Guide to Europe Car Rentals
The car is rented. One more thing off of the checklist before we leave on Friday night. I hate to rent when I could take trains, but this trip it just makes sense. Tonight is my last manual driving lesson and I’ll also be buying a Europe iPad GPS app. to join our Michelin Germany map for navigation.
Lessons learned for trying to rent a car in France & Germany:
- Its cheaper to rent from avis.de or avis.fr (hertz.de or hertz.fr, etc.) than it is to rent from avis.com. Why? I don’t know.
- You really should call your car insurance company before you leave to see if they cover your European rental. I have USAA (a really good insurance company usually), but they don’t cover you in Europe
- Call the credit card company you plan on using for the reservation and see what protections they offer you. My American Express had TOTALLY different coverage than our Visa.
- Renting for Sunday pickup is hard. In France it seemed impossible to pick up on a Sunday except at the airport.
- Check Europecar, Sixt and other non North-American rental car agencies, they often have better deals.
- Learn to drive manual, its saves tons of money. We’re talking $50/day in France savings.
- Pack light, these cars are small!
Wish me luck, and German/French drivers I apologize in advance for my manual skills.
