I am planning a trip for May next year. We are flying into Zargeb. After couple days in Zagreb I am planning to go to Slovenia to see Ljubljana, Lake Bled and do a driving over Julian alps and then go to Istria, to Rovinj, Croatia and then south to Split/Dubrovnik. I am trying to pick-up a car and drop-off in the same country. Most logical sound to me pick-up in Zagreb, tour Slovenia and return car in Split or Dubrovnik. Otherwise I have to bus from Zagreb to Ljubljana, then take a car there, drop it back, bus to Zagreb, then pickup another rental in Zagreb. This became a lot of hassle. Question - are major rental companies ok with taking the car across the border and back or it maybe very expensive?
Thanks.
My experience is 3 years old. But I rented in Dubrovnik, drove to Bosnia for a night, back to Croatia, to Slovenia for 5 nights, then returned the car in Split. I cleared this with the rental car company when reserving and they had the necessary documentation ready. I don’t think there was an extra charge. I bought the Slovenian vignette ( I had to do this in person in 2021, but I understand you can do it online now).
I used UniRent, which I think has an office in Zagreb, as well as Split and Dubrovnik.
We were just in Croatia in September and rented a car. We drove to Italy and Slovenia. Just tell the rental company which countries you are driving to and they will add. a fee. There will also be a fee for a different city drop off.
Plan to drop the car in Split cause you can take a catamaran to Dubrovnik from there. Sixt is very popular there.
Just as an FYI, our last car rentals, Portugal and Croatia, we booked through booking.com cause the insurance was better. It worked out fine.
Your best bet would be to check with the rental car company. You will also need to ask about the need for a vignette, and if it is included in the rental.
Try the consolidator, AutoEurope. AutoEurope offers discounts for many of the car rental companies in Europe— Hertz, Avis, Sixt, Budget. Europcar and more. I’ve always found the prices offered to be less than the what the car rental agencies themselves offer directly through their websites. Some prices include some or all of the liability insurance you would want to have. Most of the rental locations are at airports although in larger cities, there are other rental locations as well.
I have never had a problem renting through AutoEurope and have always saved on the cost of renting cars in Europe through them.
A+
Thank @Kenko. I developed a simple strategy to get the best car rates available - well in advance I am booking the automatic cheapest car for two of us (we usually travel with only carry-on, so economy and compact works fine) using https://www.kayak.com/ or as you suggesting, autoeurope, totally refundable. Then I use a new service, called Autoslash.com, which track the prices of the car rental given dates and locations. If cheaper rates come up, they send me an email. This strategy works beautifully for me in my last trip to France. So I booked small Toyota Yaris about 6 months in advance, periodically I received email from Autoslash but nothing interesting. Until one day they send me an email and I did a couple searches and EuropeCar had a deal for Peugeot 3008 hybrid for 200 euro cheaper that what I booked. It's a mid-size SUV, quite powerful and I enjoyed driving it around France, of course no comparison to my initial car in comfort. So combination of those sites helps save some $$.