Car rental
 

Going to Paris Fr. 26 Sep. been looking for auto rentals and ALL are $ was planning on driving from paris to normandy then to Bruge,and to Bastone and on down to Munich. with a dept. date of 10 Oct.o7 Would like thoughts,advice on rental the drop-off in Munc. is high total cost will be approx$900.for 10 days, more than air( what say you) tks all. Len Mag.

Hring a car in one country and dropping it off in another will incur huge one-way fees, just as hiring a car on the East coast of the US and dropping it off on the West coast does. I would suggest a car for the Normandy/Brugge/Bastogne bit of the trip but return it in France, preferaby where you picked it up, then fly or train to Munich.

Have you tried autoeurope? It is usually much more expensive to pick up and drop off in different locations.

I just put a 10 day rental with Paris pick-up and Munich drop off in at Autoeurope. Prices were from 325.00 basic compact to $650. automatic ,full coverage, I used October dates too.

Shop around as many rental car companies have eliminated the drop-off charges if the pick-up/drop-off locations are major airports/transportation hubs. As an example, back in 2003 we rented a car at Estacion Santa Justa in Seville (Auto Europe) and there was no drop-off charges when we dropped it at Barajas Airport (Madrid). Same with AVIS in 2005 (p/u at airport in Stockholm d/o at Oslo airport; no drop-off charge). We are leaving this week for Ireland; no drop-off charges again (Dublin-Shannon). By the way, this last June we rented a car in Billings, MT and dropped it off in Las Vegas; no drop-off charges. Again, call and shop around.

Building on what Viajero noted, see if you can eliminate drop-off fees by returning the car to Frankfurt Airport -- which is a SUPER-major hub for Europe. Rental agencies may want to pay YOU for getting one of their cars back there, for the tons of business customers.

There's a train station right at the airport, so a train connection to Munich would be easy.

Tks. all booked thru autoeurope 12days a Renault Laguna wagon for $956. It was more $ for 4 of us to go by train from Strasbourg to Muchen. Again tks. for all interest. L. M.

i am a travel professional and dropping off in another country will ALWAYS incur a drop fee. You can pick up and drop off in different locales as long as they are in the same country for no charge, but once you consider dropping the car in a different country, an extra fee will inevitably apply.

Bianca is wrong. From EXPERIENCE, we picked a car in Stockholm, dropped it off in Oslo and pay ZERO drop-off charges. Not sure what a travel profesional is this days (?)....:-? but it sounds catchy, I'll think I'll get me one of those titles....:-D

You realize, of course, that a dropp fee could easily have been incorporated into the so-callled "basic rate" right?

No, because we asked. Simply as that.

I manage a company www.villeetvillage.com so am a travel professional - -that is my occupation. viajero2 you are really out of line with your insults and posts. I reported you to the editors at fodors.

YIPEEE!!! I got reported, you are a doll!! Thank God I have a life....! =D>

We are all equal here. That means that travel professionals are entitled to make the same mistakes as the rest of us. We've just seen that. It is sometimes possible to rent a car in one country and drop off in another without any fee. It's usually a bad idea to say "never" or "always", no matter what your profession is. It's one thing for anyone to state an opinion, but quite another to state something as if it were a fact when it really isn't.

I rented in Germany with autoeurope during a 14-day trip and dropped off in Switzerland. They clearly stated the drop-off fee on the statement of $80.

Maybe drop off/pick up another rental at a border town might work. Call autoeurope's 800 number and inquire, or call Andrew Bester at gemut.com. They specialize and give great rates for Germany. He might be of some help.

I'm a proud member of the "you've been reported to the fodor's editors" club. :-) ((b))

I regret I did make an overstatement -- the company I work for only deals with France/Italy/Spain and Portugal so I just went into automatic mode and answered for those four countries in particular that I normally work with. Having never been to Norway or Sweden, I don't have any experience there. But I do stand by my decision to report viajero2 -- on another thread she gave me a dumb statement award because I said that I make my kid sleep on the plane instead of taking a nap when we land. Why is that deserving of a dumb statement award?! I'm not making her sleep on a plane, am I?

bianca--it does sound as though you are a tad oversensitive. You'll be spending a lot of your time reporting people.

Hi B,

>I do stand by my decision to report viajero2 -- on another thread she gave me a dumb statement award...

I have learned that when one is angry or upset, that it is a good idea to write a nasty letter and then put it away.

If it still seems to be a good idea the next day, then send it.

Almost always, it will not be sent.
((I))

Bianca, Bianca....I still see things do need to be spelled out for you. I did NOT called your statement dull "because I said that I make my kid sleep on the plane instead of taking a nap when we land". I called your statement dumb because you told the OP that all she needed was to take away all the games from her kids and tell them to go to sleep. This after about 20 POSTS from various people relating how the overwhelming majority of passengers find it hard to sleep on a plane. Obviously, a simpleton answer is not a real indicator of brain power. So I do too stand by the Dumb Award nomination and you can spin that one anyway you want....:-D

2 of the 10 people who answered before me said they had trouble sleeping on the plane -- the others mentioned nothing of the sort. And I certainly don't have any trouble sleeping on the plane, nor do my family members. I really don't mind if you disagree with me but you are violating the rules of conduct for these message boards.