Toulouse Airport in France is the ideal location to start a road trip around Southern France, and this is exactly what I have done twice already. For my second rental I used Enterprise Rent a Car through Holiday Autos for three days, excluding insurance at a cost of £56.
I made the booking on the Holiday Autos website six weeks in advance. I would recommend renting with Holiday Autos as they are a very honest firm with no hidden fees, free cancellation and no hard sell.
I have been using them for years and I have not been disappointed at all. In contrast, this was the first time I rented from Enterprise Rent A Car and in the end I had a great experience. The team was very helpful and smiling and I had nothing to complain about really.
By the way, you can get 5% off if you use this Holiday Autos link for your next booking.
If you have not heard of them they belong to the Cartrawler Group that owns various car hire booking sites. The idea is very similar to sites like Booking.com except here you can rent cars and not rooms online.
The Enterprise Pick Up Desk
I picked up the car in the evening at Toulouse Airport. The pick up desk was within the terminal just outside the arrivals gate. I handed over my passport, drivers license and credit card which they copied and preauthorized for €1,500 then they gave me receipt which I had to take to the car park to pick up the car.
From the pick-up desk it is a 10 minute walk to the car park. Enterprise has a booth outside at the car park where you show the receipts and pick up the keys. Once I had the keys and we checked the car for any scratches I drove to a ski resort in the Pyrenees.
The Positive Aspects Of The Car
The rental car was an Opel Moka with a diesel eco flex six gear engine. I have rented a manual again because it was cheaper. Although they cost a bit more, I would recommend renting a fully automatic car as it helps you relax and just enjoy the ride.
It can be very stressful fiddling with the gearbox and trying to concentrate in an unknown car and renting an automatic takes that stress away.
I really liked the large size of the car and how easy it was to handle it. It came with parking assist, an on-board navigation system, cruise control, air conditioning, a USB plug and a comfy armrest.
Not So Good Stuff
What I didn’t like was the fact that every time I plugged my phone in it started playing my recordings instead of the Google Maps navigation.
Also, if I turned the radio off it turned the navigation system off as well. Basically, there were just too many buttons for me and I did not know how to use them! Otherwise it was a great car with a huge booth space, seats for three at the back and two at the front and a great audio system.
Driving Back To The Airport
I returned the car on time and without any damage so they released my deposit and I left as a happy customer. If you want to avoid paying out a huge amount of money in case of an accident, read my review about car hire excess insurances.