Car Rental in NY
 

We are going to NYC first week of June with our 3 kids. We will be renting a car for 10 days to go to Toronto, Montreal then back to NYC. We land in JFK and we will stay in Times Square for 2 days before going to Canada. Any ideas on saving on Car rental? It is turning out to be very expensive.
Thanks.

Car rental within Manhattan is ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately, I fear your only option is to take a train out of Manhattan (Metro North's Hudson Line???) to a station with less expensive rental options nearby. I can't suggest any offhand, but I'm sure somebody can suggest a station and a rental agency.

With 3 children in tow it will be a pain in the caboose, but you'll definitely save big money on the 10 day car rental.

Good luck!

For the amount of money it will cost to rent a car, I would agree finding another location to rent out of might be better. Usually you can't find a rental in NYC for less than $75 a day or $250 a week. This is not counting the extra insurance you will likely need to take a rental car from the US into Canada.

Plus the drive, which will easily be about 8 hours each way will kill about a day off your trip. Maybe taking a bus or train would be another option?

You can easily take MetroNorth to White Plains and there are several car rental places there - but I would check rates before you decide to go this way. Another option is to take public transport to Newark airport and rent the car from there - it will also save driving out of the city.

I assume you want to drive from NYC to Toronto (a long drive) rather than flying there, driving to Montreal and then either flying back or renting a car one-way from Montreal to NYC.

There was a thread on renting cars outside of Manhattan, about a year ago, and I have reprinted parts. I agree with taking a Metro-North commuter train from New York (Grand Central Station) to someplace in suburban New York or in Connecticut. You could also take Amtrak from Penn Station. Amtrak will be more expensive than the commuter trains, but has more room for luggage and might be easier and faster than local commuter trains.

If you are driving to Toronto, it might be easiest to take Metro-North or Amtrak to say Poughkeepsie, New York and rent a car from there. The train take 2 hours. The ride would be pretty, along the Hudson for parts. You can rent from Avis in Poughkeepsie (not sure how you would get to the Avis location, maybe give them a call):

Avis
28 IBM Rd, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602
845-462-7400

From my reading of the old thread, another option would be to take a Metro-North commuter train or Amtrak train to Stamford, Connecticut. There is an Avis and a Hertz rental car agency about 2 blocks away. There is also an Enterprise rental car agency that will deliver the car to you at the station, call 1-800-rent-a-car. Stamford is located on I-95 which is convenient, but a little out of the way for driving up to Canada (you would want the New York Thruway or even highways further west).

For train schedules, take a look at www.mta.nyc.ny.us for Metro-North train schedules. (Click on "Metro-North" on the left column, or under "schedule" at the top). For Amtrak, go to Amtrak.com

According to the thread below, Metro-North and Hertz had a promotion last year, and may still be offering it:
"Author: Philip
Date: 05/19/2002, 10:54 pm
Message: Metro-North & Hertz have teamed up for a deal. Call Hertz and mention CD number 1181276 and you'll receive 10% discount on Standard Rate.

Purchase your Metro North Ticket to North White Plains, Poughkeepsie or Stamford or New Haven and tell them you want the Metro North/Hertz discount package. You will receive a rail ticket that is stamped with Hertz on it which you present at the car rental location."
Someone on the old thread also noted that by renting outside NYC, there were still able to drop off the car in Manhattan for a mere $2 extra.

While getting to Newark airport may be the easiest in terms of being able to get there quickly and find the car rental agencies, it's pretty expensive to rent cars at Newark airport, so do compare with other places before you decide to use Newark. You would also have to pay the tolls on the parkway and the Tappan Zee Bridge and deal with all the traffic between Newark Airport and the Tappan Zee area.

One note with renting out of Newark Airport I found....Most agencies there WILL NOT let you rent a car unless you have just came off a flight in Newark Airport. Not sure why this is, but it seems to be the case at most of the agencies.

Take the new ferry from Rochester across Lake Ontario to Toronto. It will be fun and it will save you time! Check out their web site at http://www.catsfastferry.com/