This may have been covered somewhere, but I just wanted to offer some tips on car rental. First, read your contract carefully; ours had both GPS and Wifi on it and we didn't realize that. Second, turn your car in when the office is open, if possible, to make sure that you see the final bill. We turned ours in at 5 a.m. to make a flight, when no one was there. Third, fuel up a day ahead, if you need to. We discovered that gas stations were not open at 5 a.m.! Fourth, watch that you don't speed. We got 2 tickets in Switzerland without being aware of it - cameras are everywhere! Lastly, call overseas if you have a problem with your bill when it comes in. I worked with Avis agents in the US and got nowhere, but when I emailed and called Switzerland, response was much better. Our bill came in about $160 over what we were expecting. I finally got a refund, but it was a hassle.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
Thanks for the info on rental cars. I read all the time about people praising the GPS unit in their rental cars, but I don't want to pay $10 per day for one.
1. I don't take any options in any rental car, including GPS. I take notes on GoogleMaps or MapQuest, and don't even use road maps. I have no problems getting anywhere I need to go--free.
2. I'm always looking for gas stations close to my hotels. I'd hate to think how much fuel would cost at a rental car lot.
3. I do refuel the night before hitting the airport or where I'm turning the car in.
4. The dead giveaway a ticket's coming is 9-10 months after you get home when $45 bill from Hertz shows up on your credit card bill. What's tough is when the City of Venice demands their $155 ticket wire transferred to their checking account in Euros. There are bill payment services that can charge your credit card . Remember, those radar/cameras on the causeway going over to Venice will ticket you for 1 mph over the low speed limit. They're speed traps in many places.
Posted by
Portland
3643 posts
One more thing to add to the above. I had a recent epiphany when renting domestically in a situation where I had previously had a problem finding a service station for the return fill-up. I realized I've been focusing on the wrong issue, namely leaving the rental company a "gift" of some fuel, if I took the prepaid option. I concluded that the $10 or so was a small price to avoid the stress I had previously endured. I will definitely consider the prepay option any time in the future that I rent a car.
Posted by
Reno, NV, USA
2547 posts
9 to 10 months to get a ticket? I feel like I'll have the sword of Damocles over my head for the next year. I'm sure we exceeded the speed limit in many places but had to keep up with traffic or cause an accident.
I would also suggest photographing all damage to the rental car before leaving the lot in case of a dispute. Our rental car was pretty banged up and I wouldn't want to pay for someone else's misdeeds.
We brought our own gps and it was worth every penny we spent. It tells you where the nearest gas stations are to the airport. We filled up just before dopping off the car in the afternoon.
Posted by
Tucson
4183 posts
If you get your tickets from Switzerland in 9-10 months, that will be lightning speed compared to our experience.
We went too fast in/near Basel in late June, 2011. I don't remember when we got the admin fee from Europe Car on our credit card. But, we received our ticket in late March, 2013, just before we were to leave on another trip to Europe.
The ticket was not that pricey, but we had to transfer money to a Swiss account to pay it. The transfer cost more than the ticket!
The address was so screwed up, I'm surprised we ever got it, so I can understand why the ticket took so long to reach us.
If the Swiss sent the ticket within 9-10 months, I'd guess it was returned at least 1-2 times as undeliverable.
So much for Swiss efficiency, but I am glad we got it in time to pay it before leaving on the next trip, even if it was 21 months after the infraction.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
Moral of the story -- do your speeding in France! Our ticket came within a few months of the trip, and they had an easy way to pay it by credit card. But your other tips are right on target.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Just don't get a ZTL ticket in Florence!
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
I think a large part of the City of Florence's budget comes from the issuance of traffic tickets and ZTL penalties.
When we picked up our car on Sansovino, I made sure their directions out of town avoided the ZTL completely.
I still prefer center city car pickups (to airports) as they don't knock your head off with airport fees, tariffs, taxes, etc. You can turn cars in at the airports without paying up charges, however.
Posted by
Portland
3643 posts
Thank you, Lo, for the timely antidote ("so much for Swiss efficiency") to the paranoid fulminations that often appear on this forum regarding driving in Europe. The wheels of bureaucracy everywhere grind slowly. Cameras do not target tourists; they are impartial. Unlike the usual practice in the U.S., where one is given a 5 mph latitude, the European limits mean what they say. ( Although I've heard that they are often set to give a small - - 1% or so margin, but I wouldn't count on that.) ZTL's were invented to protect historic city centers and their residents, not to exploit tourists.
By the way, even in the U.S., with its car-centric culture, restricted zones are starting to appear. Here in the SF Bay area, many cities have time-limited parking around neighborhood business and transport centers for those without resident permits. Even residents get ticketed for overstaying outside their own neighborhoods. I think there also is a very busy section of a downtown SF street from which cars are excluded during the day.