Travelling around Europe by hire car offers you much greater freedom than travelling by train, and gives you the chance to stop wherever you want, whenever you want to enjoy the local scenery and hospitability. Because rental is a popular option you will find international and national car hire companies in most larger towns and cities throughout Europe , offering very competitive prices, and you can also pre-book online so that the car is paid for and ready to pick up when you arrive.

Top Car Hire Tips

1. Have your credit card ready – you cannot hire a car in Europe without leaving credit card information as security, and many car hire companies only accept credit card payments, (not cash), so make sure you have a valid internationally accepted credit card ready when you arrive at the pick up.

2. Longer rentals are cheaper – renting a car for a week or longer is usually much more cost effective than hiring a car for a day or two, so hire a car for your whole holiday, and make the most of the cheaper rates to really explore the area you are staying in.

3. Book in advance – it can be much cheaper to reserve your hire car in advance, and if you can managed to book at least two months before you actually need the car you should get some really good deals.

4. Don’t book with travel agent – you rarely get the best deal on your hire car if you book it through a regular travel agents, so it is much better idea to sort this out yourself by visiting a rental car consolidator websites (such as Orbitz) or direct with the car rental company themselves.

5. Be flexible – if you can be flexible with the length of the rental period and the pick up/drop off dates and locations you should be able to get an even better deal on the total costs of the hire.

6. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) – most rental car companies will offer daily rates minus the CDW charges, which can add up to 25% on the final hire price, so make sure you have taken this into account when you are comparing quotes. It is very important to have CDW cover, as damage on hire cars can cost hundreds of dollars for even just the basic cosmetic repairs, such as scraped door panels or dented bumpers.