Renting a car in Ajaccio: the honest guide

In Ajaccio the simplest option is to pick the car up at Napoléon-Bonaparte airport, at Campo dell'Oro: the desks are in the arrivals hall, a few minutes from the town centre, and you can drive straight off towards Porticcio, the route des Sanguinaires or the south of the island. If you arrive by ferry, or if you spend your first two or three days exploring the town on foot, an agency in the centre or near the station will save you renting a car that just sits in a car park.

The rest fits in one sentence: what inflates a Corsican rental bill is almost never the daily rate, it is what was not shown when you booked. A deposit blocked on your card, a high excess, fuel, an additional driver, an out-of-hours return. That is what DRIVO sets out to remove: every cost appears before you pay, including the DRIVO service fee, shown on its own line.

Where to collect the car: airport, town centre or station

The pick-up point changes far more than the model you drive: it sets the price of your first day, the time you spend at the counter and how easy the return is when your flight leaves early.

Napoléon-Bonaparte airport

This is the busiest pick-up point: the widest choice of vehicles, opening hours tied to the flights, and direct access to the coast road. In exchange, the queue is at its longest on a Saturday in August, and some firms add an airport handling fee. Ask whether there is a key box for out-of-hours returns: plenty of flights leave before the desks open.

The town centre, the railway station and the ferry terminal

Agencies in the centre cluster around cours Grandval, boulevard Lantivy and the avenues climbing towards Mezzavia. The Ajaccio railway station and the gare maritime (ferry terminal) sit next to each other near quai l'Herminier, which is handy when you step off a ferry from Marseille, Toulon or Nice, or off the narrow-gauge train of the Chemins de fer de la Corse. Hours there are shorter, with midday closures and often Sundays too, so have your exact pick-up time confirmed, especially out of season.

What the quoted price must include

A daily rate on its own tells you nothing. Before you pay, insist on seeing the total, and inside that total these lines.

• Mileage: unlimited, or an allowance with a per-kilometre surcharge beyond it.
• The basic insurance included, and above all the excess you remain liable for if the car is damaged.
• The fuel policy: full to full is the only genuinely neutral one.
• The additional driver, if you plan to share the mountain roads.
• Out-of-hours return fees, and one-way fees if you drop the car in Bastia, Calvi or Figari.
• The deposit: how much, which type of card is required, and when it is released.

On DRIVO all of this is visible before you pay: you see the security deposit and what is included before you book, and the DRIVO service fee is refunded with a free cancellation or an agency cancellation. Cancellation stays free up to 48 hours before pick-up, which matters when a ferry runs late.

Deposit, excess, protection: three words not to mix up

1. 1The deposit is a blocked sum, usually a pre-authorisation on a credit card in the main driver's name, not on a debit card. It is not charged if all goes well, but it ties up part of your card limit for the whole trip.
2. 2The excess is what you remain liable for if the car is damaged: it is the one that stings after a mirror scraped in a lane of the quartier des Étrangers.
3. 3Additional protection reduces that excess. On DRIVO an optional full-protection add-on can be added at checkout to lower the excess: it is an option, not an obligation.

Before you sign up for anything at the counter, check what the bank card you are paying with already covers, and what your travel insurance provides. People sometimes pay twice for the same cover.

Parking in Ajaccio without losing your morning

The centre is divided into paid parking zones with ticket machines, at tariffs and hours set by the town hall. Those rules change: the sign on the zone is what counts, not a memory of last summer.

• There are free windows in the middle of the day and on public holidays, but they change: read the machine before you head off to the beach.
• If you do not pay, you get a forfait post-stationnement (the FPS, France's parking charge). It goes to the rental firm, which passes it on to you with an administration fee.
• The covered car parks along the seafront and around place du Diamant are the quiet choice, especially with luggage in the boot.
• Do not try to park in the lanes around the citadel and the market: they are narrow and one-way.

Driving in Corse-du-Sud: the rules that matter

Corsica has no motorway. So you will pay no tolls on the island, but you will spend nearly all your time on two-way roads where the maximum speed is 80 km/h, raised to 90 km/h on some roads by the département. In built-up areas it is 50 km/h. And when fog settles on a pass and visibility drops below 50 m, 50 km/h applies everywhere.

• Drink-driving: the limit is 0.5 g/L of blood, or 0.25 mg/L of exhaled air. With a licence held under 3 years it falls to 0.2 g/L, which in practice means none at all.
• Newly licensed drivers: speed caps are lower too, 110 km/h on the motorway and 100 km/h in rain. Worth knowing if you drive on the mainland after the crossing.
• Mandatory equipment: a warning triangle and a high-visibility vest must be carried in the vehicle. Check for them while you take your departure photos.
• Priorité à droite, priority to traffic coming from the right, still applies at some unmarked junctions, common in old quarters and inland villages.
• The roads climbing towards Bavella, Piana or the interior are narrow, often without a crash barrier, and shared with coaches and sometimes cows: here, distance tells you nothing about duration.
• If you then rent in a large French city, read up on the zones à faibles émissions (ZFE, low-emission zones) and the Crit'Air sticker, which grades vehicles from 0 to 5. The cities concerned, the rules and the penalties change often: check the official French government source before you travel.

The mistakes that cost money at the counter

1. 1Booking late for July and August: the island runs out of available vehicles long before it runs out of visitors.
2. 2Turning up with a debit card when the agency requires a credit card in the main driver's name.
3. 3Signing the condition report without walking round the car. Photograph the wheels, the sills, the windscreen and the roof, with a timestamp.
4. 4Forgetting to note the fuel level and the odometer, both at departure and on return.
5. 5Handing back a car full of sand after a week on the beach: exceptional cleaning is charged.
6. 6Ignoring the cancellation window. A change of plan costs less while cancellation is still free.