Car Rental France

AutoEurope always seems to have the best prices. Are you renting in one country and returning in another? If so you’ll wind up paying many hundreds of dollars for a drop-off fee no matter from whom you rent. A compact would run you about $300 if you picked it up and returned it to CDG. Drop it off in Brugge? Over $800.

Are you AAA members ? Costco ?? Both provide discounts. We used Enterprise once from Caen, no problems. Last trip was AutoEurope, price was good.

I always book directly from Europcar.

We recently had a good experience with Alamo out of CDG. Watch out for the speed cameras on the A highways.

I now pretty much always use AutoEurope, which is a broker. Their prices are almost always less than what I could get directly. And they have very good customer service, at all hours and in English, if there's a problem.

Coming from California, remember you will need that IDP.

That is the luxury of living in a bilingual province like New Brunswick; our drivers licenses are in English and French thus no IDP required!

I found the best deal at rentalcars.com for a Hertz SUV. Much lower than the Hertz site and easily changed or refundable until close to time of rental - maybe 48 hours, can’t remember. I make my reservation and then check back every few weeks to see if lower price available.
We are only traveling in France so not sure of the requirements for other countries.

Also, discovered we needed a international drivers license. Can get licenses online but prices high and vary.
AAA offers the licenses for $20 each for AAA members and they will also make the required passport type photos needed - not sure if extra cost for photos as we have not done this yet. Hertz covers the liability coverage for rental car and any car you damage & injuries to people in other car at no additional charge.

Discovered Visa card covers the insurance requirement for damage to or theft of the rental car IF we refuse coverage from the rental company. Was told we must provide letter from our Visa carrier to prove this coverage. Called phone number on back of my Visa card and received an email with the necessary letter within minutes. The only thing lacking with these 2 insurances is medial coverage for people inside the rented car but we all have medical insurance so not an issue for us.

They also advised to pay for at least one other driver (about $12EU per day) just in case... So my husband and I both getting licenses and being listed as drivers even though I do not intend to drive, I would if he became ill or injured.

I discovered rentals are cheaper if not picked up or dropped off in the airports or train stations because you do not pay the extra fees. We searched for rental locations within a taxi drive from our hotel and somewhat on our way from Paris to Caen, Alas, - we are traveling on a Sunday and most of the local rental agencies not open on Sunday except at airports and train stations. Our 4 day rental for the SUV cost about $410 prepaid and will have to pay the $12 EU per day when we pick up rental.

Good luck!

good information, bekegibson - welcome to the Forum.

Just to clarify a little - the things you found (expensive) on line will likely not be the legal document. The agreement between countries allows the individual countries to decide how and where to provide them and as far as I know none have gone the internet route.. You would be paying money and getting who knows what.

The IDP (Permit, not license) is available in US and Canada at AAA/CAA and in the US at a much smaller auto club whose name escapes me at the moment. The vast majority are from the AAA/CAA. AAA also allows some clubs to offer the IDP by internet if members can't get to a club location, but that is offered only by the AAA.

the things you found (expensive) on line will likely not be the legal document.

I think I'd change "likely" to "almost certainly," or even "certainly." When I first got an IDP a few years ago, I saw those kinds of sites, and was puzzled, since I understood that only AAA sold IDPs in the US (a lot of abbreviations there). Later reading convinced me they were all bogus. But I never tested to see what you get when you buy one of those.