15 seater van

Group travel is the entire purpose of this class, and it is the largest vehicle in the Florida hire fleet. Fifteen seats, 8 large cases and 4 smaller bags in one vehicle, automatic, with air conditioning ducted the full length of the cabin rather than blowing from the dashboard at the people nearest the front.

Vehicles supplied are the Ford Transit 350 HD in passenger trim or a close equivalent, which is an extended wheelbase commercial van with five rows of seating behind the driver. It is longer, heavier and taller than the twelve seat version, and the extra length goes into the luggage bay at the back as well as into the additional row.

Check your licence and the supplier's driver conditions before you book anything else. That is the single most important sentence on this page. A UK photocard licence is accepted for driving in Florida with no international driving permit needed, and suppliers apply their own age and licence rules to their largest vehicles which can be stricter than the state minimum of 21. Tell us who is driving and we will confirm the position in writing before you commit to anything.

Be realistic about the practicalities and the fortnight goes well. A vehicle this size is excluded from most multi storey car parks, wants an open bay or two end to end spaces almost everywhere, and rewards a driver who plans arrivals instead of improvising them. Florida is a far better place to drive one than almost anywhere in Europe, with wide lanes, huge car parks and long straight roads, and groups who choose it usually find it much less daunting than they had feared.

Extended families taking a large villa are the most common booking here. Villa communities around Davenport, Champions Gate and Reunion rent properties sleeping twelve to sixteen, and those houses come with driveways and open parking that suit a vehicle this size perfectly.

Sports teams, dance schools, cheer squads and youth groups heading for Orlando competitions are the other regular customer. Those parties usually travel with kit bags rather than suitcases, which changes the luggage sums completely and leaves fifteen seats as the only number that matters.

Wedding parties, milestone birthdays and reunions fill the rest of the bookings. A group that has flown from the UK to be together generally wants to travel together as well, and pulling up somewhere in one vehicle instead of a three car convoy is worth a little parking effort.

Where the class fails is anywhere the vehicle cannot go. If your itinerary includes a downtown hotel with valet parking only, a beachfront restaurant in a small Gulf coast town, or a Key West stay where parking is genuinely scarce, a fifteen seater will be a daily problem. Orlando, the theme parks, the outlet malls and the villa communities are all built around vehicles this size and present no difficulty at all.

Groups of nine to twelve should compare this class against the twelve seater rather than assuming the smaller one is better. The fifteen seater carries 8 large cases against 6, and for a party arriving from the UK with a case each that extra luggage bay is frequently the deciding factor even when the seats are not needed.

Rate tiers on a fifteen seater work as they do across the fleet. A basic rate covers the vehicle and the legal minimum. An inclusive rate adds collision damage protection, the liability cover American law requires, unlimited mileage and normally an additional driver allowance.

Additional drivers deserve more attention on this class than on any other. A group of fifteen almost always wants two or three people able to drive, both to share long days and because a single driver is a single point of failure on a fortnight's holiday. Every named driver must attend the counter in person with their own licence, and supplier conditions on who may drive a large van are stricter than for cars.

Excess and protection terms differ by supplier and by rate tier, and vans commonly carry different terms from cars even with the same supplier. We put the figures that apply to your booking in writing before you pay rather than publishing a general number that would mislead.

Toll billing sits outside every rate. Charges reach your card after the holiday with an administration fee for each day a toll road was used, unless you took a Visitor Toll Pass at Orlando International instead.

Fuel policy is generally full to full and the tank on a Transit 350 HD is substantial, so plan the final fill before you head to the airport rather than on the return road. Child seats, if your group needs them, are charged per seat per day and must be reserved on the booking, because a branch holding a single fifteen seater will not have four spare restraints on a busy Saturday.

Florida law requires a crash tested, federally approved restraint for every child aged 5 or under. Birth through age 3 must use a separate carrier or an integrated child seat. Ages 4 and 5 may use a separate carrier, an integrated seat or a booster. A seat belt satisfies the law from age 6.

Large groups frequently include several children of restraint age, and a fifteen seat van has the belted positions to handle them without anyone being squeezed. Spread the seats across different rows rather than clustering them, so each installation is easy to reach and an adult can sit beside every child who needs one.

Lower anchor points are not fitted at every seating position in a passenger van, so some restraints will be installed using the seat belt path instead. That is entirely legal and entirely safe when done properly, and it is worth practising at home on your own seat before you fly rather than working it out in a Florida car park with a queue behind you.

Reserve every hired seat at the time of booking and confirm the number again before you travel. A branch with one fifteen seater on the lot cannot produce four extra restraints at short notice, and no child under six may legally travel without one.

Standing headroom in the cabin makes the fitting itself the easiest of any class. You work on each seat from the aisle rather than kneeling in a doorway, which after the third or fourth installation is a genuine relief in Florida heat.