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Car rental Florence pick up near Oasis hotel, return to airport?

Dear Travelers,

We are looking for sage advice to rent and return a car in Florence without incident! Our 1st night hotel will be the Oasis which has a zone - so looking to avoid pick up fee at airport for outbound to Castlefalfi, is the train station best 9/24). Or hard to drive out if that area? Returning car 30th to Airport FLR. Is it best to have AAA arrange the rental or go by way of the 2 consolidators. Many thanks sept 24-30 2025. Also making an 11 am departure flight from airport in 30th is dropping rental at 8am sufficient?

Posted by
16665 posts

You can pick up at the station but you should return to the airport before your flight.

The airport car rental center is 5 min away by shuttle van. Car return paperwork is in my experience very fast and the shuttle runs every 15 min or so, nevertheless 30 min is the minimum you should expect from the time of arrival at the car rental center to the time you can reasonably expected to be at the terminal for checking in. One hour should be more than adequate. For an 11am departure you should be at the terminal at 9am.

Just be aware that to drive from Castelfalfi to the airport one hour is not enough not even with zero traffic and a Ferrari Testarossa. In your case you will be traveling at peak commute time into Florence and you will also need to refuel the car before returning it, so 2 hours drive is the very minimum I would estimate.

Posted by
5 posts

uh oh - we are actually going first to Castlefalfi, then San Gimigiano, then Siena - so it is from Siena we would be going back to Florence airport to make the 11am Nice flight - If 2 hours would be needed if we were coming from Castlefalfi - I am afraid of what it would mean to go back to Florence from Siena?

Is returning the car in Siena and taking a fast? train to Florence any better plan?
Sounds like we did not leave enough time in this leg to take this flight without stress (with or without a fast car - the driver is lacking!)
before I change "something" - thank you for your insight.

Thank you Christine and Roberto for your patience and help..

Posted by
8032 posts

is returning the car in Siena and taking a fast? train to Florence any
better plan? Sounds like we did not leave enough time in this leg to
take this flight without stress (with or without a fast car - the
driver is lacking!) before I change "something" - thank you for your
insight.

There are no fast trains from Siena. It's a regional train to Florence (1hr 34 min) but that just gets you to train station in Florence, so you'd still need to get to airport.

It's just over a 1 hour drive from Siena to the Florence airport. Just get going early and you should be fine- I would leave Siena at 6:30/7 am.
You need to be at terminal checking in by 9 am.

Let's see what Roberto says- he knows the traffic in the area very well. Please let him know what day of the week this will be.
Alternative plan would be to drop the car in Florence the day before and spend your last night IN Florence. From the center it is a quick taxi or tram ride to the airport.
Or drop car in Siena if you have no need for it there- then head to Florence hotel night before departure. (IOW- I wouldn't want to try to take train from Siena to Florence then to airport on departure morning. Too risky)

Posted by
16665 posts

One hour from Siena is next to impossible at 8am. There is commute traffic driving into Florence at that time.

Public transportation from Siena that early is too much hassle in my opinion. You would need to take a bus departing by 5:00 to make it on time.

So you either drive but give yourself at least 2 hours from Siena to the airport rental center (including refueling), just to make sure, of spend the last night in Florence and return the car the day before, or even the day of the flight if you want to stay at a hotel near the airport with parking (downtown is not accessible by car).

Posted by
5 posts

Ha!
Well better to know that now! It would have been Tuesday the 30th of September and yes, we understand now- too much of a time crunch. Thank you for, saving us from that mistake.
We are going to cancel that overnight in Sienna and opt for another night in Florence, taking the train to the airport for the 9am arrival suggested.We’ll pick up and return the car at Santa Novella train station. I think I saw in the other strings the instructions for where the pick up and underground drop off so I avoid driving accidently in a ztl.
Thanks again for all the great info - much appreciated!