Hello Everyone….
We plan to rent a car in Munich and return it in Cologne before traveling by train to Belgium. We would like to drive the car to Alsace, France for a few days before heading up to Germany. Rental car companies that we've researched say they don't permit crossing country borders. Anyone know of rental companies that permit this? It seems like a natural thing to be able to cross borders when the countries are so closely linked.
Thanks for your help!
Charlene
"Rental car companies that we've researched say they don't permit crossing country borders."
IME this sounds like a misunderstanding.
Go to autoeurope.com. Do a sample search picking up in Munich and dropping in Paris. You'll see that it's possible - with 6 different companies. (So how would you get to Paris without crossing the French Border??)
Go onto AutoEurope.com or Hertz.com and read the rental terms. Some rental outfits possibly don't want their cars going into certain countries Eastern Europe or maybe Ukraine.
Picking a car up and returning in Germany with a side trip to France shouldn't be an issue.
I rent cars from AutoEurope or Kemwel and there are no issues taking the car into France.
Hi Charlene,
Never heard of this "no border crossing" before. We've rented and returned in Germany many times and have had zero problems going to Austria, northern Italy and Switzerland during our travels. Slovenia was even ok'd. Rental companies do have some restrictions on high end cars (expensive Benz, BMW, etc) being taken into Italy for instance. Check again. We can highly recommend contacting Andy Bestor at www.gemut.com. We've used them for our rentals our last 4 trips.
Paul
Thank you all for your suggestions. It didn't seem quite right that borders would be an issue. We'll look into the companies you recommended.
Thanks again,
Charlene
It is not an issue for France. However, there are some cross border restrictions on German car hires - you cannot take certain luxury Hertz, Avis or Europcar vehicles from Germany into Italy, for example. There are also restrictions on vehicle classes that can be taken into eastern Europe.
Several follow posters have suggested this guide to renting cars in Europe available from Gemut: http://www.gemut.com/images/stories/report/carrentalspecialreport.pdf
Just to be clear: You do not rent FROM AutoEurope, Gemut or Kemwel, you rent THROUGH them. You are renting from companies such as Europcar, Sixt, Avis, Hertz, etc. You will be bound by the terms and conditions of the rental company, not just the consolidator. The rental companies differ slightly on some rules but I don't know of any that forbid driving a car from Germany to France. I do know that Europcar and Sixt permit it.
