Does anyone have any experience in renting a car in France, upon arrival to a particular city? We are not on a fixed itinerary, so we thought we could just show up and rent a car. Is this possible?
Posted by
105 posts
I think it would kind of be similar to renting a car in the US. If there is something particular going on in the area that would draw a lot of drivers then you could end up without one. But you probably at least would know your destination city the night before, I would think? You could search online and if taking the train, plan the stop for the closest city with a car available. But every time we've rented in France there seemed to go plenty in the lot. So I think unless you are picky on the type/size of car or require an automatic, you could be in good shape. Not sure if you're going at the height of summer travel...
Posted by
Washington DC
28078 posts
For decades, guidebooks have been urging travelers to make European car-rental reservations before leaving home because it is usually quite a bit cheaper. As far as I know, that is still the advice. But I have not done any comparison shopping, nor have I ever rented in Europe. I'd suggest looking at what's available through the major consolidators like autoeurope, kemwel and gemut (suggested by guidebooks) and comparing it to what you turn up on websites like kayak. That might give you an idea of how flexible you can afford to be.
Another potential issue is the complexity of the insurance situation, which varies by country. A walk-up customer doesn't have a lot of time to research alternatives to whatever daily insurance fee he is quoted.
Posted by
Portland, Maine
2916 posts
Many years ago we had friends who were joining us in France, and went to pick up a car that had been rented by one of their group who had cancelled just prior to the trip. When they got to the rental agency, they were told there were no cars available for walk ups. Then one of them asked to have his name checked in the reservation database, and it turned out that he had made the initial contact for the reservation, and suddenly there were plenty of cars. I believe that if you called AutoEurope the night before you want the car, you'd have no problem getting one. In fact, I've heard of people calling AE right from the rental agency to make a reservation and then having a voucher come through right as they waited.