anything important when booking hire car??

[FPL]

As above really - is there anything important I should know? Having never been let alone driven in USA, I don't know much about it all!

 

[MorningGlory]

The only advice I can think of is to make sure you book it through a UK agent before your trip. The additional taxes and fees when you hire in the US are mind-boggling and i'm pretty sure you would end up paying more than if you booked through someone in the UK.

Also, if you have young kids, you might want to specify that you will need car seats or booster seats.

If anything else comes to mind, i'll be sure to let you know

 

[wayneg]

Good advice from Paul. What I would say is when you know exactly what you want, find what you think is your best deal then post all the info in this thread before you book it. Then people like myself will have a quick look and make sure it covers all you need and see if there are any better deals for you.

 

[Pegasus928]

When you go to collect your car you will need to make sure you take the paper part of your license with you. As most people now have the credit card sized ones is easy to think that this will do - it will not.
If you book with dollar its worth trying to enroll with Dollar Express, as this has it's own express line that really speeds things up when arriving to pick up your car.
As it is your first time driving over there it might also be worth looking into hiring a sat nav. It will take away the extra burden of having to worry about where you are going, allowing you to concentrate on the driving.
On the whole driving in Florida isn't any harder than driving back in the UK. In fact they have some pretty good rules - such as you can turn right at some traffic lights, even if the light is on red.

 

[dooledoo]

I would suggest that it's worth going for a bigger car than the one recommended for your party size. For our group size of 2 adults and 1 child it would be a compact car but by the time you have been shopping and try to fit an extra case or two in the boot, it suddenly fells like a VERY small car

Another reason for maybe upgrading is when you drive you feel very small on the roads compared to some of the American trucks etc so a bigger car does make you feel more comfortable .