Renting car in Nice & dropping off in Arles France

more than likely. Try reserving that with your preferred rental car agency.

Highly recommend renting theough Auto Europe. They use all the major car rental agencies. No problem dropping a car off in same country. Arles and Nice are not far apart so I can't imagine any issues.

We rented in Avignon and dropped in Nice. No problem. Used Europcar. As long as there are offices for the rental place you are using.

Don't know why not. Try to book it. We rented in Lille at the train station and dropped at LaRochelle's airport via Hertz. Paid a 50E drop fee. It was real smooth. About like the US.

If not, you could certainly drop it in Avignon. Arles a 20 minute train or bus ride away.

But note: A car is a very handy thing to have in Provence, so I'd wait to return it until ready to leave.

Thank you all for the info on car rental and drop off in other towns. When I checked with Avis it

asked me to pick another town on their list. Will try the Euro companies.

You might also try Hertz, they have an office in Arles. If you are staying nearing the Promenade or Old Town in Nice, the Avenue Gustav V de Suede return location will be the most convenient to where most people end up staying (near the Old Town and the Carre d'Or). Otherwise there is another at the train station Thiers.

When I've rented from Hertz, they allow an open-jaw rental, but charge a drop-off fee for it—even in the same country.

In my experience, Hertz and Avis charge a one way drop off charge but EuropCar and Sixt do not.

We have rented from auto-europe several times and are happy with them.

One side note is that there is a surcharge for picking up or dropping off a car at a train station or airport. So if it is convenient for your plans you might want to price out alternative locations, but be sure to check their hours.

Also make sure you are picking up and dropping off in normal business hours - remember they can be closed for lunch anywhere from 11-2, so search outside those hours. I had a search that came up no results like that. It turned out, I was asking to drop at noon and their hours didn't include lunchtime. It would have come up in a search if I specified 10, or 3.

I never understand why people go to Europcar or Sixt -- I have never gotten a quote from either of them that isn't at least 100 euros more expensive. All the major US companies have a presence in much of Europe -- either their own or a partner. We always do open jaw, usually arriving at CDG and dropping any number of other places. This year we're going CDG to Nice. EuropCar was over 100 euros more and Sixt was touting Free 250 kilometers! Great -- but CDG to Nice is over 100 km on the freeways alone, let alone wandering through Savoie and Haute Provence. For several years we used Avis, but more recently we've used Hertz in France (many locations and less extra charges) or National, especially outside France, (who partners with Enterprise in Europe). Call me thrifty, but I'd rather save the 100 euros for many other French enjoyments than handing it over to a rental agency.

I never understand why people go to Europcar or Sixt

If you use Auto Europe, Europcar is almost always the cheapest (I don't think they deal with Sixt). I haven't used SIxt, mostly because they have few if any automatics. But their rates are very low for manuals.

Lauren: Paris to Nice is more like NINE HUNDRED kilometers . . . maybe a thousand. I hope you are not thinking of driving to Nice upon (jet-lagged) arrival at CDG!! Dangerous to yourself and others on the road.

Sorry, that was a typo -- I meant to round it off to 1,000 km. (Depends on your route, etc.). And, no -- I don't intend to get into a car and navigate all the way right after getting off a plane, particularly from the west coast. We've done this many times, and generally pick up the car from CDG and travel to a nearby smaller town and regroup (aka, unwind and sleep).

And to answer the other post -- I've never found an AutoEurope car for the least cost. Believe me, I always check the options. Hertz is not really my favorite, but I love sidewalk cafes and French pastries, and would rather spend the extra euros savoring what I can't get at home.