best time to drop car and take train to hotel
 

My husband (who never reads these posts) wants me to ask about the best day of the week (if there is one) to drop our leased car and get to our hotel in Paris.( we may be anywhere..like the Loire, etc)

Not sure where we will be but he wants to know if it's better to train in on a Monday as opposed to a weekend. We need this info so we can book the hotel. Are the trains busier on a weekend????. can you drop cars any time?..

Thanks again for all the help.

First, is the car rental place open every day? I have seen that some Avis locations are not open on Sundays, and most are closed daily by 5:00 pm. Second, check train schedules on www.sncf.com for the day you think you will drop off the car - is there a train for the desired day and time? (you can do this a few months in advance).

We have found that most car rental offices in France close on Sundays with the exception of airport locations.

<<Are the trains busier on a weekend????>>

It depends - which trains?


<<Can you drop cars any time?>>

Not necessarily. Some rental outfits are closed on Sundays; I've run into others that close for two hours at lunchtime. You need to check that with your car rental agency.

I would call whichever company you rented from. It's possible that different offices have diffent hours of operations or different days of the week they're open. Check with the rental company.

For some of the agencies such as AutoEurope and Avis you can check the hours of specific locations by going to the agency's website.

As someone above pointed out, some are closed for a couple of hours around lunchtime and some close as early as 6:00 PM.

It's sometimes possible to drop off your rental car even if the office is closed. You can drop your keys in a box outside the agency. We've done this a couple of times, always with a little trepidation (what if someone steals the wheels off the car before the agency opens the next day?), but we've never had any problems. Ask your agency.

Intrepid1 probably meant Europcar; just so that newbies don't get confused - - there is no such &quot;agency&quot; as Autoeurope. They're brokers who &quot;place&quot; you with other <i>actual</i> car rental companies (at rates better than you can get on your own) - - like Avis, Europcar (National), Budget, Hertz, etc...

Best wishes,

Rex

check with the group you leased your car from. Renault, Peugot all have their drop off sites in France listed on the web.
Drop off/pick up sites for leased cars are usually in large towns/airports.

No, Dr. Bickers, I did NOT mean Europecar. If the poster goes to www.autoeurope.com you can reserve cars for various locations. When the location screen comes up it lists the opening and closing times.

You really should isten to the Nursing staff more often, Rex.