Car Rentals in Bruges,BE

There's no penatly for taking the car over the border (how would they know, anyway?), but there is often a fee for dropping the car off in a different country. So as long as you drop the car off in Belgium, you should be fine.

When you arrive in Bruges, phone a travel agent to find if there is a guided bus tour to the Memorial.
That will be my choice; to avoid driving and to avoid the expense.

If you rent a car, read your rental agreement to see if there is a warning not to cross a border. I doubt it, but I have read that some agencies place a GPS in some cars and will know where you have driven.

Oh, for crying out loud! I'm weighing in only so that another urban legend doesn't get started about GPS tracking of rental cars...jeesh.

You're certain to be able to rent a car in Brugges and take it into France without an extra charge if you're returning it to Belgium. It's usually much cheaper to reserve before you go. Renting a car on the spot in Europe is quite expensive. Autoeurope is reliable and they have a 24 hour toll-free phone line to answer any questions you have.

Another option Kent is to train-it to Arras and rent a car there; right across from train station. Or arrive in Arras and grab a taxi to the memorial. With a car for the day you can visit some other memorials in the area without the time/hassle of driving Bruges to Vimy.

Doug-I would disagree about the urban myth of GPS in rental cars. Below is taken from the Travelocity website for Advantage Rent A Car under their "geographic restrictions" for a rental in Las Vegas. Maybe they're bluffing or I'm missing something.

Geographic Restrictions

TRAVEL AREA UNLIMITED MILEAGE APPLIES WITHIN THE FOLLOWING
STATES.. CALIFORNIA ARIZONA UTAH AND NEVADA. VEHICLES MAY
NOT BE TAKEN OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES. US RENT A CAR
DOES NOT ALLOW ONE WAY RENTALS. THE RENTAL VEHICLES ARE
EQUIPPED WITH GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS DEVICES TRANSMIT
AND RECORD THE LOCATION, SPEEDS AND DISTANCES THE VEHICLES
HAVE TRAVELED. IF THE VEHICLE IS DRIVEN OUTSIDE THE PUBLISHED
DESIGNATED DRIVING AREA THE THE RENTAL CONTRACT RATES WILL
BE AMENDED TO THE HIGHER TIME AND MILEAGE CHARGES RETROACTIVE
TO THE STARTING DATE AND TIME OF THE RENTAL.

I think Big Brother (or at least the rental companies!) are watching!

Jed - Las Vegas is nowhere near Belgium.

Actually, such GPS tracking in the United States has been ruled as unlawful by several state courts. Advantage Rental in Las Vegas does look like a "fly-by-night" operation but does not, in fact, carry such a policy on its website.

That said, my point was that this is not an issue in Western Europe. Car rental agencies in Western Europe assume cars will cross borders within Western Europe. It's not the same as driving from the U.S. into Mexico. In all of the many rental car discussions on this page in the last several years and also on Tripadvisor and Lonely Planet, this allegation has not been made. And to suggest it would be a concern in Brugges - about in the heart of Western Europe is simply ludicrous.

My post was reacting to someone who decided to introduce a baseless rumor into a European travel forum just to have something to say.

Doug-Thanks for the geography lesson. :-)

I was basing my post on your statement that GPS in rental cars is an "urban legend". I have no idea if rental companies in Europe put them in cars, but obviously here in the US at least one is. Wouldn't be a huge stretch to assume that European companies would be doing it too. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but it's not an urban legend that companies aren't doing it.