One-Way Car Rental
The Snook and I are finalizing plans for our trip to the States in a few months, and one of the last hurdles is arranging ground transportation. We were hoping to do a bit of a road trip to Florida and then fly on to London from there, but the price of one-way car rentals is RIDICULOUS. As a last resort, I’ve found several great deals (not one-way) in Indiana with unlimited mileage. That would require us driving all the way back though. Have any of you done anything similar? Anybody have any suggestions?
(What I’m hoping to hear: “Hey, Kris, my cousin’s been looking for somebody to drive his car from Indiana to Florida!” What I’m expecting to hear: “You’re screwed.”)
6 responses
It sounds silly, but you might look into renting a U-Haul instead. They do a lot more renting for one-way trips and may have better rates.
Something else I’ve heard of is buying a super cheapo used car (for less than you’d pay to rent, $500 or so) and driving it to your destination and then selling it for next to nothing ($50?) to be sure it goes fast. This requires a little bit of time and assistance on either end, but if you have family in both places, it might work out.
I was going to make the same suggestion as Tricia. But seriously, you are going in a few months and you’re finalising arrangements now??!! I’m going next week and I still haven’t booked all accommodation yet!!!
It’s just that we’re booking the “round the world” tickets, and we need to know whether we’ll be flying on from Chicago or Orlando. I’m not that anal. 🙂
I asked MetaFilter and somebody pointed out that you can get seriously cheap – like $60 – one-way weekday flights to Orlando from Chicago. So now I’m leaning towards flying down there and renting a car when we get there. We can still do a fair bit of “road tripping” in Florida, I think.
Do the flight. You can easily drive to Atlanta in a day if you want to. Prices of car rentals in FL aren’t horrible either.
I don’t have a cousin who needs the car in FL, but there are places that do that–hire someone to drive for them. you’re allowed ‘x’ amt of miles and time to get there. It’s true too…we’ve just flown r/t Indy – Orlando for $122. 🙂