I just read two recent forum posts with warnings about taking a Spanish car into France. ("Problems" with Spanish cars at the French border; plus steep surcharges.) We plan to rent a car In Barcelona in May, drive up the coast into France's Languedoc area for 6 nights, then return the car to Barcelona. I expect to use AutoEurope. Has anyone experienced any difficulties with a rental car between the two countries?

There shouldn't be any problems. There are no restrictions and you don't have to inform Auto Europe. The rental will either be through AVIS, National or Europcar, depending on the car and where in the city you pick it up.

Skip the CDW when using your VISA, MC or Amex card. Amex also has an excellent insurance program if you sign up before using the card for your rental.

We have done this several times without any problems. We have a shared property near Perpignan and I worked for a time in Scotland. We took Ryanair from Prestwick to Girona several times, picked up a rental car at the airport and returned it there after our 1-2 weeks based in France. We have also flown into Milan and driven to Provence for 2 weeks before returning to Italy. Once again we encountered no problems. We were never stopped at the border. Surcharges usually apply if you pick up in one country and drop off in another, and they are expensive. Most car rental companies have specific restrictions on entering many eastern european countries and they are spelled out in the contract. The corollary to that is that if 'your'country is not listed then it should be OK. Greg

I've done a driving trip from San Sebastian into Biarritz and didn't have any problems at all. I can't imagine why you would, as there are no laws against driving cars from one country into the other.

We drive into Spain and back into France all the time. There are no "problems." There isn't even anything going on at the border, just an empty old border crossing booth. The car rental company doesn't care where you go in that part of Europe unless you drop the car off in a country different from where you picked it up. It's all part of the EU now, so no " border" issues.

I know that you often can't take a car hired in England over to the the Republic of Ireland (at least you couldn't easily about 15 years ago) Not sure if it was an insurance issue, or a country specific issue....However we hired a car last year in Austria to drive to a ski resort in Italy and there were no problems, but I think that there were a few countries that we weren't allowed to take it..... Sure that Spain to France wouldn't be an issue...

Thanks, all. I couldn't imagine why a round trip between those two EU countries would be a problem but, after reading the comments posted elsewhere, decided to do a reality check. I'm good to go!

I have also done it several times and never had a problem. Also you cannot be charged a sur-charge as it would be illegal under EU law.

Some confusion here ?

Small local rental companies may have restrictions, but the majors (Hertz, etc) have no surcharges for crossing the border.

In fact, I live in Languedoc, fairly close to the Spanish border and many holiday home owners fly into Girona and rent a car there. Girona is a major low cost flight hub (serving around 70 destinations). Car hire, hotels, restaurants, fuel, alcohol and tobacco are cheaper in Spain.

As with all car hire, it is important to check out the extras (and be aware that your friendly car hire representative is paid commission for selling extras) :

* cover for a 2nd driver is sometimes at a quite expensive daily rate


* Excess Insurance is expensive. Typically, your hire covers insurance with an excess of €1000 - €1500. You can take out a daily excess cover for around €15 per day. Annual cover from http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ind...D=1&refID=1301 costs less than €60 per year. Check out your credit card benefits - some cover this excess.

* Do you really need GPS ? Maps are cheap (often free from the majors)

* Take your own car child seat ?

* It is usually cheaper to take the car back full of fuel (always check T&C)

* Arrive early, get the car checked, signed off, and invoice finalised before flying out.

Peter

@alihutch
Hi Ali,

you can now take the car from the UK mainland into the Republic of Ireland, but only at a high surcharge, normally of around GBP50.00 (as with Alamo I believe). also taking a car from UK into continental europe can have high surcharges due to insurance and breakdown cover,
Thanks
Paddy

"Amex also has an excellent insurance program if you sign up before using the card for your rental."

Good tip, thanks. I just got an AmEx card, so I'll be sure to use it for my Autoeurope rental. We made a mistake with Hertz at CDG airport, choosing the extra insurance offered (seemed like a good idea at the time) ... the insurance ended up costing more than the car rental.