car rental suggestions in Anchorage

Hi,

We%26#39;re planning a trip to Alaska in August for 10 days and will be flying in and out of Anchorage. I%26#39;d like to rent an suv, but the rates I have seen at the airport agencies are around $1000. Are there any discount rental agencies in town where I can do better? That%26#39;s really a lot more than I want to spend on a rental. Thanks a lot. Any specific suggestions would be real helpful.

car rental suggestions in Anchorage

You%26#39;re doing the 2 things that are guaranteed to get you gouged - renting at the airport instead of downtown, and renting an SUV when you can%26#39;t take it on a gravel road anyway. Change both those things to save huge $$$$

Murray

car rental suggestions in Anchorage

Thanks,

I%26#39;m checking on some of the places downtown. They are more difficult to search on the net than the airport agencies, but I%26#39;ve discovered a couple that are cheaper. I%26#39;ll go with them. But we arrive late at night and leave late at night after the rental agencies are closed, so I suppose we%26#39;ll need to catch a cab to go back and forth from the airport.

That depends on where you%26#39;re staying - many hotels have free shuttles.

husker57 - How did you get on with renting a car in August. Any good suggestions?

Like you, I had planned to hire an SUV or a 4 wheel drive from the airport but I have been given similar advice - rent a car and do it downtown. Any advice would be gratefully received.

Argassi1

Argassi,

After a lot of checking we rented a station wagon from Affordable Beaters Car Rental for 9 days at $519, including tax. That was a better rate than I found anywhere else. The car had a lot of miles on it, and had one door with primer on it, but it ran fine. We took a cab to our place for $20 when we got in and they delivered it to us the next day. You can call them at 907 563-2328 or check them out at www.affordablebeaters.com. Mike and Roberta run the operation. We saved a lot of $ doing this. Good luck to you.

We were in Alaska in August, and also arrived late at night. The hotel had a shuttle (free) so we took that and then picked up a rental car from Enterprise downtown. They will pick you up in Anchorage and take you downtown to the rental agency. We had asked for a mid-sized car, at a rate of about $250-300 for the week, and we got a trailblazer instead, at the same cost. We were able to return it to the airport instead of downtown, since we were leaving late at night for an additional $40. We reserved it on line in advance at enterpriseleasing.com. Good luck.

Just double checked my info - and it%26#39;s just enterprise.com

I just saw rates (current season, for 1 week) of $180 for a week for a full size car at the downtown Anchorage location.

Everywhere I%26#39;ve ever gone, Enterprise has always been the least expensive rental agency, and I%26#39;ve been able to reserve on line ahead of time, never had a problem.

We rented from Hertz downtown and returned at the airport at no extra charge. They also offer free pickup from anywhere in Anchorage, but when we called for pickup they said they are too busy and we should just take a taxi and they will refund it - check your paperwork because they refunded only after we reminded them twice. Also, be prepared to wait. We came in when the office just opened in the morning, and there was only one person working there. It took about an hour to take care of the two customers before us, even though they had reservations, but were asking for extras.

We rented a car from Enterprise at the airport for 4 days with a late return on the 4th day from the airport at Anchorage. Paid $128 for an intermediate size vehicle which ended up being a Chrysler Pacificia. We also checked around between the airport and downtown to compare prices and, for us, it was cheaper to rent the car at the airport (plus more convenient.)

We rented from Thrifty at what they called their ';downtown'; locatin which turned out to be just a few miles out of the airport. They picked us up at the downtown train station and when we dropped the car off at the end of our trip they drove us to our hotel for our last night. Then we took the hotel shuttle to the airport. They were well priced and very easy to work with. You can reserve on line by checking off airport location. They were also willing to change our reservation at the last minuete without charging us. I recommend Thrifty.

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