Car Rental- Hungary to Romania - over 70

senior driver and surcharge
Maximum age in Hungary is 90 years. All senior driver rentals where the driver is aged 70-90 years are on request only. Customer must make arrangements directly with counter. For drivers aged 70-90 years, there is a surcharge of EUR15.00 per day, with a maximium of EUR75.00.
driving restrictions
Dollar/Thrifty vehicles cannot be driven into and/or dropped off any African, Asian or Middle-East countries, nor in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine or any island. Dollar/Thrifty vehicles may be driven into Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. At some countries category restriction may apply. Note: An additional fee of €44.45 (including tax) per rental applies if you wish to drive abroad.

EDIT- This is not to endorse a particular rental agency, but to demonstrate there are options on how it could be done.

Above from the Dollar rent a car site. Looks like you can rent in Hungary and go to Romania, but there are some extra fees and hoops.

This is some of the 'fine print' when renting from Dollar in Romania

renter qualifications

At time of rental the driver must present a valid National Driver's license which has been held for at least 1 year. An International Driver's Permit (IDP) is recommended for Non-European renters. All U.S. citizens must present the IDP together with their National Driving license in Romania. Drivers must be a minimum of 21 years of age for most vehicles, please check special Vehicle Requirements. Renters 21-24 are charged EUR8.00 per day, EUR56.00 per week, EUR80.00 per month/max. Renters 71 years of age or olderare charged EUR8.00 per day, EUR56.00 per week, EUR80.00 per month/max

You might contact one or more of the car-rental consolidators that have been mentioned on this forum: AutoEurope, Gemut and Kemwel. I'd expect that to be easier than hitting a bunch of individual rental-car websites. The usual comment about using those consolidators is that you will not pay more and might actually save a bit of money. (I'm just reporting on what I've read on this forum; I've never rented a car in Europe myself.)

I just did a trial run through Autoeurope.com, telling them I wanted to pick up and return in Bucharest for a week, and that I am 71. That took me to Hertz, where I could rent an automatic for $413 (plus insurance options). I added full coverage for $12/day for a total of $510, picking up and returning to the airport.

Fine print said minimum driver age is 21 and maximum age is 99. 🤷🏻‍♀️

You might run into either a higher cost - or a complete inability - to pick up in one location and drop in another. I did not check that.

Edit: You might message kmkwoo. They recently rented in Romania and could tell you what they did.

Hi @cardz.mkr7, I hope I'm not too late on this forum!

Me and my wife did the Bucharest to Budapest (Romania to Hungary) route last year and found the company Klass Wagen worked really well for renting a car across the Romania-Hungary border.

Klass Wagen is an independent European car rental operator that operates in both Romania and Hungary, so they allow cross-border driving between Romania and Hungary, with stations in both countries and clear policies and approval processes to support multi-country road trips.

All of Klass Wagen's rentals include unlimited mileage, which actually makes a real difference on those longer cross-border drives, and we thought the price-quality ratio is excellent compared to the big international brands.

I'd say it's worth contacting them directly to confirm the documentation needed in advance.

By the way, they also have 24/7 human customer support which was useful when we had questions before and during the trip!

I hope that's helpful and you have a wonderful trip!

Hi, I would second TexasTravelMom and acraven's suggestion that you look on AutoEurope. They will tell you exactly what you need for each rental company that you choose, and they'll show you a list of all options by price that you can choose from. I've been renting from AutoEurope since the mid-90s, and I've never had any problems with them. They're upfront, and they'll tell you exactly what the cost is, and if there are any age requirements, they'll tell you those, but it sounds like there aren't.

AutoEurope also has a pretty good section on their website where they give you requirements for driving in each country, so you can look at this and see what you'll need to know. https://www.autoeurope.com/driving-information/

Also, I don't know about Klass Wagen listed above, but I did a quick search on Reddit and TripAdvisor, and it looks like they have a reputation for aggressive sales tactics regarding their own insurance, restrictive policies, and strict, sometimes unexpected, damage fees. That doesn't mean that other companies won't do the same thing, but I would still be a little leery. AutoEurope has a very good reputation, and they stand behind their car rentals so if you have any problems you can always call them.

This is a thread from January, re-awakened. The OP was traveling in May, so has probably already made a decision or is finished with the trip.

Oops, I usually check but didn't this time. Thanks, TTM.

Hopefully OP will let us know what they did and how it worked out.

First of all let me thank those of you who responded to my posting; I really appreciate all the input. We just returned from our trip to Hungary & Romania and it was a successful driving tour. We ended up renting from Alamo at the Budapest airport, and it couldn't have been easier. It was a comfortable, newer car and ready/waiting when we arrived, so we were on the road quickly. luckily the Hungarian vignette was there at an added cost, but we didn't have to mess around with it ourselves --- easy.

Crossing the border (coming & going) was a non-event. There were remnants of old guard booths, but all closed up now and no border patrols in sight.

Gas stations with attendants were easy to find even in the rural northern parts of the country, and all accepted credit cards. We bought the required Romanian vignette at a gas station after we crossed the border. It was MUCH cheaper and without additional fees as I saw online! Gas was expensive, but it is here, too. Fortunately the car got good mileage (:

Nobody was interested in the International Driver's License, and only wanted to see an actual license. I can say this because we were "lucky" ( ha) enough to be pulled over both in Romania, and upon returning to the Budapest Airport in random police checks! No problem s, they were just checking people for having all the necessary documents.

I chose hotels that all had private on-site parking, except for one. With that there was a public parking lot across the street, and we had no problems (despite the many negative things I'd read and been told.

The only negative concerns Romanian driving habits --- crazy fast, not real attentive, and they don't leave any "extra" space for safety. Since they zip in and out while going at warp speed it can be a bit frustrating if one is used to defensive driving. Beware of horse drawn carts, people walking in/across the road without warning, or standing in the road chatting up friends; it means REALLY being alert on narrow winding roads in rural areas, and heavily trafficked roads in metropolitan areas.

All in all a good trip in two heavily agrarian countries which are quite beautiful. I ate LOTS of wonderful tasty tomatoes, a rarity at home at this time of year.

Thanks for coming back to report! I am sure plenty of people do this, but apparently no one here on the forum. :)

If you have time, a report specifically on Romania would sure be useful also.