Car Rental to use into France

[SWSteve]

Hi,

I'm off to the Euros in June, and this has raised an issue for me/friends for how to get to Lyon from Bristol.

The flights are pretty expensive, £175 per person, so we are reviewing our options (Eurostar is off on Tuesday and Wednesday direct from London).

The next option...renting a car - something I've never done, and don't have a clue about how to go about renting a car to take across into France and then back again.

Have any of you done this? What issues have you faced? Do you need to have a car registration to be able to book euro tunnel/ferry? Are there any companies to avoid?

Thanks in advance

 

[mjr]

Europcar or Thrifty are fine, according to someone I just asked who's taken hired vehicles abroad this year. Ferry companies ask for registration plate but you can put in a dot and they won't usually grumble.

IMO: Just try not to bend it and you'll avoid most trouble. Check for current driving advice, like I think France requires you to carry your own breathalysers.

 

[vickster]

Rent the car at/near the French ferry terminal? It is usually much cheaper going across the water as a foot passenger

 

[toffee]

[QUOTE 4056200, member: 259"]Getting into France is quite a bit harder at the moment.

You need a plate number to travel Eurotunnel. Don't try it without one at the moment. You can change it later, but it's a right hassle and is not free.[/QUOTE]

It's one phone call and free, if my experience this year is worth anything

However it will be very expensive to take a hire car abroad in my experience.

Derek

 

[jonny jeez]

Rent the car at/near the French ferry terminal? It is usually much cheaper going across the water as a foot passenger

This^^.

Get the train down to folkestone and pick the car up at calais. I do a similar trip every year, renting a car at Geneva to drive up into the french alps...it's a doddle. Book in line, collect at the terminal, drive off

As Vickster says, travel on a ferry as a foot passenger is very cheap (about £15 if I recall).

My only advice, take some euros for tolls and if you have never driven abroad, consider an automatic car, it's one less thing to get used to.

 

[screenman]

Make sure you take out the maximum insurance, that way when you have a bang you can just hand the keys back in and walk away with nothing to worry about. I would rather hire in France as it puts the steering wheel on the correct side of the car.

 

[SWSteve]

[QUOTE 4056421, member: 45"]How about flying to somewhere cheap in France and driving from there.?[/QUOTE]

It seems like wherever we can fly from via Bristol will still take a couple of hours. Plus both airports and collecting a car.

I think we're gona meet later this week to talk about options, I'll certainly levy this though.

 

[mjr]

[QUOTE 4056421, member: 45"]How about flying to somewhere cheap in France and driving from there.?[/QUOTE]
Well, that's one way to give the finger to the recent climate agreement in Paris...

 

[vickster]

It seems like wherever we can fly from via Bristol will still take a couple of hours. Plus both airports and collecting a car.

I think we're gona meet later this week to talk about options, I'll certainly levy this though.

Does no one going have their own car? That would be simplest and cheapest, just add Euro cover, may even already be included on the insurance

Or how about cycling

 

[Markymark]

Make sure you take out the maximum insurance, that way when you have a bang you can just hand the keys back in and walk away with nothing to worry about. I would rather hire in France as it puts the steering wheel on the correct side of the car.

Not the insurance with the hire car though. Get a private top up insurance. It's massively cheaper.

 

[mjr]

Not the insurance with the hire car though. Get a private top up insurance. It's massively cheaper.

It's a good option IF you've the spare cash to cope with the time delay between paying the hirer for any damage not covered by them and the private insurer paying you. If not, don't risk it. I've stood in a rental showroom while someone realised the implications of this for them rather noisily and expressed their displeasure at the whole system to the hire company workers.

 

[chriswoody]

When I moved to Germany, the most convenient and cheapest way was to hire the biggest van I legally could on my car licence, fill it up and drive to Germany. I seem to recall it cost about 350 pounds all in, for a weeks hire from Hertz. This was three years ago and was no hassle or bother, I told them which countries I was traveling through and how long. It was all put down on a form and off I went, 3000km in all.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Don't forget to drive really fast and smell of garlic. And if anyone says anything to you just shrug your shoulders and say 'pfft'.

 

[mjr]

[QUOTE 4057586, member: 259"]No, from personal experience, this is not the case.

Look at policies from insurance4carhire.com. …[/quote]
That seems to confirm what I wrote: you have to pay and then they "aim to" pay you back within 15 days.

You are covered for things which are not covered by excess insurance from the hire companies and they don't dare try the fake damage trick.

Really, if you're hiring from companies who do those tricks, you've got problems anyway.