Rental cars in Europe
Renting a car in Europe has proven to be quite the exercise in patience. When we arrived by train to Padua (Padova) a week ago, we had a van reserved through Budget Rental cars. The pick up location said "Padova Central Train Station" - knowing which train station is important.
So we looked near and far and far and near and all points in between. We asked the guys at EuroCar and Hertz where the Budget office was, they pointed to the supermarket. The tourist info lady told us to go under the bridge and down the street. That was a parking garage. Those guys told us the street we were looking for was over the bridge, across the tracks and into town. Finally we hired two taxis and found a Budget office about 2 miles away, yet they were closed.
So back to the train station we went. Finally the tourist office lady agreed to call only to find out they did not open until 3pm because it is Italy and nothing is open between Noon and 3pm. The world could be ending, but Italy would pause for 3 hours. This is how it is. Yes.
Okay fine so we finally get our van....uhhhh ....that is not a van. That is a wagon with an extra row. Okay, I know it is Europe and I know larger cars are just not an option, but when I choose the option that says "mini van" and it gives me "Chrysler Voyager or similar" I would hope that the "similar" part goes beyond having 4 wheels and a steering wheel. I mean, saying this VW Shalan (or something like that) was "similar" to the Chrysler is like saying a tiger is similar to a house cat. They are both cats, like to climb, and sleep a lot. But the similarities begin to fail not too much beyond those simple metrics.
So this meant figuring out how to shove all of our luggage and the 6 of us into this car in the pouring rain at the Budget car rental office no where near the central train station. I'm glad we took all that effort in making precise reservations. But at least we had a car - and Maria really didn't mind the hour long drive from Padova to Liedolo in the tunnel of suitcases.
So as it turns out, we survived a week in Italy in our VW "van" - the car was actually pretty cool except for the fact that we had to jam everyone and their luggage in just to get to B&B Luisa and back to Treviso airport.
Today we left Italy by taking Ryanair from Treviso to Dublin. This meant leaving the car at Budget's rental office and catching a flight around 330pm. This also meant refueling the car (not always easy) and of course finding the rental car office. So as expected, there was not one single sign pointing to a rental car drop off/pick up/etc. So we dropped off the kids and the elders and figured it out. Finally we found where to drop the car, but no one was around, except of course the EuroCar and Hertz folks (and our lesson for today is...). Those guys showed us where to park and said to leave the keys in the car and take off. That didn't seem correct.
Eventually we left the car and hoofed it the short distance to the terminal where our kids and elders were still waiting (they had not budged.) I found the Budget counter in the airport itself which does a lot of good for someone returning a car and they were quite happy that I did not leave the keys in the car as instructed by the Hertz guys. All seemed well, they took my word for it that the car was where I said it was, that it had fuel, that I did not steal rims or tires, that we did not replace their VW Shalalalala with a Fiat Panda, etc.
Now, contrast this of course to renting a car in America. You spend 4 hours filling out forms with information that you already filled out online. They ask you if you are interested in no less than 37 types of insurance coverage or if you want a GPS unit. Once you agree to whatever, they hand you a bunch of copies of forms, a useless map that doesn't even explain how to get out of the airport terminal, and tell you that you get the car "as is" with the idea being that if you don't point out the smallest scratch or dent to them upon reception of the car, they'll be amazingly observant in finding those same nicks and scratches when you return the car and thus try to charge you for it.
Now, when you return your car, there will be no less than 333490 signs pointing you to the car return whereupon you are greeted by a guy with a clip board and a little device that he immediately starts typing numbers into. As you roll down the window to make sure you are in the correct place (as if the signs led you astray) I believe they take skin and blood samples while giving you a full retina scan and then I believe after donating lockets of hair from your first born, you are good to go. Well except for turning over the keys and and doing a small Irish jig. Then you are done.
Lets put it this way, Americans love their cars and ain't no way in hell someone is taking a car from anyone else without a fight...or an overabundance of paperwork to show for it.
I'm in Ireland now, if I drove somewhere, I'd hit all the cars driving the wrong way and I'd scoot out the side of the car thinking I was safe to do when in reality I'd jump into oncoming traffic, and that would not be so good.
So we looked near and far and far and near and all points in between. We asked the guys at EuroCar and Hertz where the Budget office was, they pointed to the supermarket. The tourist info lady told us to go under the bridge and down the street. That was a parking garage. Those guys told us the street we were looking for was over the bridge, across the tracks and into town. Finally we hired two taxis and found a Budget office about 2 miles away, yet they were closed.
So back to the train station we went. Finally the tourist office lady agreed to call only to find out they did not open until 3pm because it is Italy and nothing is open between Noon and 3pm. The world could be ending, but Italy would pause for 3 hours. This is how it is. Yes.
Okay fine so we finally get our van....uhhhh ....that is not a van. That is a wagon with an extra row. Okay, I know it is Europe and I know larger cars are just not an option, but when I choose the option that says "mini van" and it gives me "Chrysler Voyager or similar" I would hope that the "similar" part goes beyond having 4 wheels and a steering wheel. I mean, saying this VW Shalan (or something like that) was "similar" to the Chrysler is like saying a tiger is similar to a house cat. They are both cats, like to climb, and sleep a lot. But the similarities begin to fail not too much beyond those simple metrics.
So this meant figuring out how to shove all of our luggage and the 6 of us into this car in the pouring rain at the Budget car rental office no where near the central train station. I'm glad we took all that effort in making precise reservations. But at least we had a car - and Maria really didn't mind the hour long drive from Padova to Liedolo in the tunnel of suitcases.
So as it turns out, we survived a week in Italy in our VW "van" - the car was actually pretty cool except for the fact that we had to jam everyone and their luggage in just to get to B&B Luisa and back to Treviso airport.
Today we left Italy by taking Ryanair from Treviso to Dublin. This meant leaving the car at Budget's rental office and catching a flight around 330pm. This also meant refueling the car (not always easy) and of course finding the rental car office. So as expected, there was not one single sign pointing to a rental car drop off/pick up/etc. So we dropped off the kids and the elders and figured it out. Finally we found where to drop the car, but no one was around, except of course the EuroCar and Hertz folks (and our lesson for today is...). Those guys showed us where to park and said to leave the keys in the car and take off. That didn't seem correct.
Eventually we left the car and hoofed it the short distance to the terminal where our kids and elders were still waiting (they had not budged.) I found the Budget counter in the airport itself which does a lot of good for someone returning a car and they were quite happy that I did not leave the keys in the car as instructed by the Hertz guys. All seemed well, they took my word for it that the car was where I said it was, that it had fuel, that I did not steal rims or tires, that we did not replace their VW Shalalalala with a Fiat Panda, etc.
Now, contrast this of course to renting a car in America. You spend 4 hours filling out forms with information that you already filled out online. They ask you if you are interested in no less than 37 types of insurance coverage or if you want a GPS unit. Once you agree to whatever, they hand you a bunch of copies of forms, a useless map that doesn't even explain how to get out of the airport terminal, and tell you that you get the car "as is" with the idea being that if you don't point out the smallest scratch or dent to them upon reception of the car, they'll be amazingly observant in finding those same nicks and scratches when you return the car and thus try to charge you for it.
Now, when you return your car, there will be no less than 333490 signs pointing you to the car return whereupon you are greeted by a guy with a clip board and a little device that he immediately starts typing numbers into. As you roll down the window to make sure you are in the correct place (as if the signs led you astray) I believe they take skin and blood samples while giving you a full retina scan and then I believe after donating lockets of hair from your first born, you are good to go. Well except for turning over the keys and and doing a small Irish jig. Then you are done.
Lets put it this way, Americans love their cars and ain't no way in hell someone is taking a car from anyone else without a fight...or an overabundance of paperwork to show for it.
I'm in Ireland now, if I drove somewhere, I'd hit all the cars driving the wrong way and I'd scoot out the side of the car thinking I was safe to do when in reality I'd jump into oncoming traffic, and that would not be so good.
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