Car Hire - France / Bordeaux

[joestifff]

I was wondering if anyone who knows the area and the airport can recommended a car hire company. Had a look at online, and they vary wildly!

I would prefer if it was from/in Bordeaux airport, as there will be four of us, including two young ones, so for ease, am willing to pay a bit more to get one from the airport, or damn close, we land at 9:30 at night, and this will be in August. We could do with a slightly larger car than a Fiat 500, as there are four of us, and all the luggage.

Also, does anyone know of any hotels for the night we land? We will then drive on the next day to our Eurocamp further south.

Have also noticed that Easyjet have change the time of the return flight to very late. I am tempted to pay the £100 and extend the holiday on two days to a much nicer flight time on the following Sunday, but that would mean finding something for two nights at the end of the holiday possibly in or near Bordeaux to keep us and the young ones entertained.

So any ideas would be greatly appreciated, particularly on the car hire side!

[Truckosaurus]

I'd always book via the UK website of a multi-national household name rental car firm, rather than some random cheap local one.

This ensures you get the correct taxes/insurance included and not scare-mongered/up-sold at the desk.

It also gives you (hopefully) some decent UK based customer service if something goes wrong before/during/after the rental.

[omniflow]

Have you thought about driving there in your own car?

Portsmouth -> St. Malo is a great crossing and with a cabin and a decent restaurant with unlimited puddings it's all a bit of an adventure for the kids. You can take as much luggage as your own car can hold, and you won't need to lug it anywhere. You land in St. Malo at 8am and from there it's an easy 5 hours drive to Bordeaux. Not sure how much further south your campsite is though.

[joestifff]

Thanks for people’s responses.

Couple of reasons we are not driving all the way, firstly the wife doesn’t want to, we also want to take the kids on a plane so they can experience that, and finally the French side would be by far the shortest part of the drive. 7 hours uk side plus ferry then 5 hours French side each way doesn’t fill me with holiday joy.

So far Sixt at the airport through their website seems to be winning!!

[hiccy18]

Seven hours to Portsmouth sounds familiar, it's not a pleasant drive. The driving on the French side is a lot more relaxed and usually quite pleasant.

E.Leclerc seem to do vehicle rental at very cheap rates, although I doubt they have a site at the airport.