Hello,

My wife and I will be arriving in Frankfurt on Friday, 9/22/06. We are going to rent a car while we are there. I need the car because I have some relatives who do not live close to train lines. I will probably use AutoEurope based on the positive reviews here.

Is there an easy location to pick up the rental car in Frankfurt besides the airport/train station (due to the 20% additional fees)? I'll be heading south toward Stuttgart after picking up the car.

Also, we are flying home from Paris (CDG) on Thursday, 10/5. We may drive to Paris on Monday, 10/2, to spend a couple days in Paris. Or perhaps we'll drive to Paris on Sunday, 10/1. Is traffic much better on weekends vs. Mondays?

Regarding where to drop off the rental car, I am not sure whether I should:

a) return the rental car in Frankfurt on Monday 10/2, then buy our train tickets to Paris, which might be more expensive due to the long train ride.

b) return the rental car to somewhere outside Paris (Reims?) 10/2, then take a shorter train into Paris.

c) return the car to Paris-CDG airport on Sunday 10/1, then take a train into Paris.

I don't plan on driving in the city, unless it's to drop off the rental car.

(Also, I didn't notice too much of a difference in price on autoeurope.com for dropping the car off in France vs. in Germany - but I could be wrong).

Many many many thank you's in advance for anyone's suggestions/ideas!
tom

I'd drive the car into France. Where you drop it is up to you. In Reims, you might have to take a taxi from the rental car dropoff to the train station. On the other hand, there may be an airport surcharge at CDG, but there's easy transportation (taxi, shuttle, bus, RER) into Paris.

Make your AutoEurope reservation by phone. The reps are knowledgable and offer good advice.

Try not to drop the car in France after renting it in Germany--you will incur a drop charge of something like $200. Best to drop the car at agency near the French border, take the train across, and then rent again in France.

Hi pf,

There is very likely to be a drop-off charge.

As suggested, call AE. Don't book over the internet.

Do a search here for Kelsterbach and you will see where we have picked up our Avis rental car there the past 2 years to save the airport tax. It's only about 10 km from the airport. We also rented our car from autoeurope but (at a discount) thru gemut.com. It's possible that the autoeurope website isn't showing your drop off charge but there will be one as pointed out by other posters.

Anyway, the taxi ride from Frankfurt Airport to Avis Kelsterbach is less than 20 Euro depending on how quickly your taxi driver finds it. Note, however, that they are only open from 8 AM to Noon, Mon - Fri.