So you’ve picked your destination and booked your trip. You’re excited to go out and see everything this new place has to offer. Now you have to think about how you’re going to go see it all.
Public transportation can be a nightmare. If you take Uber’s everywhere you’ll end up spending a fortune and I’m sure as hell not walking all over California!
It’s time to think about a rental car.
Let’s get the drawback out of the way right of the bat. As stated previously, I am turning 23 in exactly two weeks. My boyfriend, Chris is 24. Most rental car places in the United States will let anyone over 21 rent a car from them, however you get penalized up until the age of 25. And it’s not a small penalty. Be prepare to get slapped with a $100+ fee, just for being a young traveler. It’s unfortunate, but if you budget correctly and know this ahead of time you should be okay.
All that being said, you need to think bout what kind of car you should be paying for. There’s a variety of car types and different places charge different amounts, but may also provide additional perks that make it worth it. You also have to make sure that the car you pick will be suitable for the conditions of the trip.
If you’re anything like my boyfriend, you’ll immediately be thinking about cruising around in a hot shot sports car. He’s is totally a car enthusiast. For this upcoming trip to California, we went back and forth on whether of not we get a convertible. It wasn’t too much extra and we talked about how nice it would be to drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down. We almost booked it… until we realized it’s going to 65 degrees Fahrenheit(18.3 degrees Celsius) and it really wasn’t going to be warm enough for that. We decided to skip extra charge so we could save money for something else.
There are benefits to getting the cheaper options, besides saving money. If you’re traveling alone or with on companion, you’ll still have plenty of space for luggage. You’re likely going to get better gas mileage and, since the car will likely be smaller, you’ll also have an easier time parking which is great for high populations areas like Los Angela’s or Anaheim(two destinations on our itinerary).
Climate may demand you upgrade a little from the base model offered and this is one time I don’t recommend cutting costs. Being from New England, I can tell you that AWD(or at least 4WD) is a blessing when you’re in an area with snow.
Sometimes you can get by without it, if it hasn’t snow recently or won’t be while your there. Back in March 2018, Chris and I tried to outrun a blizzard down the east coast when we drove to Florida in a little Hyundai Accent. We only made it because were both experience with driving in the snow and there wasn’t much snow on the ground yet. If you’re not experienced in driving in the snow I highly recommend budgeting for an AWD car. It will make it a lot easier to get around in the snow.
Now let’s talk about the rental company and how to choose one. Travelocity is a great tool for price checking because you can compare multiple different rental companies on one website. As I said before many companies will offer you the same car for different prices, usually only varying by a couple dollars a day. Your first instinct will probably be to go with the cheapest option, but sometimes the few extra dollars can really improve your experience because the company does a little extra for you.
Thrifty is one of my personal favorite car rental places. I book with them as often as possible and used them for this trip again. They were one of the companies that were a couple dollars more, but here’s why I still use them.
When you book through Thrifty you can also PARK your car with Thrifty, which is much cheaper than parking at the airport to begin with, but they also give you a discount for booking both services through them! They then provide free shuttle service to the airport and drop you off near your gate so you don’t have to worry about circling the airport to figure out where you’re going. They also have a program call the Blue Chip Program on their website(its their loyalty program and completely free to use). When you sign up for this program, most of the time you can skip the counter lines because they’ll have your rental ready with a hang tag with your name on it, so you just go straight to the car. This is especially great when you’ve just come off a Red Eye and you just want to get going.
Do you have a favorite car rental company? What’re some free perks they offer?
Your money will return, your time won’t.
Travel When You’re Young 