San Francisco – two Centre holiday suggestions?

hollie.weimeraner

Me and my wife did this last month SF, Monterey, Cambria, Yosemite, Mammoth, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. Drove the car back to Vegas and flew home from there. Hired a car with Hertz from SF and dropped at Vegas which cost me £250 for 13 days with no one way charges. (Nissan Altima)

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i12567-k9891676-Trip_report_Sept_2016-Road_Trips.html

Total of 17 nights and 1700 miles but one of the best holidays we've ever had.

realaledrinker

blindman wrote: »

Surely you could have flown into SFO-then driven to Yosemite, death valley and LAS Vegas then flown home??

IIRC No OW fees from SFO to Nevada

Fair comment I guess, there must've been logic to my madness at the time. But then we wouldn't have flown first class for the first and last time in our lives (SFO-LAS on Virgin America)

SHCooper

hollie.weimeraner wrote: »

Me and my wife did this last month SF, Monterey, Cambria, Yosemite, Mammoth, Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. Drove the car back to Vegas and flew home from there. Hired a car with Hertz from SF and dropped at Vegas which cost me £250 for 13 days with no one way charges. (Nissan Altima)

Ah this is what I've been searching for, I've planned San Francisco to Las Vegas via Monterey, Pacific Coast, LA with car hire from Hertz, I couldn't find anything about one way fees.. unfortunately the hire is £340 for a compact, 10 days (no car hire while we stay in SF) I panic bought due to the exchange rate - we're not going until April! Does the price normally come down nearer to the date?

NiftyDigits

SHCooper wrote: »

Ah this is what I've been searching for, I've planned San Francisco to Las Vegas via Monterey, Pacific Coast, LA with car hire from Hertz, I couldn't find anything about one way fees.. unfortunately the hire is £340 for a compact, 10 days (no car hire while we stay in SF) I panic bought due to the exchange rate - we're not going until April! Does the price normally come down nearer to the date?

When you book direct you cancel for free until, at the very least, twenty four hours before you are due to collect the car. So you can always take advantage of pricing fluctuations.

IIf you use a middleman, you'll need to check their T&C.

Ten days car hire should be around £200.

blindman

SHCooper wrote: »

Ah this is what I've been searching for, I've planned San Francisco to Las Vegas via Monterey, Pacific Coast, LA with car hire from Hertz, I couldn't find anything about one way fees.. unfortunately the hire is £340 for a compact, 10 days (no car hire while we stay in SF) I panic bought due to the exchange rate - we're not going until April! Does the price normally come down nearer to the date?

Look at the SouthWest thread

Economy Car hire is usually about £20 per day so that sound expensive.

Murphy_The_Cat

SHCooper wrote: »

Ah this is what I've been searching for, I've planned San Francisco to Las Vegas via Monterey, Pacific Coast, LA with car hire from Hertz, I couldn't find anything about one way fees.. unfortunately the hire is £340 for a compact, 10 days (no car hire while we stay in SF) I panic bought due to the exchange rate - we're not going until April! Does the price normally come down nearer to the date?

hi shc
Have you booked directly with Hertz, if so, you could have an out .
Doing a dummy booking on Hertz Uk, seems to give a costly rental charge for an economy car, but a much lower charge for a larger size of vehicle (welcome to the distorted world of rental vehicle pricing).
The possible reason for this is that the class of car that you are booking gets some surcharges applied to it, but other classes of vehicle don't.

If you have booked directly with Hertz, have a quick look at your booking terms and conditions, as there is very strong chance that your booking is cancellable. If it is, simply cancel the expensive car and replace it with a more wallet friendly rental.

2 or 3 extra thoughts for you
going via quidco (or similar) will get you some cashback (quidco have quite a few car rental companies linked in). Spend some time and check them ALL.
Be particularly careful about potential one-way fees. Previously, there were no one-way fees from California to/from Nevada & Arizona, but this seems to be changing (handy guide here)
bit check, then double check again. Some sites are very canny as disguising the oneway charges, that then attract local taxes on top.
Finally, give some long and considered thought to hiring a larger vehicle than a compact or an economy class of vehicle - you'll be driving at least 700 miles and the extra comfort in a larger vehicle has a value all of its own. The extra charges for larger vehicles are minimal, OR, if you search is uccessful, a larger vehicle can be considerable CHEAPER than am economy/compact/poxbox.

SHCooper

Thanks all, I've just tried a dummy booking for 2 months in advance and its £100 cheaper so I guess I'll cancel and book again nearer the time, hopefully the exchange rate doesn't fall drastically! The size was Compact but say's Ford Focus which is what we're comfortable driving!

SHCooper

Ah, I decided to do more dummy bookings using Holidayautos, we need the car for 10 days from the 17th April with an additional driver, it seems as though every other 10 days in April/ running up and after is £245, but my 10 days is £345, it's the day after Easter if that makes any difference! Sorry for hijacking this thread