Editor's Note: This story was originally published on April 7, 2011. To see the most recent SmarterT

Editor's Note: This story was originally published on April 7, 2011. To see the most recent suite hotels in denver SmarterTravel articles on related topics, please click on any of the following links: car rental , destination suite hotels in denver , Ed Perkins , Ed Perkins on Travel .
Driving a rented car has always been the best way to tour Europe's small towns and countryside. And although it's still a great experience, you have to be more careful than ever to avoid some potential traps and gouges.
Avoid one-way international rentals if you can. Gemutlichkeit , the outstanding e-newsletter for travelers to German-speaking Europe, also helps arrange car rentals through AutoEurope. Bob Bestor, the publisher, recently reported that his reservations staff was finding some truly horrific international drop-off charges: $644 for Frankfurt-Florence, $1,182 Rome-Barcelona, and $1,342 Dubrovnik-Zurich, to cite just a few. Bestor says one-way rates are especially high to/from Italy, Spain, and much of Eastern Europe. The lowest charges seem to be between Germany and adjacent countries, although even there a one-way drop-off charge is likely to be as high as the rental rate for three or four days. So far, you can still find no-drop-off-charge for one-way rentals within a single country, but you may have to shop a bit. For years, other travel writers and I urged you to combine open-jaw airline tickets suite hotels in denver with one-way rentals as a way to minimize costs and backtracking, but that approach seems less attractive every year.
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Avoid picking up a rented car at a big airport. The big rental companies call airports suite hotels in denver and rail stations "premium stations," and add a hefty charge to pick up cars there. In some countries, including Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K., you pay an extra $35 to $80 charge per rental. Even worse, many big airports add a surcharge of 14 percent to 20 percent of the entire rental, which could add up to hundreds of dollars. You can avoid those charges by picking up your car at a city office and you can still return it to the premium station at no extra cost. In any case, I prefer not to start driving a rental suite hotels in denver car the morning I arrive in Europe, jetlagged after a sleepless night, and avoiding an extra gouge is a big bonus. Just remember not to plan on picking up a city office suite hotels in denver car extremely late in the day or on a Sunday.
Watch out for "discount" rentals from European renters. For the most part, those companies claim inclusive rates, with built-in CDW collision coverage, but their included CDW generally involves a stiff deductible up to thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, the inclusive rates do include partial insurance, and that can be a problem. In order to rely on your credit card for collision coverage, which I continue to recommend, you have to decline the rental company's CDW, which you can't do if some CDW is included in the base rate. The last time I checked, some U.S. credit card issuers will continue to provide coverage as long as you do not have the option to decline the included insurance, but others take a hard line. Check with your card about this policy, and stay away from any inclusive rates if they would invalidate your card's coverage.
Consider a buy-sell deal for a very long rental. A reader recently asked about the best way to rent a campervan for a full year of European touring. At conventional rates, renting an ordinary midsize car could cost more than $10,000, and a campervan would be much higher. As far as I can tell, the only way to avoid high charges is to buy a used car or van and resell it at the end of your tour. European laws now require a local address in Europe to register a car, but I know of several outfits that sell used vehicles to tourists, with paperwork that skirts the residency requirement. suite hotels in denver Among them: IdeaMerge and Turner Cars Campers , both in the Netherlands, and World Wide Wheels , based in Switzerland. As usual with offshore outfits, I list them for your convenience, but I obviously can't vouch for any of them.
Destinations Alaska Bahamas Bermuda Canada / New England Caribbean Caribbean - East Caribbean - South Caribbean - West Hawaii Mediterranean Mexico Panama Canal South America South Pacific Transatlantic United States World Cruise
Cruise Line Any Cruise Line Carnival Celebrity Costa Cruises Crystal Cruises Cunard Disney Holland America Norwegian Oceania Orient Princess Radisson Seven Seas Royal Caribbean Seabourn Silversea Windstar