10 Things I Wish I knew before Renting a Car in Europe
Europe is such an underrated continent to explore by car. Most of the countries are relatively small, there’s great road infrastructure, the density of cool places to see is unmatched, and there are just some gorgeous areas that are best experienced by driving.
If you’re traveling from the US to Europe and plan on renting a car at all, there’s some preparation you need to do. After renting cars over a dozen in times in various European countries, these are the 10 things I wish I knew before renting a car in Europe:
International Driving Permit
You’ll want an International Driving Permit, or IDP, to rent a car anywhere in Europe. This is a physical document written in 10 languages that lets you drive in over 150 countries. An IDP isn’t even that hard to get, but it’s something you’ll need to get before leaving the US.
If you already have a valid US driver’s license, the easiest way to get an IDP is to go to your local AAA office. There, you’ll submit your driver’s license, fill out a short application, get your photo taken passport-style, and pay the $20 fee for the IDP. Make sure that your US license will still be valid during the dates of your travels—otherwise, your IDP won’t be valid either. When I got my IDP at the AAA office in Austin, it took less than 20 minutes.
Alternatively, you can get your IDP without going in-person by mailing your application to AAA, but this will take several weeks. Having tried both the in-person process and getting an IDP while already abroad, I cannot recommend taking care of your IDP while in the US enough.
And yes, there are some rental companies that are lenient and won’t require you to have an IDP, but getting one is so easy that it’s not worth the risk of being denied as you try and pick up your car!
Driving manual
Unlike in the US, most cars in Europe are manual (stick-shift). While you usually have the option to rent cars that are automatic, they always cost a bit more than their manual counterparts.
If you have the time before leaving the US, ask a kind friend to teach you how to drive manual over a day or two. Once you learn the basic theory and start building your muscle memory, it’ll just be a matter of gaining confidence and experience. While I wouldn’t quite recommend driving through a busy European city as a newer manual driver, you should be fine in suburbs and on highways.
If you’re stressed about driving stick, I suggest paying the extra money for an automatic car—it’ll be worth the peace of mind you get! Certain countries such as Italy are famous for dangerously tight and bumpy city roads, so beware!
Finding rental cars
Depending on where you’re traveling in Europe, there will be different car rental companies available. You’ll generally see the big rental companies like Hertz, Avis, Sixt, etc. everywhere, but most countries have their own local rental companies as well.
Comparing prices at each of the companies individually would take hours, so I use Discover Cars, a car rental aggregator. This is the easiest way to compare prices from all the car rental companies in a city without having to check each one individually.
Renting cars at airports vs. in cities
You’re probably already familiar with renting cars from airports, but most medium to large European cities will also have car rental company offices located within the city as well. This is another way you can compare prices to try and find a better deal.
In most of the cities that I’ve rented cars in, the airport rental locations had better deals—likely because there’s more competition for customers in the same area. This makes life easy when you’re flying into a city and picking up a car immediately.
But if you’re spending longer in a city and just want to rent a car for the weekend, you may save some money by making the longer trip to the airport to pick up your airport. This is usually pretty easy since major European cities have great public transportation. This is exactly what I did in Vienna to save over $100 on my car rental for a weekend trip to the Alps.
Vetting car rental companies
Remember how I said there are name-brand car rental companies and local ones? Well, there are trade-offs with each category.
The name-brand companies tend to be a bit more expensive, but you’ll likely have a better experience with the rental. This means pickup and drop-off may be easier, and you’re less likely to get scammed at the pickup desk or after drop-off. After all, these companies are more worried about upholding their reputations so you rent from them again in other places
The local car companies often have cheaper prices and care less about their reputations. Some may try to push you into buying a higher tier of insurance for your rental, and others may even try to pull some dirty tricks for “damages” that you didn’t even do to the car.
The best way to vet these local rental companies is through a quick Google search with the company’s name, city, and “reviews.” Rather than going off the star rating, read some of the reviews. If you see more than one or two reviewers talk about the scams I mentioned, you’ll have more peace of mind avoiding these companies. Plus, it’s a big red flag when you see that the only 5-star reviews are from locals…
Rental car insurance
You’ll likely want to get insurance on your rental car in case anything bad happens. Driving in most European cities can be a bit hectic, especially if you’re not familiar with roundabouts and intersections of more than 2 roads, so I highly recommend it. Rental car insurance generally comes in 3 ways:
a) It may be included in the price of the rental by the car company when you’re browsing a car rental site
b) It may be a separate item by the car company you have to add to your booking
c) It may be a 3rd-party coverage you have to add to your booking
Regardless of which one it is, just pay close attention when you make your booking. I’ve never rented a car in Europe that didn’t let me get insurance through the online booking portal, so it’s usually straightforward. Once you know what kind of insurance you have, you can confidently decline any additional or double coverage that some companies may try to push on you at pick-up.
Gas prices
In my experience, renting cars in Europe can be relatively cheap. It depends significantly on the country you’re in, but I’ve generally rented cars for $20-60 per day. That alone isn’t bad, but it doesn’t include some of the other costs you’ll incur.
Namely, gas will be one of your main expenses when renting a car because gas in Europe is significantly more expensive than in the US. When you see gas prices listed at the gas stations, they’ll be in Euros per liter. To get an estimate of the price in dollars, multiply the price you see by 4 and then convert to USD. For reference, I’ve seen gas from $6 to over $10 per gallon in Europe.
Luckily, the cars in Europe tend to be smaller and consume less gas than those in the US.
Gas stations
In the US, I’m used to seeing a gas station at basically every highway exit, but in Europe, gas stations just aren’t as common. This just means you have to plan ahead a bit more, especially if you’re someone who likes to run the car to nearly empty before filling up. However, most highways will still have signs for upcoming gas stations.
When you’re filling up, you may not recognize the way different types of fuels are labeled. If you’re renting a basic car, you can likely fill it with the cheapest gas, E10. If you aren’t sure, the inside of the car’s gas cap will usually say what type of gas is recommended. I also make it a habit to ask the car rental company at pickup what kind of gas to fill up with.
Highway tolls
Unlike in the US, most highways in Europe charge tolls. You’ll go through a toll booth when you enter the highway to mark your “start” point, and then you’ll pay the toll at your “end” point when you get off the highway.
Some highways will charge you a flat rate regardless of your distance, while others will scale the price based on how far you’ve driven. The prices will vary from a few euros to tens of euros depending on the country.
To be prepared, make sure you always have some cash and coins on hand to pay the tolls since most of the toll booths don’t take card.
Speeding cameras
I rarely see police cars on highways, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get tickets for speeding. Many highways have cameras set up that will detect when you’re speeding. This is especially true in Italy, which is famous for giving tourists tickets.
You probably won’t even know that you got a ticket until you receive an email a few weeks later, so it’s better to drive close to the speed limit to avoid racking up tickets along your road trip.
Now, you’re full prepared to rent a car in Europe! Let Selina know which of these tips you found most helpful on her Instagram.