I hired a car at Chicago O’Hare Airport for nine days from Advantage Car Hire through the Holiday Autos booking site.
Advantage Car Hire has no pick-up desk at the airport, so I had to take a shuttle bus to their pick-up location.
Advantage Pick Up Desk
The bus ride to the desk took about 10-15 minutes, which can actually be even longer depending on traffic. There were a few traffic lights we stopped at then we turned left into the car park of an old office block. This is where Advantage parks its shuttle buses and all the rental cars.
The pick-up process was very smooth and the agent was very friendly, so I had no issues at all.
He took my credit card, passport and drivers license then we talked about having some extra insurance but in the end I decided I did not need it.
Read here how to avoid the insurance upsell tactics at the pick up desk
Car Hire Insurance
I always have third party insurance from Worldwide Insure although the last time I needed their help I got no refund or anything. So actually it’s more for peace of mind than anything else.
My advice would be to get a full blown insurance cover wherever you go, and preferably with the company you hired from to avoid being passed around when it comes to claiming for damages.
The car that I got from Advantage was an automatic Chevy Impala with a comfortable seat and plenty of storage. I only had hand luggage so I threw it into the back and me and my friend were off to our motel for the night.
I spent nine days in Chicago and the surrounding Midwestern US area, and during this trip I visited four state capitols.
You can read my review of Des Moines here and I will follow up with more posts about Minnesota, Missouri and Illinois at a later date.
The nearest capitol buildings to Chicago are Minneapolis – St Paul in Minnesota, Des Moines in Iowa, Jefferson City in Missouri and Springfield in Illinois.
Without a car it is pretty much impossible to get around the US Midwest, so if you are interested in venturing outside Chicago, you need to hire a car as well.
The drive to these four state capitols will take you at least a week, so if you are planning a Midwest road trip then pick up a car from Advantage like I did.
The car came in at just under £300 for the nine days, which was very generous from Holiday Autos to offer to pay for it in return for this review.