As title suggests I’m after some advice on van hire. Four of us heading over to France in September and need some ideas. Was supposed to be six of us but had two drop outs, originally going to hire two vans but now looking for one van capable of taking the four of us plus four bikes. Looking at something Luke the Renault Traffic crew cab or something of that ilk, anyone had one, are they big enough? Any suggestions/advice muchappreciated.

You can get 6 people and 6 bikes in a trafic crew-cab easily.

The Trafic is noticeably more spacious than the VW Transporter.

Van hire is generally expensive though, why not do it in car with bikes on top/behind?

Well of the four of us going, we have a fiesta, a vitara, and a vw corrado, none of which would get us all in. Van hire looks to be around 300/350 for the week.

who ever you hire from need to be made aware that you are taking it out the country, some hire companys will not let you take them out of the UK and those that do charge an extra fee, plus insurances. most hire company I know dont have crew cab vans so you may need to hire a people carrier and take the back row of seats out ?

Plus they often charge per mile once abroad. Can’t you do 2 cars with 2 in each? Where in France are you heading?

What JD-boy said +1, you need to trawl round you local hire places. We managed to get a ‘deal’ on a van to go out of the country from a small local hire firm

Fly to Geneva and hire from there? IIRC the airport has a French side and a Swiss side, one being cheaper than the other to hire from.

remember if you hire on Swiss side you will have to drive on the Swiss motorway of which you need a 40 CHF carnet/vignette..which may then alter the hire price.

Cheers for the replies, we have thought about getting a minibus and taking the back seats out, I think we have asked the question with a local hire firm (north west)

We flew over to Geneva and hired a Merc Vito 9 seater, took the rear seats out and unfortunately had to turn them round against the middle row (hire place didn’t have room to store them). Managed to get 6 bike boxes/bags with road bikes in, 6 mid sized suitcases/holdalls and 6 people in. That was a pretty tight fit and pretty uncomfortable. Would have been a lot better with rear seats out though.

Whatever van you hire you’ll have three seats across the front so you’ll have two spare seats to stash luggage on. Getting 4 bikes into the back of any of the crew cabs will be easy enough, some may need front wheels off, some won’t.

I’ve got a crew transit. Not sure I’d want to do such a long trip in it but it’d manage it easy enough. There would be enough room in the transit/trafic/others that size for 6 of you and gear. Might be a bit uncomfortable for the one in the front middle.

For 4 of you any of the crewies will do the job with ease. Vito/Transporter will probably be the most comfortable, Trafic/Primastar/Vivaro won’t be far behind and the Transit is a bit more aimed as a work van rather than a leisure van. Bigger van means you can bring a spare bike or two though!

People carrier with a tow bar rack will probably be a lot cheaper though. Roof mounting them will probably see horrendously low mpg and higher ferry crossing prices too.

One other point to consider, the tolls across France seriously mount up. If I remember right a van will attract a higher charge so remember to add that into your sums. Think we were well over £50 each (two of us) to get a car to Morzine three years ago. As the Vito was a people carrier on the last trip I think it was classed as a car – may be wrong on that though as I wasn’t driving or in the front.

Cheers for the info mate, something to think about.