tcreath

After taking my brother to Rome last year (his first trip out of the country) he seemed to have caught my travel bug and Europe affinity. He is interested in going to Ireland with his girlfriend in December of this year, and would like to fly into either Dublin or Shannon and rent a car. Of course I told him I would help him out. I found some great deals on flights, but I am not having any luck finding him a rental car that will accept drivers under the age of 23. He is willing to pay the extra surcharges that come with underage drivers. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on where to look for rental cars for younger drivers, or is this out of the question?

Thanks!
Tracy

ira

Hi t,

Have you looked at www.novarentacar.com, www.autoeurope.com and
www.auto-europe.co.uk/

amyprib

From Hertz's direct website. Second page specifically applies. It's doable, just for a cost.

The minimum age for Hertz rentals in Ireland is 25 years for vehicle groups Economy 2 doors (A), Economy Manual (B), Compact manual (C), Economy Automatic (E) and Compact Automatic (F). The minimum age is strictly 30 years for all other vehicle groups (including Hertz Prestige Collection - vehicle groups X6 and Y6).

*There will be a supplementary charge of EUR 26.00 (including tax) per day for drivers between 21 and 24 years for vehicle groups Economy 2 doors (A), Economy Manual (B) and Economy Automatic (E). The damage excess for young drivers is EUR 1,000.00. Please refer to "Collision Damage Waiver" for further information.

In the CDW section it talks about some rentals being subject to a non-waivable excess. They may require purchase of CDW for young drivers - I'm not sure. The best thing to do would be to call them directly and ask the questions. If your brother has a MasterCard Platinum, ask if he can use that even though he's young.

tcreath

Thank you both for your replies.

Ira, I ended up calling Auto Europe directly since I could find nothing on their website that mentioned the minimum age for renters. They were very helpful (as they have been in the past, as I've used them several times) and informed me that with an extra $15 fee he could rent from them, but he would have to call to book instead of booking online.

amyprib, I didn't check hertz.com directly, but I checked orbitz.com and the other larger car rental firms (Thrifty, Alamo, National) didn't rent to anyone younger than 23 or 25(at least that's what it said in their policies on orbitz) so I didn't bother checking Hertz because I assumed that they would have the same policies. I guess I should have! Thank you for going through the trouble of copying that for me. I will let him know.

Thanks again!
Tracy

cambe

What is your brother's itinerary?

Have they considered bus/train?

rex

I believe that www.its-cars-hotels.com can offer rates (with surcharges) for drivers under age 23... fairly similar to what is described above.

As far as personal experience, I have only used this company in Italy with two 22 year olds (I was a "co-signer"; we had three cars for our groups of 13, and the 22 year olds wer "signed on" as drivers of one of the cars only). Like AutoEurope, they are a brokering agency; they actually put us with Budget/Maggiore - - at return, that was slightly less convenient than the Avis location (we got the other two cars from Avis through AutoEurope because it was a few dollars cheaper).

Best wishes,

Rex

rex

Since I have recommended the company www.its-cars-hotels.com in the past, I think that I should also report that this company no longer appears to have the domain it previously had.

chelleybelle

I was able to rent a car from Sixt in Dublin when I was 20. This was is 2001 however, so I don't know if they've tightened up their policy.