✶ Seats, boot and the law
Seven seats.
The luggage is
the problem.
Renting a seven seater solves the seating and creates the packing problem, because the third row sits exactly where the boot used to be. Here is what actually fits, what the Spanish child-restraint rules require, and when two cars from the rest of the list beat one big one.
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This is what seven people's luggage looks likeDo seven seats leave any boot?
Every seven-seat car below van size works the same way: the third row folds into the boot floor. Up, you have seven seats and a boot the size of a supermini's. Down, you have five seats and a very large boot. There is no configuration that gives you both, and no amount of clever packing changes it.
So the first question is not which seven seater to rent. It is whether you need seven seats at the same time as the luggage. A family of six arriving with six suitcases needs a van. A family of six who will be carrying beach bags and nothing else once the cases are at the hotel needs an MPV and a plan for the airport run.
01
Count the airport run separately
The one journey where you have everybody and all the luggage at once is the drive from the south airport. If that is the only time, a taxi or a transfer for the cases and a smaller car for the week is often cheaper and always easier than a vehicle sized for a single journey.
02
Two cars is a real answer
Groups of six or seven usually split during the day anyway. Two compact cars often cost less than one MPV on this island, carry more luggage between them, and let half the party go to the climb to the crater while the other half stays at the beach.
03
Check the third row is for adults
In most MPVs it is not. The rearmost seats are sized for children on short journeys, and on this island the journeys are short, which works in your favour. An hour to the crater is fine. Nobody wants to be back there for the ninety minutes to Puerto de la Cruz and the Orotava valley.
04
Book the child seats with the car
Treat them as an extra to confirm on the listing rather than an assumption, and the rules below decide how many you can actually fit. Asking for them on the day depends on what the supplier still has that morning.
Which Spanish rule decides your seating plan?
This is the part people do not expect, and it matters more in a seven seater than in anything else. Spanish law puts children of 135 cm and under in an approved restraint suited to their weight and size, and as a general rule puts them in the rear seats. The front passenger seat is an exception rather than an option: it is permitted only where there are no rear seats, where every rear seat is already taken by another child in a restraint, or where the restraints cannot all be fitted in the back.
Height decides it, not age. A tall ten-year-old may be out of the requirement and a small twelve-year-old may not.
In a seven seater, the third row counts as the rear. That is the useful consequence: it gives you more legal rear seating than a five-seat car does, which is often the actual reason a group needs one. Work out where the restraints go before you book rather than in the car park, because the penalty is two hundred euros per unsecured child and three licence points, and it falls on the driver.
Which seven seaters can you actually rent here?
Fewer than you would expect. Car rental supply on an island is fixed rather than elastic, seven seaters are a small share of any fleet, and the automatics among them are thinner still. The practical consequence is the same as for the automatics in winter: book early, take the free cancellation, and do not assume that what is available in October will still be there in January.
If a seven seater is pushing the budget somewhere uncomfortable, two smaller cars are worth pricing properly rather than dismissing: two small cars and one large one are the same decision, and getting the price down starts with the dates rather than with the class. Run both through the search on your dates and let the totals decide.
If nothing suits on your dates at the point you wanted, widen the search. The south airport holds by far the deepest stock on the island, and a twenty-minute drive from a resort to the airport is a smaller inconvenience than a car that does not fit the family.
✶ Asked by families
Luggage, seats
and the law.
Seven-seat questions are really luggage questions and child-restraint questions, so these are the ones worth reading before you book for a family.
Will seven people and seven cases fit?
No, and it is better to hear that now than at the airport. With the third row upright the boot of an MPV is roughly the size of a supermini's, so you are looking at cabin bags rather than suitcases. Seven adults with a case each need a large van, not a seven seater, and vans are scarce here.
Where can the children sit?
In the rear, and it is a height rule rather than an age rule. Spanish law requires children of 135 cm and under to use an approved restraint suited to their weight and size, and as a general rule to travel in the rear seats. The front is allowed only by exception: no rear seats at all, every rear seat already occupied by another child in a restraint, or the restraints cannot all be fitted in the back. In a seven seater the third row counts as the rear, which is exactly what decides where your booked seats can go.
How much notice do I need?
More than for anything else on the list. Seven seaters are a small part of a fleet that cannot flex, so between December and March they go early and what remains is priced accordingly. Book as far ahead as you reasonably can and take the free cancellation while it is there.
Is a seven seater awkward on the mountain roads?
On the main roads, not at all: the TF-21 up to the crater and the TF-38 across the west are wide and well surfaced. On the narrow ones it is a genuine handicap. The TF-436 down to Masca uses passing places, and a long vehicle turns a manageable road into an anxious one. If the group splits up during the day anyway, two smaller cars are often the better answer and occasionally the cheaper one.
Are child seats included, and how many can I have?
They are an extra rather than an inclusion, and they are booked with the car rather than asked for on the day, because what is left in a supplier's stock on a February morning is not something to plan a family around. How many you can fit is decided by the seats rather than by the seat count: a child under 135 cm must travel in an approved restraint in the rear, and the third row counts as rear, so the practical limit is the number of restraints the bench will take side by side.
✶ A thin part of a fixed fleet
There are not many of these.
Seven-seat stock on an island does not grow to meet a busy February. Search your dates early, take the free cancellation, and check the boot against your actual cases rather than the class name. The ones that fit a family of six go first.