What You Need To Know About Hiring A Car When Traveling To France

France is one of the best and most traveled destinations in the world. It has amazing sites to see such as the Eiffel Tower, Mont St. Michel, and Normandy, just to mention a few. Hiring a car to travel around the country is by far the most efficient option to use as opposed to taking a train or using a taxi.

You have the freedom to drive at whatever time you wish as well as having the privacy of being alone or with your close associates in your own vehicle. With that said, here is what you need to know about hiring a car when traveling to France:

1.   Understand The Fuel Policy

It’s important to define the mileage you intend to cover with the hired car and the amount of fuel you’re most likely to use. This calls for you to understand the fuel policy set in place by the car hire agency. There are basically two policies; full to full and full to empty.

Full to empty means that you will be charged for using a full tank of fuel even if you use half or quarter of the fuel available on the vehicle. This policy can be a bit of an inconvenience if you don’t use the entire fuel available in the car.

Full to full means that you’ll need to return the vehicle with the same amount of fuel it had when it was given to you. If you use a quarter tank, you can head over to a filling station and refill the quarter you’ve used and then return the car. This option is much more convenient.

2.   Make Your Bookings Early

Make sure you book your car rental early enough before you embark on your travel plans. Failure to do so may cost you a great deal. Early bookings allow you to take advantage of cost cuts.

If you book a month or two earlier before your travel, you may pay up to 50% less. If you book on the very day you’ve landed in France, you may end up paying up to 50% more than the usual rental cost.

3.   Familiarize Yourself With Damage Insurance

When it’s time to pick up the car you’ve hired from a rental agency, it’s easy for them to lure you into paying for an extra Collision Damage Waiver (CDW). They’ll try and show you how risky and easy it is to get into a crash with the car and the potential hefty costs involved. With the fear of this happening, you may end up paying a whole lot for damage insurance.

This, however, shouldn’t be the case. You can buy your own CDW for a much cheaper price and make huge savings and if you do travel to France a lot and you hire vehicles on a regular basis, you can take up an annual policy which will be a much cheaper option.

4.   Familiarize Yourself With All Costs

Know every cost involved and what it is for. Find out how much it costs to hire the car, fuel the car, insurance cost, and any other charges involved such as a holding deposit, taxes, and theft waiver. Make sure there are no hidden charges. This will help you plan your finances well.

Conclusion

With those tips in mind, you can now embark on the process of doing a car hire in France.