Rental Car Return - Early AM

Where exactly in Puglia?

When we had an early departure—not that early—we stayed in Giovinazzo, a cute town only ten minutes from the airport, but check with the rental agency to see what time they open.

We will be returning the rental car at the Brindisi Airport. When I look online at the car rental hours (Sicily by Car) it says 8 AM, but when I go into booking the car, it allows me to choose a return time prior to their opening time?

Yes, but where are you coming from? I’d be inclined to return the day before and take a taxi in the morning, as I’m decidedly not a morning person and don’t like the extra stress. I’d take photos of the car as extra proof there was no damage if doing a contactless drop off.

Sorry - misunderstood! We will be coming from Lecce, so it's not that close.

What day of the week? Some of the smaller towns have limited rental car hours. Check with your rental company or plan to return the car the previous day.

Our experience: On the other side of Italy, we rented a car from AutoEurope/Hertz at the Naples airport for an overnight to Calabria. It was the only rental open for return on Sunday so we could make our train the next morning. I looked at taking the train to rent in Paola and in larger Salerno. Neither worked for our timeframe.

We will be returning on Thursday morning. I can try to look into checking with the rental car company, but not sure the best way to contact.

I suggest emailing them. For the small Paola rental agency, I used Google Translate to post my question along with English. Their answer was in Italian. The Salerno hours were posted on their website.

Can you return the car in Lecce the night before then train or taxi to airport in am? That will still be a very early rising but no extra stress.

Sicily by Car
Out of hour fee
All pick ups within 1 hour after the closing time will generate a charge of € 35,33 + 16% apt/dt
surcharge + VAT; all pick ups from 1 hour onwards after the closing time will generate a charge of €
70,00 + 16% apt/dt surcharge + VAT. For all airport and downtown locations possibly closing
between the AM and PM working hours, any service during this closing time will not generate any
extra charge. However, no out of hour service is accepted after the evening closing time.
All out of hour pick ups and all out of hour drop offs in presence of a desk representative are
on request and subject to our confirmation.

I would use this -- https://www.sicilybycar.it/en/contacts to find out exactly what you need to do ( and whether there is a fee involved)

Thank you so much! That is very helpful