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Dropping car rental in Nice

Posted by (Truro, NS, Canada) on

Yes yes - I know all the caveats about driving in France - we've done it before and enjyed the freedom to travel at our own speed and stop where we wanted to. I'll make hubby watch his speed. :)

Anyways - I was just getting ready to book our rental for Oct thru AutoEurope (with Europcar). Picking up in Avignon and I had been going to have the car dropped the night before our flight out at the Nice airport. (No need to keep the car when our flight is in the morning). Then I read the terms and see that there is a 45 euro fee to drop at the airport. So I was thinking of changing our drop to a street just off the Promenade Anglais (I think it's ave Gustave V)...that way we can go to the hotel before dropping the car and drop our stuff, then spend the evening wandering around the promenade before going back to the hotel.

Has anyone dropped a car here before? It looks easy to find...any caveats about driving along the promenade?

Posted by
3597 posts

I'm pretty sure that's where we picked up our car a couple of years ago. It was easy to find, and there was no particular problem about driving along the Promenade. I would do a viamichelin.com route in advance, so as to be prepared if there is a problem about turning left or anything else.

Posted by
1078 posts

We did the same rental in April and dropped the car at the Nice Airport . The drop charge in my experience occurs because you are dropping at a different rental location. Make sure your tank is FULL or you'll get hosed for the refueling-I think they told me they waive the fee only if they have to add a liter or less!

Posted by
383 posts

Well, my husband and I hated driving in Nice. For us it is a confusing, congested city to drive in and finding the drop off was maddening. However this was a number of years ago and we did NOT have GPS. We ended up going down a one-way street to get to the place! Others may not have had this problem--maybe it was just us. My advice to you is to study the Google maps, especially the overhead satellite map, and also the street-view map, so that you won't have any surprises. Good luck!

Posted by
3941 posts

We will have a gps. I was going to get a European maps card for mine, but my sister in England has a European gps and my mom is visiting and is going to bring it home and we will drop it off back with my sister when we visit her after leaving Nice. (I love when things work out like that ). They used it in France with no problems. I will def check beforehand online to make sure about turns.

Posted by
1005 posts

If you drop your car off at the Nice Airport, be prepared for road construction. In May, we almost missed the turnoff at one roundabout because the only marker was a tiny "Deviation" sign (Deviation=detour in French). Give yourself more time than you imagined. Also, the car rental return is in Terminal 2. If your flight leaves from Terminal 1, give yourself at least 15 minutes extra to catch the shuttle bus to Terminal 1.

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