 500 EUR. Dollar and Thrifty block 700 EUR and Keddy 800 EUR. At Alghero, Vitarent blocks 900-1,500 EUR and NOLAUTO.IT 1,000-3,000 EUR on a debit card.

Alghero has the most choice with a debit card, 9 of the companies we recommend there, and Olbia the least, 6. At the desk you need a physical debit card in the main driver’s name, with enough money free for the deposit. Sicily By Car, Goldcar, Europcar, Rentsmart24 and the other credit-only companies in our table will refuse a debit card. Our guide to car rental in Italy with a debit card explains the card rules for the rest of the country.

A Revolut credit card works with Keddy, with an 800 EUR deposit, and with Europcar, with a 500 EUR deposit. A Revolut debit card is not accepted by any of the 23 companies we recommend in Sardinia, and neither are cards from other online-only banks, such as Wise or Monese. In our November search we also found no deals at Alghero, Olbia or Cagliari with no card needed at pick-up, so if you only have a Revolut debit card, the main driver needs a physical card from a traditional bank.

The deposit is blocked on your card, not charged. You cannot spend that amount during the rental, and it is usually released within a week of the return, at the latest within 30 days. When the block ends, the money simply becomes available again, so you will not see an incoming refund on your statement.

Yes, with Locauto, at all three airports. It asks for no deposit, only a symbolic 0,01 EUR authorisation that checks the card at pick-up, and it accepts debit and credit cards. In our search every Locauto offer at the three airports had this no-deposit rule. Locauto also allows its cars on ferries for free and lets you drive to Corsica at no extra fee.

Locauto is the only company with no deposit in Sardinia, so in June, July and August its cars, and above all its automatics, are often the first to go.

Want a car with no deposit in Sardinia? Message us your dates and airport. We send you Locauto offers with our discount and explain what to check at pick-up.

We recommend it. The basic cover in the price limits what you pay if the car is damaged, but an excess remains, and in Sardinia it was high: about 1,200-2,000 EUR at Locauto, 1,800-2,800 EUR at Alamo and up to about 3,660 EUR at Maggiore. Full coverage added to the online booking costs less per day than the desk’s own cover. It works by refund: the rental company charges your card for the damage, and the full coverage pays you back. The normal deposit is still blocked.

The rental company’s own zero-excess cover, bought at the desk or included in some offers, removes the excess directly, and with GaldieriRent and Sicily By Car it also cuts the deposit to 100 EUR. It costs the most. If you already have full coverage, you do not need the desk’s cover as well, even when the agent says they cannot see your insurance in their system.

Two things are specific to Sardinia. Many beaches are reached on gravel or dirt roads, so tyres, glass and the underside of the car get damaged more often than on the mainland, and some desk covers leave exactly these parts out. Sand is the other one: return the car without a thick layer of sand inside, or the company can charge a cleaning fee. Before you drive off, film the car from all sides, including the wheels, and check that every scratch is on the contract. Our 5 tips for a flawless car rental pick-up explain what to check before you sign.

Autorentwiz tip: not sure what your offer covers? Message us before you book. We explain the terms and help you if a damage dispute comes up after the rental.

Across all offers, the average price is about 9-10 EUR a day in January, February and November at all three airports. In July and August it is about 49-62 EUR a day, five to six times more. In Sardinia the month matters far more than the airport. Cagliari was the cheapest of the three airports from May to October, and Alghero the most expensive in June, July and August.

Average price per day of all offers at each airport by pick-up month, data from October 2026. Prices change every day.

Season	Months	Average per day	What to expect
Low	November to February	about 9-13 EUR	The lowest prices of the year
Shoulder	March, April, October	about 13-25 EUR	Good value outside the summer
Mid	May, September	about 28-39 EUR	Beach weather at lower prices than summer
High	June, July, August	about 47-62 EUR	The highest prices, and cars sell out

As soon as your flights are booked, especially for June, July and August. The island has a limited number of rental cars, and in June searches for cars at Olbia ran at about 2.7 times their yearly average. In the summer, cars at Alghero and Cagliari can be sold out two to three weeks before the travel dates. Most offers can be cancelled for free, so booking early costs nothing, and if the price drops later you can cancel and book again. Automatics go first: 38% of the Sardinia requests we receive ask for one. Our guide on how to save money on car rental covers this and other tricks.

Yes, you can pick up the car at one Sardinian airport and return it at another, and a one-way fee is added to the price. We compared one-way offers from Olbia Airport to Cagliari Airport with the same cars returned at Olbia, for an 8-day rental from 29 October 2026. Most companies charged the same fee on every car.

Company	One-way fee
Maggiore	about 31 EUR
Avis	about 37 EUR
Goldcar	about 68 EUR
Locauto and Alamo	about 88 EUR
Thrifty	about 104-110 EUR
Sicily By Car	about 113 EUR
Europcar	about 98-305 EUR, depending on the car

Keddy and GaldieriRent had no one-way offers on these dates. Book the drop-off airport as part of the booking from the start, not as a change agreed at the desk, because a later change costs more. One-way rentals are 4% of the Sardinia requests we receive.

Autorentwiz tip: the same Olbia to Cagliari route cost about 31 EUR with one company and over 110 EUR with another on the same dates. Send us your route, and we find the best option with our discount.

Sardinia has no motorways and no toll roads. The main road is the SS131 Carlo Felice, a free dual carriageway from Cagliari to Sassari and Porto Torres, with a branch to Olbia. On main roads like the SS131 the limit is 110 km/h, 90 km/h in rain, which makes 110 km/h the highest limit on the island. Other roads outside towns have a limit of 90 km/h, and towns 50 km/h or lower where signed.

• Olbia to Cagliari: about 3 hours
• Alghero to Cagliari: about 2.5 hours
• Olbia to Alghero: about 1 hour 45 minutes

The SS125 Orientale Sarda along the east coast is one of the best drives on the island, but it is slow, with long sections of bends through the mountains. Plan it as a day of driving, not as a quick way between Olbia and Cagliari.

The old towns of Cagliari, Alghero and Olbia have ZTL zones (Zona a Traffico Limitato) with cameras. Nobody stops you: the camera reads the number plate, and the fine reaches you months later through the rental company, which adds its own admin fee. In Olbia the fine is 83-332 EUR.

• Cagliari: six zones: Castello, Marina, Stampace basso, Stampace alto, Villanova and Poetto. Check the current hours on the Comune di Cagliari website
• Alghero: the walled old town is closed to cars from 00:00 to 08:00, 10:30 to 14:30 and 16:30 to 24:00, all year. The zone also covers streets that do not look like an old town, such as Via Mazzini
• Olbia: camera gates on Corso Umberto I, Via Regina Elena and Piazza Regina Margherita. Some work around the clock, others only in the evening

If your hotel is inside a ZTL, ask it to register your number plate before you arrive.

• La Pelosa (Stintino): in the summer season you must book a place, 3,50 EUR per person, only on the official La Pelosa site. It is about 45 minutes by car from Alghero Airport
• Cala Goloritzè (Baunei): a 7 EUR ticket, booked in advance, includes parking at Su Porteddu on the Golgo plateau. The trail is about 3.5 km with about 500 m of climb. Details on the Baunei tourism site
• Dunes and beaches: driving on them is banned, with fines of 100-1,000 EUR. Taking sand, shells or pebbles away costs 500-3,000 EUR

Many stations in Sardinia close on Sundays and for a break in the middle of the day. Self-service pumps (fai da te) block about 100 EUR on your card whatever you fill, and the money comes back a few days later. Fill up before you return the car, because the rental company charges missing fuel well above the pump price.

Before you book, check that the company allows ferries. Locauto, Alamo and Sicily By Car allow them for free at all three airports, Sicily By Car with written permission. Maggiore at Olbia, Last Minute Rent at Cagliari and RentalPlus and Italy Car Rent at Alghero allow them for free with written permission. GaldieriRent charges 48,80 EUR, SIXT 50 EUR and Vettura 150 EUR, and Goldcar allows ferries only with its own extra cover. The other companies in our table do not allow ferries. A ferry trip without permission puts you outside the rental agreement, and the insurance may not pay for anything that happens to the car.

• To the mainland: ferries sail from Olbia, Golfo Aranci and Porto Torres to Livorno, Civitavecchia and Genoa
• To La Maddalena: the short crossing from Palau is a ferry too, so it needs the same permission
• To Corsica: ferries from Santa Teresa Gallura to Bonifacio take about 50 minutes. Corsica is France, so the car needs permission for the ferry and for driving abroad. Locauto, Alamo and Sicily By Car allow France at no extra fee. For driving in France, Maggiore charges 28,80 EUR, Thrifty 30 EUR, SIXT 50 EUR, Last Minute Rent 55 EUR, RentalPlus 72 EUR, Italy Car Rent 120 EUR and Vettura 150 EUR

Planning a ferry? Message us before you book, and we make sure the car in your offer is allowed on the ferry, with written permission where it is needed.

Travelling to Sicily too? See our guide to car rental in Sicily, and for the rest of the country, our guide to car rental in Italy.

For most trips, yes. The beaches, the coast roads and the inland villages are hard to reach by public transport, and trains link only a few towns. With a car you can also move to a beach on the other side of a cape when the wind changes. You can skip the car for a city break in Cagliari or Alghero, where the old towns are small and inside ZTL zones anyway. For everything else, a small car is the best choice: it costs less, it is easier to park in the summer, and it fits narrow beach roads.

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I recommend this company. They quickly and efficiently found me a car in Sardinia at a very competitive price, reply fast and explain the whole procedure. I will definitely use their services again. Recommended.

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Fast, friendly service. Picking up the car in one place and returning it in another went smoothly!

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★★★★★4.9/5 from 150+ reviews on Google and Facebook over the last 12 months

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