Warning: Rental Car Drop Off More Confusing that Picking Up

Totally agree with your comment on Florence car return. We pulled into the airport and looked for the rental car sign(s) and didn't see it. I got out of the car and asked a couple people before we figured out your pull into the parking lot, then someone waved us down one of the aisles to drop the car. Never did see the sign. Without GPS we would have never found the airport.

I didn't have any trouble finding the return at the Florence Airport, but I had a terrible time finding the return in Perpignan, France. I wish they marked the car returns better everywhere.

We just had trouble returning a car at Catania Airport. There are two separate return lots - one for Hertz and Europcar, and one for all other companies. The signs for each lot are very hard to see, and the one for Hertz (the one we needed) was miniscule, so we ended up going into the other lot (we could at least see it was some form of car rental return) and getting directions to the correct place. Luckily, we anticipated that it might take some time, but I can easily imagine someone missing a plane by thinking that the return spot would be better signed.

Good idea to look at Google Street View first - I'll remember that for next time.

We had a heck of a time finding the drop off in Edinburgh city centre. It was in a parking garage at the end of a street, and no signage of course. The garage wasn't even named what our documents said it was.

Sounds like the same Hertz signage at Gare de l'Est -- easy to find if you are WALKING but almost impossible while driving. After that we learned to ask for explicit dropoff directions when we pick up the car. (GPS didn't help since the address listed was for the train station and the Hertz driveway was on the side of the station.)

Drove through Albuquerque airport three times before finding Alamo. Can I post? Does Albuquerque count as a kind of foreign country?

Rental cars in Europe are a pain in the butt from start to finish! Take the train and save yourself lots of headaches.

It is a good suggestion that you check on Google Street View the exact appearance of garages on car rental return addresses, if they are not the same as the pick-up.

This is something car rental agencies and airports in Europe should really learn from US: signaling, signaling, signaling. Give clear instructions on where the drop off parking lots are and reinforce them with periodic signs.

All I can do is say, "Amen" to what everyone else is saying. We once had to return a car at the Milan train station. We drove round and round looking for a sign. Finally, I parked illegally and sat in the car, while my husband went in and asked at the rental company's desk. Turns out, there was a down ramp, to the back of the station, with no sign of any kind visible until you actually turned to go down. The Milan airport is also a blood pressure raiser. When we returned a car there, several years ago, there weren't any rental return signs until after you had to opt for either T1 or T2. We, luckily, made the correct choice. While I was going through the paperwork, a bedraggled looking tourist came up to ask where another company was located. The agent told her that all the companies but hers were in the same terminal. She would have to exit the parking and drive around to the other terminal. I always intend to get clear directions; but, often, in the blur of jet-lag and all the initialing of papers, I forget.