US car hire

[badlyneedapedicure]

Can anyone give me a steer on some car hire?
We are going to California in the summer 5 of us with luggage. ( can cut the luggage down a bit)
We want a car that is not too huge as v little experience driving in the us but I'm finding the sizes so confusing.
Can anyone give me an idea of what to book?
I'd rather a high up kind of car than a saloon type I think
Thankyou

If you want a high up car you need to book an SUV. You usually get something like a Toyota Rav 4 or a Jeep Cherokee. Not small but you can't really have small and high up. Depending on the location and company you can often choose from the available ones in the parking lot when you arrive.

I should add that roads and car parks there are geared up for massive cars if that makes you feel better about driving a bigger car.

yeah for 5 of you i'd go SUV. Ford Explorer or similar.

You need intermediate SUV or larger. Standard SUV would not be large enough for 5 imo as there's not much luggage room.

For 5 I would suggest a minivan or suv, otherwise you will struggle with luggage. We found enterprise booked direct the cheapest and you can save a substantial amount by renting from the city where you are stopping first than the airport as airports add on lots of fees for car hire (there was an enterprise desk in our hotel and we stayed there for the first and last night)

Thankyou we have booked a didge caravan or similar- am now dreading the whole thing

We’ve booked a Chrysler Pacific for 5.

We’ve had both SUVs and minivans (with 4 people plus camping equipment) the minivans have much more space for luggage. We still laugh about the Chevy Tahoe that was the size of Wales from the outside and the size of a mini on the inside. Like a reverse tardis.

It’s really easy to drive a big car in the US, especially in the west, everything is set up for them.

We have found, in the USA, you might get the “or similar” option. We recently booked a Jeep Grand Cherokee but got a Toyota 4 Runner which was pretty dire. We haven’t been able to buy them here since the 90s. Obviously it was newish but it drank petrol and was just not a modern car. This was Hertz.

Can you share driving? The sat nav we hired was useless so the phone was used for this. Frequently hire cars don’t have sat nav. We also found the roads are easy except around large airports! All car hire depots are signed but it’s a case of keeping your eyes peeled! You tend to get used to the driving but the freeways are very busy. You don’t always get much notice of your exit and the ramps off can be very short. So again, good navigation is essential. As is making sure you are in the right lane to exit or stay on the freeway! It’s ok though!

We always use a phone to navigate but be sure you have enough data, we ran out right in the most complicated intersection in Pisco Beach in our RV. It does help to have a passenger spotting road signs and giving directions, as Bubbles says you don’t always get much warning of exits. My worst experience driving in the US was with a navigator who didn’t drive himself and had no concept of how much warning was needed to cross three lanes to an exit. That was back in the days of paper maps though.

My husband will drive and my daughter who is 26 is keen to take a turn
Hopefully it will be ok
I am a nervous passenger but also can't face driving
Should probably have booked a cruise

With two drivers, you should be ok. You just need plan B if you miss a turn! No point getting stressed. Just work out how to get back on track. Not all roads are busy but freeways are in the built up areas. I tend to prefer a bigger car and have one here. You get used to it but in the USA the roads are big so smaller cars can feel swamped!

I've just come back (today!) from the US and it was my second driving experience. Upon reading up on California's 'rules of the road' a lot of the websites say things like "it'll be fine" which I found massively unhelpful, but actually it really is fine! The cars are automatics so you don't have to worry about changing gears. The freeways are huge, and worse case scenario, you miss an exit, just come of the next and the sat nav should re route you.

The first time the sat nav was ridiculous as we didn't have a screen, it was a button you pressed in the car which called a person, and they set the directions. Then the automated voice would just shout a direction every now and again. We frequently missed exits! This time it was great, like a smart phone you put in the car, with a great map viewing system.

We booked a 'Jeep Cherokee or similar' and got a Nissan X-Trail, it was great for the 4 of us, we had 2 big cases and 1 hand luggage size case.

You guys are so great!,
Thankyou for all the tips.
I'll just make sure our insurance is tip top , now just have to hope no protestors disrupt our flights!,,,

Ford Explorer or Expedition, both are not massive,