Car Hire

If you're planning to hire a car it's worthwhile checking out the services of Sixt. When we've been looking for hire cars both in the UK and Europe we've found that Sixt is often the cheapest. Also Sixt offers Frequent Flyer miles for a large variety of airlines and for frequent car hirers you can get free upgrades or discounts by signing up for the Sixt Express card. The Gold and Platinum versions of the card are available both for frequent customers of Sixt as well as elite members of their partner airlines.

There's two ways of booking a car online from Sixt. One is to vist the Sixt site of the country you are visiting, you will pay in local currency, the other way is to visit the Holiday Cars section from your home country. With Holiday Cars you're billed by the Sixt office of your home country (this means a British person visiting Europe would pay in pounds rather than euros). Usually the Holiday Cars option is the cheapest if you book well in advance, but booking direct through the Sixt site for the country that you're visiting can be cheaper on occaision too. Also there's generally more options available on the country specific Sixt sites.

When hiring a car for the first time in a foreign country it's probably worth taking time to note the differences in the rules of the road. In particular, in some cities if you make a turning at a traffic light you may still have to give way to pedestrians even though you've got a green signal. Also ensure you know all local speed limits and of course don't drink and drive, even if you think you're OK with a small amount the police may not agree and some countries may have stiffer penalties.

An EU citizen with an EU driving licence (either the photo ones or the old style paper ones) can drive in any other EU country, although if your licence is the old style paper licence then it's a good idea to take your passport along as photo-id although that's not strictly necessary. Many car rental companies will insist on payment by card to cover the excess should you have an accident, if you pay by cash check that this will be acceptable, you may have to pay a refundable deposit.

Also worth considering if you're coming from a country that drives on a different side of the road that you're used to then it maybe worth getting an automatic vehicle as it may feel awkward operating the gear stick with a different hand.