Koppel zit voorin de auto | Couple in the front seat of the car

Crossing the border with a Dutch rental car: What are the rules?

Car rental when going abroad? These are the rules you need to bear in mind!

If you don't have your own car, or your car is not suitable for taking on vacation, you can rent a car to travel across the border with it.

There is sometimes a lack of clarity about what rules apply when using a rental car outside the borders of the Netherlands. These are the points you need to pay attention to when going on vacation with a rented car.

Is border crossing allowed?

You can drive a rental car abroad without any worries. However, some restrictions and rules apply. For example, when you pick up the car, you need to mention that you want to drive the rental car abroad. Then you can drive a rental car from the Netherlands to the following countries:

Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Austria, Spain (excluding Ceuta and Mellila), the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland.

You can also always find this information (and more) in the current rental terms and conditions.

Returning the rental car

People who rent a rental car usually pick it up and bring it back to the same place. However, with our One-Way Service, you can return the car abroad if you wish. You must inform us about this first. The service applies only to passenger cars and passenger vans, and is subject to an additional charge, depending on the type of car you rent.

Renting a car abroad

Of course, you can also fly to your destination and rent a car locally. Avis has the international reservation system for this purpose. By the way, it is not necessary to have an international driver's license within Europe, that only applies to some countries outside the EU.

Traffic regulations abroad

It is always advisable to check in advance the national traffic regulations that apply in the country where you are going on vacation. For example, in the UK it is mandatory to put masking stickers on your headlights. Does that sound strange? It's not really. Dutch headlights are aimed at the shoulder of the road, and could therefore blind an oncoming car in the UK, because there they are aimed at the oncoming traffic. In the case of this kind of specific traffic rule, it is always good to be prepared.