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No fee one-way car rental available in Netherlands?

Has anyone done a one-way car rental in the Netherlands? We would like to pickup a car in Amsterdam and drop it off 3 days later in another city (close to Germany). We want to avoid one-way fees. Has anyone done this? If so, any particular rental companies? Thanks.

Posted by
1204 posts

Hi Becky. Yes, that will work fine. You don't say when you are going, where in Germany you are going next, and how. By train...?

You can get the idea by using Expedia or Kayak. For instance, on Expedia, I see a compact car from Budget; pick up in Amsterdam, drop in Utrecht for $98 total for 3 days Sept 19-22. However, you need to work logistics of exactly where to pick up and drop car, how to get to/from next spot; make sure rental place is open on day / time you want to pick it up, etc. Also, I haven't use them, but many on this site use a pre-pay consolidator; there are pros and cons to that; you can search on this site for many threads rental car advice, also a wealth of advice under 'Travel Tips' section on this site. Enjoy your trip!

Posted by
2047 posts

Thanks Bob, Our plan is to take a bus or train from wherever we drop the car to Dusseldorf. We then plan to be in Germany for several days before we fly out of Frankfurt. Dusseldorf is a definite stop, due to contacts there.

Posted by
1113 posts

I rented via Autoeurope which is a car rental consolidator. I asked about a rental from Amsterdam to Paris and there was about a $600 drop off fee. The previous poster may have gotten the quote for the rental but I bet the drop off fee has not been factored in. Hopefully you'll get favorable replies about no huge drop off fee but I doubt it. I just rented a few months ago, in May.

Posted by
7181 posts

Of course, there are plenty of general car rental issues to investigate, like CDW products, second-driver charges, photographing four sides of the car before return, unattended return stations, unattended gasoline stations. But you didn't ask about that.

Arnhem, Nijmegen, Eindhoven, and Venlo come to mind, depending on your interests. I'd look at the DB rail site to see the one with the best connections. Deventer, Apeldoorn, and Amersfoort are also worth visiting.

Posted by
16893 posts

Claudette, et al:

It's a pretty safe bet in Europe that the one-way fee to pick up and drop off a rental car in different countries will be significant (even prohibitive), while the fee to drop at a different location in the same country will be minimal to none with the major agents.

Posted by
8889 posts

Claudette, the $600 drop off fee is because you dropped off the car in another country (France). This is why the poster is proposing to drop off the car on the Netherlands side of the border and get a train (or bus) to Düsseldorf. That way she avoids the fee.

My suggestion: Maastricht.
Nice town near the German border with connecting rail services into Germany.

Posted by
1113 posts

Whoops I misread the OP's question and thought she wanted to drop off in Dusseldorf. I ended up taking the train to Lille and renting a car there to avoid drop off costs.

Posted by
2829 posts

Hertz charges just € 30 or 40 for one-way rentals within Netherlands.

Posted by
7981 posts

We rented in Amsterday, drove up the Rhine and then into Provence and returned the car in Paris a few years ago and because we were returning a Paris car had no drop fee. It is worth inquiring if they have a car that needs to go home if you want to drop cross borders. Otherwise you are better off renting twice and training or busing across the border. But within a country most but not all vendors do not charge a drop fee. Clarify that before booking.