best place to hire car?
 

If we get to Grand Canyon Lodgings at South Rim - which is the nearest and best place to hire a car to continue our journey to Flagstaff?

If we pick up here and drop off say Phoenix Airport will that be classed as a one-way drop off even though its in same state?

You've made a lot of posts, but you also said in another that you were flying into Las Vegas. Which is it? because the adice will be different based on where you are flying into the US.

If you are flying into Las Vegas, the best (and only) place to pick up a car is there. Las Vegas has some of the cheapest rental cars in the region, so it's always a good place to set off from. Drive from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon and then to Flagstaff and, finally, back to Las Vegas. If you fly into Phoenix, be aware that it's a long trip from there to the Grand Canyon (I'd estimate at least 3 hours, perhaps more with traffic), so it's no closer than flying into Las Vegas, nor will it be cheaper if you end up flying there from LV. There are flights into Flagstaff, which might be possible if you really don't want to drive from Las Vegas and are willing to go there before the Grand Cayon, but you'll pay dearly for these flights. And anytime you don't drop the car off at the same destination, it's a one-way rental; it makes no difference if both destinations are in the same states (we have some states that are almost as large as the UK).

Ummm....Doug, as Fodors Editor your opinions might carry more weight so you should be certain of what you post. It is about 4 hours from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon as opposed to 5-6 hours from Las Vegas. The drive from Phoenix is fairly easy and travel time is pretty consistent - not so with the drive from Las Vegas, given the very real possibility of delays going over Hoover Dam and/or in Las Vegas itself. Phoenix is definitely closer and easier for driving to the Grand Canyon.

Some things to know:

1) there are no car rental companies at the Grand Canyon. If you want to get to Flagstaff from the South Rim, take the shuttle bus.

2) drop-off fees apply to almost all car rentals between different cities. If a company waives those fees, consider yourself blessed.
3) the best place to find out how much the drop-off fee will be (or whether there is one) is on a search engine for car rentals, not a Fodors discussion board. Info obtained here is completely irrelevent to reality -- no matter how many people here insist there is no drop-off fee; if no company will waive the fee, then there is one.

Doug-Stallings

You need to read my query correctly which you haven't done. Yes, we are starting at L Vegas but we want to fly to GC not drive. I asked where the best place to pick up car hire from GC onwards as we are not returning to Vegas. We will be ultimately flying out of Phoenix to either home or a stopover at Chicago.

PaulRabe

Thanks for the info about the shuttle bus from South Rim - thats exactly the kind of info I was after. In a nutshell all I'm asking is way's to get from South Rim to Flagstaff - from there I assume we will be able to pick up the car.

I will contact some car rentals to get ideas of drop off fees. We normally have had to pay these although, they did waiver it in Florida once when we picked up central F. and dropped off West Coast F.

I understand that the forums are not for getting car prices etc. It's just sometimes its a good place to start when you are not sure about how things work.

Lynn - Based on my experience in AZ, you'll have to pay for the one-way drop off.

The same shuttle service that can take you from Grand Canyon to Flagstaff can also take you from Flagstaff to Phoenix. Their website is:
http://www.openroadtours.com/

You could rent a car in Flagstaff, then return it and take the shuttle to Phoenix and rent a new car there. Whether that's time-efficient or cost-effective would be up to you. The shuttle is $42/adult from Flag to Phoenix.

Avis rents from downtown Flagstaff or the Flg airport. Rates might be lower from the airport but check both. Rates include drop charge...there is no extra fee for PHX drop.

Sorry but discount codes for 2007 are not out yet, check back next year.

Thanks everyone - some useful answers and links there - I appreciate your time. Lynn

The link I provided on one of your other posts lists all the airport options with drive times, along with the shuttle service from GC to Flagstaff.

Your three tiered approach (flight, shuttle, car) plan may be your favorite approach, but I would prefer to fly into Vegas or Phoenix, rent a car and drive the entire trip. I adore driving in the SW. Buy Mary Youngblood's Under the Raven Moon CD and listen to the beauty of flute music as you travel through some of the most interesting and unique terrrain in the world. The car will give you incredible flexibility and that will enhance the trip - or does for us.

http://www.thecanyon.com/category.php/swmc/resources

just to make it easier

You're absolutely right that I understated the driving times. But I'll still stand by my advice, and I'd actually strongly second the advice from Starrsville. That's the best way to do this circuit. Lynn100, I read your query, but I'm not sure why you insist on flying to the Grand Canyon from LV. Perhaps it's because you don't like to drive, and that's a legitimate concern that I actually share (I had driving long distances). But my point was that your favored plan is actually both expensive and inconvenient. Driving is actually the best and cheapest way to get around the southwest. You'll even have more opportunities for serendipitous exploration (you could take a detour through Prescott, for example, if you drive from the Grand Canyon to Phoenix). But the choice is ultimately yours. I can't find the other thread right now, but you might take a look at some of the air trips from LV to the Gr. Canyon, of which there are many. When I last looked into a flying trip from LV to the GC a few years ago, I found a company that actually landed at the South Rim airport to let you explore the South Rim by foot rather than just by air. They might fly you one-way from LV for the cost of the round-trip flight, at least I can't see why they wouldn't.

Lynn, don't simply ASK agencies what the drop off fee is.
Some companies may tell you there is NO drop off fee. But then you might check the daily rate Flagstaff to Flagstaff and find it is maybe $39 a day, but if you rent it Flagstaff to Phoenix it may cost $79 a day. They may not call that a drop off fee, but anyway you look at it, in five days that's costing you $200 extra -- which is what I'd call a drop-off fee.

We did a Phoenix to Las Vegas trip 2 winters ago, stopping in Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

The cheapest one way car rental was Budget--rented off site to avoid the huge airport taxes at the Phoenix Airport. There is no drop off charge when dropping the car at the Las Vegas airport.

We have been renting from Fox Car Rental when arriving and departing from Phoenix. It is onsite--you shuttle to all the car rental agencies in Phoenix.

I often use Hotwire for car rentals, but I think you mentioned that you can't do a one way rental on Hotwire.

Thanks everyone again - some good advice and links to try.

I have actually been to GC before (years ago) and we took a round trip with helicoptor from LV to GC - this was great and we had quite a lot of time to spend atthe Canyon on foot and boat trip.

So I can hear people ask "Why doesn't she know the info. she's asking then". Simple answer is we didn't take much notice of anything else other than the scenery - we were being dropped and pick-up so didn'tneed to think of other links.

I am considering driving from LV now though. The reason I didn't want to drive is we thought it would be time saving to fly in quickly rather than that long tedious drive - I didn't think the dive from Vegas to GC would be particularly scenic till we were nearly there. That's my reason.