According to a study by insurance price comparison site Rastreator and Rentalcars.com, hire-car bookings in Spain increased by 38% over the first six months of the year, while the average price fell by 16%. Despite this drop, there can be a wide variation in the price depending upon "extras", the type of vehicle, the age of the driver and the place from which the car is collected.

It is this latter aspect which highlights the biggest differences. On average, hiring a car in, say, a city centre can be as much as 110% more expensive than at an airport. The average prices, respectively, are 112 euros and 53 euros.

As with all averages, there are large and there are small differences, and Ibiza is identified as having the largest variation. Hiring a car in the centre of Ibiza Town is said to work out at an average of 181 euros for eight days. For the same service with collection at the airport it is 40 euros, a variation of almost 350%. Valencia (289%), Alicante (264%), Barcelona (222%) and Minorca (205%) are the next four destinations with the greatest variations. In Majorca, it is 76%, while in the Canaries the variations are low - eleven per cent in the case of both Lanzarote and Tenerife.

Palma's Son Sant Joan Airport is one of four with the highest number of hire-car collection requests. Minorca is another, along with Barcelona and Madrid. Formentera, at 54 euros a day, is said to be the most expensive destination to hire a car, followed by Majorca (46 euros) and Ibiza (45.50).