Car hire - Lyon and 3V

A snowHead

Hi all

I hope this is the right place to pose this question, and apologies if it’s been asked before.

Any recommendations for car hire to collect from Lyon airport to head to Meribel? Good local firms or similar appreciated, the budgets / enterprises etc are all google-able.

Also, one deal that I have found that looks ok is for a Jeep Compass, but there are 4 adults with 2 ski bags, 2 board bags and a few hand luggage bags, anyone have any experience of the jeep??

Any help appreciated.

A snowHead

I would go for one of the known brands using a car hire broker.

They are offsite but a bus to the car park where they are based. Jeep might be touch and go - wonder if an estate with fold down split seat better.

Just watch out that Lyon won't include winter tyres. Pretty easy drive (unless a Saturday snowmaggedon!)

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Ah ok, that was another question I had about winter tyres. Didn’t think that it would be location specific but makes sense. We usually drive ourselves but this is a five day quick break for a 40th so we’re flying.

Perhaps an estate is the way forward..

Cheers

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Agree with @alti - dude the smaller firms may be cheaper but if anything goes wrong you are much more likely to get stuck. Our hire car broke down in the Alps last week - luckily Europcar had a office in Moutiers so only lost a morning... Even with an estate car you may struggle with that much gear, but can always unpack bags. Check if you can add chains to the rental at reasonable cost; else you can buy a cheap set at a supermarket if the weather looks at all dodgy.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Cheers. I was wondering about chains and I've got a set for a Ford kuga (that's what we usually drive down there in) so considered hiring one of those. Similar price. But still will struggle with all the gear. I reckon I'm going book a mondeo estate, quite cheap, and hope for the best..

You'll need to Register first of course.

You can't rely on getting the model you book rather than something in the same size category.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Dates will make a huge difference to traffic. French holidays 4 weekends from 9 February.

After all it is free

@Chadspurs40, I’ve used Europcar and Budget from Lyon airport and found them both relatively straightforward and easy to deal with.

They were based in an office which was on the airport site, with a free shuttle bus, 5 minutes from terminal building and easy to find.

With 4 people and that much luggage even an estate vehicle could be crammed. You can usually add a ski carrier, at extra charge, which would hold the 2 skis on the roof.

Well worth having winter tyres in my experience. As always with car rental these days, read the Ts&Cs as carefully as if you were buying the car. If you don’t have already, one of those annual CDW insurance policies is worth considering, especially if you’re likely to hire abroad again in the next year.

Might be different on the phone but the only hire company I found that would let you book a car with winter tyres from Lyon was Sixt...but even then only on specific categories and it basically doubled the cost of the hire!

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@Chadspurs40, I've moevd to "the piste" which is the right place to ask this question, unless you're planning on driving your hire car off piste

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I'm doing the same trip as yourself next weekend! Well...to La Tania anyway from Lyon. Also 4 adults, but no ski gear. Just 4 hold bags and hand luggage.

I only really use the more well known firms so can't comment on the budget or more local options. Be aware that Sixt take a 300 euro deposit and then the cost of the rental on top of that (if i remember correctly). So I was looking at having to leave something silly like a £800 deposit for the size of car we need.

I was going to for Enterprise who I have used regularly but I spotted that EasyJet had an offer with Europcar so went with them. I feel that I got a very good price. £350 for a Grand Scenic or similar for the week.
It may be worth checking with your Airline, may have a good deal on car rental?

I came to the same conclusion as mentioned by @Mjit, that Sixt were the only ones to offer winter tyres from Lyon. I would avoid renting chains from whoever you hire from as they are vastly more expensive. We are stopping on route to buy some, which will be cheaper.
I asked about needing winter tyres to get to La Tania which is the same height as Meribel (unless you are staying up in Mottaret). The general consensus was that if you can get them, then yes go for them but they aren't "essential". If it's bucketing down with snow, you'll be needing to chuck the chains on anyway.

snow reports

The winter tyre issue is why I avoid Lyon and fly to Geneva .. pretty similar distance to Les Arcs. Once you've experienced fitting chains in sub zero conditions you appreciate winter boots.

Flying to Geneva's my plan for the Alpe d'Huez area for next year, in a large part for the same reason (and on the assumption the new French law about winter tyres doesn't actually happen, like the breathalizer one or stopping the police drinking during their lunch break one). It not being Grenoble and having a huge range of flight options being the other reasons.

You know it makes sense.

Help!!

Car hire - Lyon and 3V

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