We will have a car in Normandy. Is it better to drive to Brussels or take the train? We know about Lille's station for drop off, but wonder how much more is costs to keep the car and drop off in Brussels? We also know we do NOT need the car in Brussels.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
I don't know how much extra you will pay for dropping off your car in another country, but the fee will be sizeable. Check with your rental agency to get a quote. I suggest that you drop your car in Lille and take the train.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
RE- the dreaded foreign drop-off fee. I always took this as an article of faith, without further investigation. So, I decided to actually run the numbers through the Sixt and Europcar websites to see what kind of fees we're talking about. It looks like you pay a daily "one way fee" anytime you drop off the car from a different location where you picked it up, for the duration of the rental. The fees I saw quoted ranged from a few euro per day for different destinations in the same country to as high as nearly € 50 per day for some distant foreign drop-offs. So I guess the answer is... it depends. If you only have the car a few days, it probably won't put too much of a dent in your budget. But the longer the rental and the further away your drop-off point, the fee can become excessive.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Tom got me thinking, so I just did Nice local and Nice to Milan for a single day and for a couple of weeks. The drop-fee was nearly constant (or so nearly constant it could have been from the time it took to make the query instead of a proportional daily deal).
Posted by
Tilburg, Netherlands
2829 posts
Drop-off fees are one-off ones. I have never seen a "daily drop-off fee".
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
OK, I could have sworn I saw a daily "one way fee" on the Sixt site earlier today, but I'm not seeing it now. Now what I'm see is that the drop-off fee is embedded in the overall cost... which goes up for shorter term rentals... I firmly admit, now I'm confused and have no idea...
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
If you do drive to Brussels, time your arrival to be in mid-day. Their rush-hour traffic is a total nightmare.
Posted by
OP
Fort Myers, Florida, USA
34 posts
I so appreciate the variety of responses. We decided after seeing all of these thoughts to leave the car in Lille and take the train to Brussels. Hertz actually has a drop-off at the Lille TGV station...hope that is the right one! Thanks to all.
Posted by
Minneapolis, MN, USA
8700 posts
Direct TGVs from Lille Europe to Bruxelles-Midi depart at 07:30, 09:07, 18:07, 19:07, and 20:07. Or you can take the Eurostar from Lille Europe to Bruxelles-Midi. See the timetables and book your tickets at eurostar.com.