Anyone rented a minivan to drive down?

[mickeywho?]

We're trying to figure out our best options for the trip in February. So far we can't seem to find a direct flight from toronto for a good price so we're looking to compare the cost to driving down. We'd need to rent a minivan as there are 6 of us (4 adults and 2 kids) - we'd be able to share the driving so that's not so bad.
Anyone compared costs of doing this? Are there any issues when renting a car in Canada and driving it in the US? Has anyone found good discounted venues for car rental? Used airmiles?
Any help is appreciated...

 

[calena]

I don't think you can do that. I think you can only rent in one country to drive in one country. It would be great if you could. One option would be having someone drive you to a border town and renting there. Once you rent I don't think they care if you drive across the country, but I could be wrong. Deb

 

[wee-haggis]

I haven't done it personally but I remember reading last year that several folk had rented a van locally and drove down. I think one was from Avis and the other was a small independent near Barrie.

 

[MaryannF]

I know someone who rented a minivan from Avis in Toronto to drive to Fort Myers Florida at Christmas 3 years ago. They were a family of 5 and found it to be the least expensive option for them. They did a lot of research and spoke to many rental agencies before settling on Avis. They found that some agencies had a border crossing restriction.

 

[mickeywho?]

Thanks. I was worried about there being border-crossing restrictions. I'll call a few agencies tomorrow and see what answers they can give me.
I'll post my responses for anyone else looking into the same thing.

 

[Little Miss Liberty]

4 years ago we rented a mini van from National car rental and they said it was Ok to go to the US (which we did) and we got unlimited KM's make sure thats in the deal to. Sometimes you have to a particular location to get a contract like that. I live in Toronto and I got mine from Bloor and Islington location.

 

[tmli]

Have you considered flights out of Buffalo? SWA non stop flights have been gotten pretty cheap. My last flight was less than a $100 return for non stop flights. $150 is the most I personally have ever spent.

 

[Drivercan]

We rented a Chevy Uplander from Avis Brampton in May. It had a DVD player in it and that certainly helped with 2 young children! We have flown to Florida before but this was a last minute trip and we are so glad we drove down. It was nice to make our own itinerary and not have to be dictated by airport line ups, delays etc

When we rented from Avis this was their response re crossing the border into the US:
"As long as you advise the counter of your US travel and you do not
leave the car in the US, you will be allowed to travel into the US. Please be sure to ask the counter agent upon pickup for any necessary
paperwork needed."

We had no problems at the border, they did not even ask about the car.

You can check other companies as some don't allow you to take their vehicles into the US (Enterprise Rental is one of them). You can also use the various car rental websites to compare prices. Try to find one that gives the most mileage as the extra cost per km can add up. Avis was the least expensive and gave the best mileage. We rented for 12 days and had 4200 free kms. Roundtrip from Brampton was about 4500 kms. We paid $580 +$0.19 per extra km. The insurance was covered with our own policy. Extra driver was free if it was your spouse.

 

[sammi]

We rented a luxury car for our trip last Sept. down to South Carolina without any problems crossing the border.

 

[GrannyEv]

I looked into renting one a couple years ago. Some have restrictions, some don't. Because I don't have a vehicle I would have to get their insurance, and it was just alot less money to fly. I agree that Avis was a good deal and did allow you to take it across the border. Unlimited km's.
Good luck.

Hugs
GrannyEv

 

[mickeywho?]

Have you considered flights out of Buffalo? SWA non stop flights have been gotten pretty cheap. My last flight was less than a $100 return for non stop flights. $150 is the most I personally have ever spent.

We had been waiting for the february flights to be released and were surprised by how expensive they were. SWA nonstop are $145-$213 each way.
With 6 of us going it works out to be much cheaper to rent a minivan and drive down - that we can do for $150pp. If SWA ever puts the tickets on sale we'll definitely reconsider. But the pricing would need to drop by half for it to be worth while.

 

[iluveeyore]

We have driven down twice when it's just DH and myself, and used Budget both times as they were the only ones in our area that allowed US border crossing and also gave us unlimited km's, which is very important. But we had a full-size car and a station wagon, not a mini-van. I know the minivans were not unlimited km's, but it's worth checking the rate.

 

[tmli]

We had been waiting for the february flights to be released and were surprised by how expensive they were. SWA nonstop are $145-$213 each way.
With 6 of us going it works out to be much cheaper to rent a minivan and drive down - that we can do for $150pp. If SWA ever puts the tickets on sale we'll definitely reconsider. But the pricing would need to drop by half for it to be worth while.

These are the regular prices for the flights. It is too soon for seat sales or dings yet.

I have made this drive several times and would think you would be hard pressed to do it for $900 including the cost of a vehicle rental. Using others numbers of an estimate of $600 for the rental...that leaves $300 for fuel, hotel and food costs....when we didn't drive straight through we stopped for one night in each direction.

While not always the cheapest some people love the drive and it becomes part of the adventure (lol...I am not one of them, if you couldn't tell). I think you have to make the decision that is best for your family when comparing costs and advantages/disadvantages.

 

[mickeywho?]

Just to give you an update...
Alamo (same parent company as National Car) stated we could rent one of their cars to drive down to florida - they had no issue with us leaving the country. They had unlimited kilometers as well and the rental fees were very reasonable. We were going to book with them in January (we're going down mid-feb so we were willing to wait until the month before as we were hoping for seat sales for a flight instead)
Well, Jetblue put our flights on sale for $59 each way - so we're now flying. But the research was well worth it as we'll be going down again march break 2008 and the chances of us getting cheap flights is pretty slim - so I'm sure we'll drive then!
Thanks for all your help!