This Sunday's Telegraph (13 Jan 2013) looks at the benefits and pitfalls or hiring a car for a skiing holiday. Its travel columnist, David Williams, warned readers of hidden extra charges, using our research on five ski gateways for the February half term week saying:

"Experts from iCarhireinsurance.com recently investigated vehicle rental at popular European destinations. They found that hiring a car was "like skiing in a blizzard. hampered by poor visibility and a lack of transparency", because of hidden charges for extras such as winter tyres, snow chains (snow chains alone can add around £60 a week), roof racks for skis or snowboards, as well as car hire excess insurance. Together these extras charges could see your weekly bill soar by nearly £400."

"The most expensive "extra", said the article, "is excess car hire insurance. The most expensive place to buy excess insurance, found the survey, was Turin, with Hertz charging £147.84 and EuropCar charging £147.63 for a week."

We know we are preaching to the converted but buying excess insurance direct from iCarhireinsurance.com would only come to £20.93 for the week - seven times cheaper than buying it from the rental companies mentioned above.

Please make sure that you 'buy before you fly'. and tell your friends too if they are hiring a car, as you don't want to risk a scratch or scrape in snowy conditions.

To read the full Sunday Telegraph article please Click Here