How Road Trip Car works
From the first trip idea to handing back the keys.
Booking a rental car is easy. Booking one with a good price, fair terms, no hidden fees and a pickup location that suits you can take hours. We do that groundwork before you start searching and put the answers next to every offer, so finding the right car takes minutes.
Worried about insurance? Each offer shows what's covered and how high the excess is. Looking for better protection? When booking, you can often lower the excess, or bring it down to zero.
Step by step
How to use the Road Trip Car platform
Become your road trip's car rental expert in minutes. Explore office locations in the area and their prices, compare rental car offers, configure the best deal for you and finalize your booking. Ready to go!
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1
Research and plan
When and where is renting cheapest, and who can rent?
Our airport, city and country pages show the daily rate throughout the year, the range of deposits and excess, who can rent at which age, and the companies that rent there. A lot of useful data, in one handy overview.
Inside information on Naxos Airport car rental. For example, at Naxos Airport when this screenshot was taken, the lowest October rate was about a quarter of the lowest September rate. Whether a rental car is cheap or expensive depends on the exact location and time of year.
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2
Compare and configure
Is the lowest priced offer the best deal?
Local and international companies appear in the same search results list, and every offer lists the crucial information next to the price, so you compare like with like. Want to dive into an offer's specifics? Open it up and see how the terms affect your road trip.
Two offers at Athens Airport, with zero excess. At Athens Airport, these two both include unlimited mileage, zero excess and full coverage, and the compact SUV costs less per day than the mini car. However, one rental company has an airport office, while the other offers a shuttle service.
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3
Book and manage
What do I pay, and can I cancel for free?
At checkout you see what you pay online and what's left for the desk, the extras you added, the fuel policy and until when you can cancel for free. After making the rental car reservation, you can manage and cancel your rental car via the Road Trip Car website. Be sure to check out your account, because if you use Road Trip Car more often, you get great bonuses.
Checkout summary at Athens Airport. In this Athens booking, the rental is paid online, and the second driver and child seat at the desk. No surprises, clarity up front.
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4
Drive and explore
How do I have a smooth pickup and drop-off of the car?
Read our email and voucher to be well prepared for your pickup. We share useful tips and tricks on our website, so you can be a car rental expert on the spot and make sure you don't receive any unexpected fees afterwards.
Collecting a rental car in Lisbon. If the desk asks for something that wasn't in your booking, we'll provide you with clear answers on your situation and what to do.
Ready to plan your road trip? Search once, see local and international companies side by side, and know the deposit, excess and cancellation terms before you book.
Why book with us
Everything a good booking site does, made for renting a car
When you book a flight or a hotel online, you expect to see all your options in one place, know whether the price is fair, and keep the freedom to change your plans. Road Trip Car does the same for rental cars, and more.
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One search
The whole market in one place, not a dozen open tabs.
Search results are quick to scan and easy to understand, and the same car doesn't show up again and again, as it often does on other rental platforms.
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A price you can judge
Knowing whether today's price is a good one.
Our guides and booking platform include up-to-date pricing insights, so you can tell whether a price is a good one.
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No small-print surprises
Knowing exactly what you're agreeing to.
We show your rental terms clearly and help you understand the conditions quickly, so you can truly compare offers.
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Room to change plans
Booking early without locking yourself in.
When an offer has free cancellation, the deadline is clearly shown while you book. And if your plans change, canceling your reservation is easy.
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Help when you need it
Someone to talk to when plans go sideways.
You booked through us, so you can come to us. If the car or the terms don't match your booking, we help you sort it out with the rental company.
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Local know-how
Tips from someone who has been there.
Guides full of insights from people who rented there, from the deposit at the desk to the ferry to the next island.
You compare and book with us. The rental company provides you with the car.
Road Trip Car
- Compares local and international companies in one search.
- Shows an offer's conditions up front.
- Handles the booking and sends your voucher.
- Helps when things don't go as booked.
The rental company
- Signs the rental agreement with you.
- Provides the car.
Why we write guides
We make booking easy. Our guides prepare you for the road.
Booking on Road Trip Car is clear from search to checkout. You decide how flexible your booking is, and where the rental company offers it, you can add full coverage that brings the excess down to zero.
Everything around the booking is in our destination guides: what renting there costs and when it's cheapest, what to expect at the desk, and what driving there is like. Plus the insider tips we picked up on the road, like the ZTL in central Florence, a limited traffic zone watched by cameras, or the ticket your car needs for the ferry to Naxos.
Every guide starts with a rental of our own, so it holds the tips we wish someone had given us.
How we write
How a guide gets made
Every guide is built on real rentals and real booking data, and kept current with help from our readers.
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We rent there first
Each guide starts with real rentals. The in-depth knowledge in it comes from one or more people who actually rented a car in that country: one of us, or a writer who has driven there.
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We add our booking data
Data from our own booking engine adds up-to-date insights on rental conditions and options, like typical deposits, age rules and how often zero excess is available.
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Our team reviews it
Nothing goes live until our team has reviewed it. After that, we check and update it again on a regular schedule.
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You help keep it current
Spotted a change? Send it in. We process it and get back to you with a thank-you.
How we use AI
AI is our tool, not our source
AI takes care of the time-consuming parts of writing, so our team can spend more time on what matters: renting the cars, checking the facts and keeping every guide up to date.
In our guides
- The facts come from our writers' own rentals and from our booking data, never from AI.
- AI helps us draft, structure and update the guides, so they stay complete and easy to read.
- Our team fact-checks every guide before it goes live.
On our booking platform
- AI powers parts of the platform, to make finding and booking the right rental car even smoother.
- The offers, prices and rental terms you see come straight from the rental companies.
Want to know more?
Questions about the Road Trip Car platform
Why does the search ask for my age and country of residence?
Because both can change the price. Drivers under 25 often pay a young-driver surcharge, some companies add one for older drivers too, and a few set rates or conditions by country of residence. With both filled in, the prices you see are the ones that apply to you.
Is the price on the offer what I pay?
The offer shows what you pay online and anything due at the desk. The deposit is listed separately because it's blocked on your card, not charged. Extras you add when you collect the car, like a child seat or a second driver, come on top. For your exact booking, the terms at checkout on the platform are the ones that count.
Do you check the rental companies you list?
Yes. Every company is vetted before it's listed, and companies that don't treat travelers well are taken off. We haven't rented from all of them ourselves, which is why feedback from travelers counts.
How current is a guide?
Our team checks the guides again on a regular schedule, and sooner when a reader reports a change. Rental terms can change at any time, so we update our guides automatically where that is possible, so you have access to up-to-date information. For your booking, the conditions at checkout are the ones that apply.
Where do the prices on airport, city and country pages come from?
From the offers that come up in searches on our platform, combined per airport, city and country. They show what renting there tends to cost from month to month, so you can judge a price. For the actual price you can book, search with your own dates and age filled in.
How do I report a mistake in a guide?
Send us a message through the contact form and tell us which guide it's about. We process the correction and get back to you with a thank-you.
