There is a HUGE tip here about renting cars in Austin!! I have learned from experience that rental cars in Austin, TX is incredibly expensive!! As someone who sets out to travel with as little expense as possible, the rental cars from the airport are a crazy sticker shock. When I went to check out the facility I actually forgot to rent one because everytime I went they were so much more than I am used to, so I wouldn’t do it. BIG mistake, because when I got there there were NO cars in the city! SOOOO. Here are my tips for renting a car in Austin for camp:
- Find some carpool buddies! There are typically people from over 30 states flying into camp. Many come on their own and also do not want to rent their own car. Join the Facebook Nail Camp USA group if you haven’t already, and post about looking for carpool buddies at least a month before camp.
- Do NOT rent from the airport. You will LITERALLY save hundreds of dollars by taking an uber 15-20 minutes away and grabbing a rental car at a neighborhood rental place. The price goes from absolutely insane to totally reasonable if you choose an OFF-AIRPORT location. Its worth the $15-20 in Uber fees. I’m personally renting from the Oak Hill area of Austin since they have Wal Mart and Costco in that area and I’m always picking stuff up before I head to camp :). It’s also near the freeway that goes directly south to camp.
- Use Costcotravel.com if you have a Costco card. It is almost ALWAYS cheaper to rent. Benefits include, $0 deposit, cancel anytime with 0 fees, and an extra driver! The extra driver is handy if you are carpooling and both want access to drive.
- Use a credit card that comes with FREE car rental insurance. My husband and I specifically have a Capitol One credit card ONLY for this purpose. We honestly don’t use it for anything else (we use our mileage card for everything else). They have the best free car rental insurance. All you have to do is deny the extra insurance at the rental agency and you are covered.
- Book early. As long as your rental car booking has free cancellation there is no reason to not book early. You can jump on if you see a sale and re-book! But I’ve noticed with Austin, it seems they just don’t have many cars in their city so get yours booked early.
Below is a map that shows all the OFF – Airport locations to pick up.
