Manual is a little cheaper. The country is pretty hilly so I'm glad I didn't test out my stick skills. Most everything you can do can be done with a tourguide. The problem is they all arrive at the same time, and none of the sites I visited were built for big crowds. If I did it again, I would not have rented a car for the first day since we were pretty useless. Most of the companies let you pick up in Ponta Delgada, plus the airport is only 10 minutes from the city center on a bad day.