Rental car locations in Europe

Thank heavens we now have Google Maps and Viamichelin.

Autoeurope puts the exact street address on your rental invoice. With the websites above you can get driving directions and maps.

Have to echo Doug's comment. We used Auto Europe for our France trip a week ago. They placed us with Europecar. The adresses were printed out on the receipt, and easy to locate with Google maps. If I had any more questions, I just called Auto Europe at their US headquarters. They are super helpful.

I had my plan on how to reach each location using that info. The airport retrun in a different city was piece of cake.

The pickup location was "off airport", (saving us tons of money. We always do this) It was an easy $10 cab ride.

Katherine, we had a similar experience rending from Europcar back in 2001. We rented a car in Versailles for a week and were to return it to their agency in Aix-en-Provence. I picked up the car on a Monday and arranged to return it on a Sunday. The man at the Versailles agency must not have realized that our return date was on a Sunday and that the return agency would not be open because when we got to Aix and tried to find the agency it was very difficult to do and then we found it was closed and there was not a drop box to put the keys in. I ended up writing a note on a large sheet of paper and placing the keys inside and throwing the keys and paper under the door through a crack into the office area and hoping that the clerks would find it when they arrived on Monday. I also had to park the car on the sidewalk in front of the agency because there was no designated parking area. I worried it would be towed away. I called Europcar's office to tell them what I did and they did not seem very concerned. We worried about that for the longest because we thought perhaps something could have happened to the keys since they were on the floor inside the office. Luckily, it all worked out but we had a lot of internal stress over it. I agree that the car rental agencies in Europe do not seem as stressed over the issues that we Americans have. Maybe that is their more relaxed way of life.

I don't think you are getting the point. I used Google Maps and also programmed the locations into Garmin. These are great for finding the location but when you get there it's nearly impossible to find the drop off because there are no signs. I'm not talking about a Europcar office which is on the street somewhere, I'm talking about Europcar offices, or Hertz, or Avis, or National, which are located inside or near train or ferry stations. They don't even have an address, just Train Station. It's easy to find the train station but once you are there, what do you do with the car? This is my gripe. I guess you haven't experienced this particular problem yet but once you do, you'll share my frustration, especially if you have a train to catch. Check out the address for the Rennes TGV train station if you don't believe me. There's no information about dropoffs. I do agree that they have a far more relaxed attitude about this in Europe which is fine except when you are on a schedule. They should try to be on a schedule too.

Got it. Yep, had a simialr experience with Europecar at the an airport in the Puglia area in south Italy.

I found the empty office on a Sunday, made out a note telling them where the car was , and dropped off the keys.

At the time, I was worried.
But now I know that I need to allow time to find some sort of office, drop off the car and keys , and a note and assume that I will be safe.

That really isn't my major complaint. I don't care if they aren't there when I'm dropping my car as long as they are there when I'm picking it up, which has also happened. It would just be wonderful if they could at least tell you when picking up the car where to leave it when returning it if they can't tell you on their website, you know?
I've rented a car in Europe almost every year for 26 years and this is still a problem. We had 1/2 hour to spare when we first arrived at the station and started looking for Europcar. It's a big, busy, bustling station and town. Make one wrong turn and you are lost, believe me. We got lost in Madrid once for 8 hours just trying to find our way out of town because they couldn't provide us with a decent map of the outlying areas and couldn't tell us how to leave town either. It was insane. That's why I never rent cars in big cities anymore. But Garmin was great on this last trip. What a big help!

I think I could write a small book about the woes of trying to return a rental car in a large European city. Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, we had nightmare experiences in all of them. First of all, as you mentioned, there are the problems of navigating through traffic-clogged streets with one-ways and "closed for road works." Even when you get to the place, e.g., Stazione Centrale in Milan, it's not always evident where the car return ramp is. Then there's the problem of finding an open service station that will take your cc to fill the tank. If you're in Italy, and trying to accomplish that between 1:00 and 3 or 4:00 p.m., lotsa luck. Here's my advice to the newbies out there. ALWAYS return the car to an airport if you are going to a city of any size. Usually, the route is much simpler than going through a city, and there will be some form of transportation you can get into the city itself. Also, start looking for a gasoline station when you are about 10 miles from the airport. The gauge will still show full when you arrive.

Rosalyn, you've got it. Driving and searching for signs of a car drop off is hazardous. I have a better suggestion though since most European cities have great public transportation to town and no car is ever needed in these cities, wait until you really need the car to rent it. I divide my travels between trains and cars and boats. I take trains everywhere possible because they are fast and so much easier than driving. Then when I want to tour little towns like in the hills of Tuscany or Provence, I rent a car in the smallest town I can find. Usually this means a moderately sized town. Perugia is a good place to rent in Tuscany. Arles is a good place to rent in Provence. Sarlat in the Dordogne. You get my drift. These towns are far easier to navigate in and out of. I always get rid of the car before returning to a big city like Paris or Rome and take the train in. This has worked really well for me for 26 years now. Besides, airports charge higher rates and surcharges.

Thank you, Katherine, for reminding me of our recent experience in Koln, Germany. We had a pick up location for an AVIS rental. The agency was no longer at the location and a 12Euro cab ride was required to get to the new location. I called AVIS upon my return. They offered a refund of the cab fare, but only if I had a receipt.

I don't drive anywhere in Europe anymore without taking my GPS. That way, if I have an address for a location, it is never a problem finding it (well, at the address! the rental car lot might be another problem!)

I never pick up a rental car at an airport (costs too much), and almost always return them at an airport. I never return one at the same location. Pick up in one location, and drive to another.

I don't have a problem finding my pickup location, because I plot it out on Google maps, and if I am not sure I call the rental agency when I am planning my trip. If that does not work, it is easy to hire a cab...they can always find it!

Returning the car to an airport rental car agency is always easy, especially with the GPS. I understnd your complaint; I would hate to try and find some of the other rental return locations, when they just say "train station", etc.

But sometimes that can be solved by just calling them on the cell phone, and asking " where in the heck is your return lot!!!??"

I did have a problem with a closed rental office one time when I came into Taoromina,Italy to pick-up a car. ( he closed the office to go to the bar to get a drink!) So I learned to make sure that my stated arrival time was as close as possible to my actual, and that I had the phone number of the office.

I think the short answer is GPS. We hesitated to get one for England, ("heck, we talk that purty good") but it paid for itself before we were half way out of Gatwick! I also agree that despite pricing, airport rental is easier to negotiate, and a reading of your harrowing experience reminds me how a few dollars more can be money well spent. A side-gripe: Rented our second car in the last year, 2 companies, 2 countries, and not one map nor even a word on driving regulations. I prepare for a trip, but a small note indicating at least "Do Not Enter" in Italian or French or a postcard copy of international road signs at time of rental would be welcome.

I'm sorry for these end of trip experiences. Europcar seems the worst in the thread?
Had a bad experience with Europcar at CDG last summer, even allowing an hour to drop off and 2 hours for airport security. TomTom gave us directions to what have been a repair facility once,( yes we had updated maps) and there were NO addresses on the rental docs. Gave up on the offsite location and drove completely thru the terminal parking garage. Found Avis, Hertz, etc--- no signage for Europcar inside the garage. FINALLY a kind Avis employee told me to park in certain numbered spaces and take the keys inside to the Eurocar counter. Did not carry a cell phone, so could not call. My husband would have blown his stack and ruined the day- luckily I only sweated the manic desperation.

I did not notice till I was 7-8 miles ( =30 minutes of traffic) on the way out of Paris, where I rented at the main AF terminal near Champ du Mars, that the left rearview window was shattered. When i picked up the car it was in a tiny dark dirty grungy garage,so crowded my son could not open the door. I was not able to inspect the car. I expected to be charged for that, thus I hesitate to drop off a car unattended as I would not be able to defend my credit card.

Hello Katherine, have rented from Auto Europe for years. Always pick up in one city and return to another. Sometimes small cities. Never had any problems. No, and we do not use GPS, drive the old fashioned way, with a map!. Karin

Fro those of you who think it's easy, know this. We had Garmin with us and it was programmed to find Europcar but it took us to the train station. Once there, there were no visible signs from the street showing us where to go. You could drive in circles for hours looking for it without luck. It's that simple. The traffic would not permit stopping in the middle of a very busy street. I do agree with those of you who think Europcar is one of the worst for this. They are. I've rented from them for years and years. I actually rent through Auto Europe and they assign the rental agency that fits best. I have received a good response by the way from Europcar to my complaint. They are looking into adding directions and maps to show their exact auto return locations. I sure hope they follow through with this. We didn't take a cell phone to Europe since it wouldn't work over there anyway and didn't feel the need to pay the expense of buying one there. Besides, have you ever asked a Frenchman for directions? They think you're crazy for not knowing where they are since they know where they are! We had 3 different officials inside the train station send us in three different directions. One sent us up the escalator! That was definitely wrong.

Well, since I was in the car with Katherine on that trip, I can attest to the problems we had in returning the car in Rennes. The problem is, what do you do with the car while you figure out where, exactly, the EuropeCar counter is located within the train station? You can use Garmin to find the station and maybe even the counter, but since you can't drive the car up on the counter to return it, who cares?

We need to know where they PARK their cars for returns.

The station parking lot was not close by and neither was the spot in the lot where they eventually told us to take the car. It was complicated and very time consuming. But if they had told us as some point how best to do this, the time saved would have been substantial. We made out train, by the way, with about two minutes to spare.

Returning the car to Heathrow was much worse. We missed the turn off on the upper road where all the car rental places were. Instead, we ended up on an expressway that had NO exits for twenty kilometers. We still had no idea where the rental return was and eventually (and I am NOT kidding), we ran a company van off the road and forced them to lead us to the office.

In Madrid, they gave us a map of the central city and a larger map of Madrid and the surrounding area. There was no connection on either map as to how to get from one to the other. Nothing we did helped us. Asking directions a half dozen times, driving straight in one direction - we tried everything, but we could not figure it out. We finally just drove out of the city in the opposite direction and circled around.

Yeah, pre-GPS, you bet.