Driving/Car Hire in Croatia

I guess one potential issue will be crossing the border. Just check your rental allows you into another country.

Get a car from one of the big international chains - not a local company.  Its for peace of mind / security.  I've used hire cars a lot and its always the best policy IMO as you are so much less likely to be ripped off for scratches or anything else

Roads in Croatia, Slovenia and Northern Italy are empty, fast and well maintained. Are you doing one way hire? Price this up carefully - perhaps get the ferry back to Croatia? You shouldn't have any issue in crossing borders in any European hire car: last time I drove across the SLO/ITA border we were doing 150kph and my mad Slovenian mate was flashing the guy in front to get out of the way. I'd always try and book with a multinational for cross-border breakdown/theft/issues, though IME they're just as likely to do you over for damage as local companies.

Croatia has joined Schengen so the previous border queues and petrol tourists from Slovenia should have gone. Croatia has also recently adopted the Euro, there's the usual issues with "accidental" inflation going on right now - coffee had gone up from about 50p to about £2.50 for example.

I guess one potential issue will be crossing the border. Just check your rental allows you into another country.

This !  We hired a car in Montenegro last summer. You were not allowed to drive it in to Croatia. It would have cost £100 more to have the same car and drive it in Croatia.

Montenegro drivers appeared to be lacking in common sense. They drove every where quickly, but didnt appear to appreciate that when it rains the roads are more slippy.  When it rained we saw no end of crashes (quite severe) as people tried to take corners at the same speed as they did in the dry.

We were just going to hire at the airport and use the car to do some exploring. Interesting about being able to take the car out of the country....I'll double check any restrictions.

We hired a car at Dubrovnik airport a couple of years back. They were happy for us to take it anywhere except Montenegro. The guy at the desk told us that too many of their cars had got stolen, stripped or crashed there. The road that crosses the bit of Bosnia Herzegovina that goes to the coast isn't regarded as taking it out of the country either.

There's a new Chinese built/funded bridge to avoid the Bosnia bit now

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelje%C5%A1ac_Bridge

Also, I found that the drivers in the North were all a bit mad. We were sticking to the 70kph limit in our campervan on very twisty roads and were forced off the road by a truck and repeatedly flashed at by trucks and buses on the way from Slovenia to Plitvice Lakes (cos we were in their way). Even the drivers of coaches, buses and trucks speed everywhere. It's a little scary and very bizarre to watch huge trucks "making progress" like a stolen Fiesta over the Snake Pass

You shouldn’t have any issue in crossing borders in any European hire car

You're right, you shouldn't but it but that doesn't mean that the rental co won't add a premium for it.
Last year in Sardinia we couldn't take the car into France (ferry to Corsica) without a hefty additional payment.

I’ve just looked into this as we are visiting Slovenia and Croatia from Venice. Be really careful which hire car company you use as many exclude Croatia or have restrictions on crossing borders or using the Croatia to Italy ferries. Using a big company doesn’t guarantee there aren’t restrictions or additional costs. Hertz for example require you to get a letter from the desk at pick up to go into Croatia which I’m sure is fine but I don’t want to put my holiday at risk if they refuse. Enterprise had no cross border restrictions within the EU.

Pula and Venice are both medieval cities, not made for the car. Crossborder one way rentals can be super expensive. The intercity buses are good. Driving in Croatia is pretty okay, but my question is - do you really need to drive?

If yes, buy separate hire car excess insurance. The big brands are all repped through local franchisees, some of whom are scumbags.

oldtennisshoes
Full Member
You shouldn’t have any issue in crossing borders in any European hire car

You’re right, you shouldn’t but it but that doesn’t mean that the rental co won’t add a premium for it.

Just to add: I'm going to the Pyrenees later this month and most companies will allow cross border rental between France and Spain as long as you declare in advance AND pay a daily surtax (which applies for the duration of the rental not just the days you are in the "other" country).

Supposedly this extra fee is for insurance and breakdown/recovery purposes

Make sure you read all the T&CS!