My wife and I will travel in Provence this May. Due to a shift in dates, I want to return a rental car in Arles Saturday afternoon, but the car rental offices will be closed after noon. Second, I want to rent a car in Avignon on Sunday, but it appears that's not possible. 1: Is my information (about car rentals being closed) accurate, or is it possible to work around these problems? 2: Is is possible to rent a car in Apt and/or Vaison la Romaine? Thank you! -- Tom
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7937 posts
I presume you've looked at more than one rental car company. Have you e-mailed them or phoned the office(s) directly? Website information may not be up-to-date or accurate. Some companies will allow pickup/drop off out of hours, with special arrangements and sometimes on out-of-hours extra fee. I don't have immediate knowledge of what offices are open where or when, but it might be worth asking, if you haven't already checked with each company.
Posted by
Eugene, Oregon...Formerly Ventura, CA
2262 posts
Using Autoeurope/Europcar we rented at the Avignon TGV station. Looking at Autoeurope now, it appears you can rent there on a Sunday afternoon-take a look. As you say, Arles is not good for Sunday drop off, can you drop at Avignon TGV instead?
edit: To be clear, Tom, you'll usually pay a fee to pick up and drop off at a train station or airport, however, it's convenient, and open too. City offices often have just "regular" business hours. The Europcar location at Avignon TGV was quite satisfactory for us, we had no issues.
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
Okay, I gotta ask.
It is about 40 km between Arles and Avignon and about a 45 minute drive. What's the purpose of returning a car in one of those cities and picking up a different one in the other the next day?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
I also would guess that you should keep the car through the weekend. Multi-day or weekly discounts usually make this affordable.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
These replies have been helpful, especially in suggesting that I phone the rental agencies directly, rather than relying on the accuracy of internet info. Our two rental periods in Provence will be separated by a week (hiking in the Luberon), so the obvious solution of simply keeping the car is not feasible.
The internet suggests that car rental is not available in a tiny town like Apt, nor even in Vaison la Romaine. Has anyone been able to rent a car in these towns?
Thanks, Tom
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
If you try to directly phone a French car rental office, don't be surprised if they try to conduct the conversation in French. You can always hang up.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10622 posts
Using autoeurope.com, I have the same results you have. However, as Dave said, you can rent a car at the Avignon TGV station. It looks like in Arles, you have the choice of one Europcar agency with a drop box, dropping at the Marseille airport and taking the train from the airport to Arles, or waiting until Monday morning.