Renting a car in Strasbourg: the honest guide

To rent a car in Strasbourg you have three pick-up options: the station district, Strasbourg-Entzheim airport, or a neighbourhood or outskirts agency. Choose according to the route you will take out of town, not your hotel address: in a city whose heart, the Grande Île, is largely closed to traffic, the real problem is not the vehicle, it is the parking.

The rest comes down to a few habits: know what the price includes before you pay, know the amount blocked as a deposit, and check that the contract allows you to cross the Rhine. Here is the detail, with what is specific to Alsace: the low-emission zone, the Route des Vins wine road, the Vosges passes and the Christmas market.

Where to pick the car up: station, airport or neighbourhood

The station is the obvious choice if you arrive by high-speed train: you walk out under the glass canopy and several agencies are minutes away on foot. The flip side, as every Strasbourg local knows: driving out towards the ring road means a funnel of one-way streets.

Parking in Strasbourg: the Grande Île is done on foot

The historic core was not drawn for the motor car: pedestrian streets, narrow quays, filtered access. Locals do not even try to approach it behind the wheel. Four options, in order of common sense.

• The parkings-relais, the park-and-ride car parks along the tram lines: the day rate includes a return public-transport trip for everyone in the vehicle. This is what locals do.
• The multi-storey car parks around the Grande Île, from the Kléber area to Sainte-Aurélie: handy for a few hours, far less so for a week.
• On-street parking, paid during the day from Monday to Saturday, at a rate that climbs with the duration. Read the meter: the rules change from one district to the next.
• Christmas market season, from late November to Christmas: access to the Grande Île is heavily restricted, parking there is banned and checkpoints filter the entry bridges. Park-and-ride is the only sane answer, or return the car beforehand.

Another local habit: the tram crosses the Rhine to Kehl. For an evening on the other side, leave the car in the car park.

Low-emission zone and the Crit'Air sticker

Several French cities run a low-emission zone, or ZFE: access depends on the Crit'Air sticker, which grades a vehicle from 0, for electric, to 5, according to its engine and its age. Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Grenoble are among the cities that operate one, and the Strasbourg area has adopted the same mechanism.

The vehicles concerned, the exemptions and the penalties, however, move often. So trust neither a forum nor this article: check the official French government source before you set off, and ask the agency which sticker is on the windscreen. A serious rental firm answers in one sentence.

What the displayed price must really include

A daily rate means nothing until you know what is inside it. At the big chains, the bill is often built at the counter. Insist on these five lines before you confirm.

• The insurance included and, above all, the excess you remain liable for if there is damage.
• The mileage: unlimited, or capped with a price per kilometre beyond. Between the wine road and the Vosges, a cap is crossed quickly.
• The fuel policy: full-to-full is the only sound formula; a prepaid package makes you pay for fuel you will not burn.
• The drivers: a second driver, a young driver or a recently issued licence often carry a surcharge.
• The extras: terminal pick-up, out-of-hours return, child seat, ski rack, drop-off in another city.

This is exactly what DRIVO tries to make legible. The marketplace brings together trusted independent and local agencies and private owners: the full price is shown before payment, DRIVO's service fee included on its own line, and that fee is refunded on a free cancellation or an agency cancellation. Confirmation is instant, the security deposit is visible before you book, and an optional full-protection add-on can lower the excess.

Deposit, excess and bank card

The deposit is not a payment: it is a card hold, blocked on the main driver's card for the rental and then released. Its amount is often set at the level of the excess.

1. 1The card must be in the main driver's name: prepaid cards, virtual cards and a partner's card are regularly refused.
2. 2Check your spending limit: a blocked deposit can swallow the card for the rest of the trip.
3. 3The money is released a few working days after return, at your bank's pace.
4. 4Ask in writing for a breakdown of anything withheld. A sum taken without an invoice can be disputed.

Behind the wheel in Alsace: what the rules say

Two local nuances. Priorité à droite, priority to traffic coming from the right, survives at some unmarked junctions, common in old Alsatian villages. And while most French motorways are tolled, payable by card or by an electronic télépéage badge, the road that runs alongside Strasbourg is not.

On alcohol, the limit is 0.5 g/L of blood, that is 0.25 mg/L of exhaled air, and it drops to 0.2 g/L for a licence held under 3 years: effectively zero. On the wine road, you decide who drives before the tasting. The vehicle must also carry a warning triangle and a high-visibility vest: open the boot before you leave.

Wine road, Vosges and crossing the Rhine

Strasbourg is an ideal base, provided you plan for three very different drives.

• The Route des Vins, from Marlenheim to Thann at the foot of the Vosges, through Obernai, Mittelbergheim, Riquewihr or Eguisheim. These villages were not laid out for today's cars: park at the car park at the village entrance and walk. During the grape harvest, tractors and trailers have priority in practice.
• The Vosges, by the Route des Crêtes ridge road, the col de la Schlucht or the Champ du Feu: tight bends, frequent fog. In winter, equipment obligations may apply in mountain areas; ask the agency whether the vehicle is shod for the season.
• The Rhine and the Black Forest, minutes away over the pont de l'Europe. Get written confirmation that the contract allows the vehicle to leave France: not every agency allows it, and the rules differ on the other side of the river.

The mistakes that cost money at the counter

1. 1Turning up without the main driver's bank card, or with too low a limit.
2. 2Signing the condition report without walking around the vehicle: photograph the bodywork, wheels, windscreen and roof before leaving the car park.
3. 3Finding out at departure that the mileage is capped when you are heading for Colmar and the Black Forest.
4. 4Forgetting to declare the second driver, which can void the cover in the event of a claim.
5. 5Returning the car out of hours into a key box, with no joint condition report and no dated photo.