Blackrock Cottage, Glencoe, Scotland
Fujifilm GFX100S II, 20mm, f14 @ 26 seconds, ISO 40

I won't be using Europcar for car rental again. No hidden fees their website says! Yet when picking up my rental car in Edinburgh, Scotland, the agent asks if I plan to travel to the Isle of Skye. As a tourist, there's a good chance I am, so I answer truthfully in the affirmative. No trouble, he answers, but there is a 40 pound surcharge (around AUS $80 with exchange fees) - and this covers visiting 'all the outlying islands' around Scotland.

Interestingly, on a recent trip to Italy, when we asked if it was possible to take the Europcar rental into Austria, there was a 40 Euro fee. I assumed this was because we were crossing borders and perhaps there were some other fees payable, but when it comes to the Isle of Skye, it is all part of Scotland. It's not even an island anymore because it is connected to the mainland by a bridge!

Note, Europcar mentioned no extra fees if I wanted to drive south to England or Wales, just if I wanted to visit a 'Scottish island'.

I'm standing at the Europcar counter, faced with the extra fee and asked am I okay to pay it. Our flight was delayed by  3 hours and it's late in the evening, plus I have already paid the rental and insurance in full several months earlier - what choice do I have? I agree to the payment.

As I write this, I'm about to drive to the Isle of Skye tomorrow. And it's bugging me that I have paid this surcharge. I consider this theft by a large multinational company and I will not be using Europcar again. That will make me feel better, but I also feel the need to share my experience so others are not caught.

I don't know whether the other major car rental companies do the same - according to a Google AI search, Europcar is not the only one to add in surcharges. And of course, if I think back I have probably had horror stories with other car rental companies as well, but they have been forgotten. And this surcharge is not a new one - I can see customer complaints about it as far back as 2018. This only makes it more deplorable because when renting a car in Scotland, Europcar could easily make the charge visible.

No hidden fees. Really?

And the photo above? We took the chairlift up to the top Glencoe Mountain during a break in the weather. It didn't quite work out as we still found some rain, but both the ticket office lady and the lift operator at the top said we had picked a great day to visit. Fifteen minutes later we were walking back to the lift in a rain shower, but it cleared for our ride back down. And as we left, we passed Blackrock Cottage on the side of the road with the next rain squall coming through! The light was dramatic, but I could see it wasn't going to be around for long, so while not having quite the time I would have liked to scout the location properly, I'm happy the resulting capture has the feeling of an approaching storm.

There are lots of wonderful little cottages like this around Scotland, no doubt humdrum for Great Britain locals, but delightful for a travelling Australian.