Search for Car Rental USA

Looking for ways to spend your holiday? Why not go on a US car rental tour. The United States has some indefinable quality that makes it perfect for road trips. Cruising down the interstate with a USA car hire and the wind in your hair, your favorite tunes playing and miles of open road ahead has to be the ideal start to any adventure. The sheer diversity of landscapes and cultures within the continental United States alone makes for myriad tour opportunities, no matter what kind of journey you’re after.

You can’t go wrong with a car rental USA. There’s more to it than giving you the freedom to explore this colorful country at your leisure - once you set out, the whole of the United States is your oyster. It doesn’t matter whether you’re planning a coastal journey through the seaside towns of New England, traversing the vast plains of the Midwest, or cruising California’s Big Sur, when you rent a car in the US you’re bound for an unforgettable adventure.

AirportRentals.com - The best way to rent cars in USA

A USA car rental is one of the easiest ways to begin your American journey, but if you’re trying to search through multiple websites to find the best rental deal, booking isn’t always an easy process. Airport Rentals cuts out all that hassle and presents you with all the best deals and exclusive offers from a wide array of American car rental companies in one easy-to-search place.

To get a car rental in the United States that’s perfect for your particular journey and budget, our simple search engine will serve up many options from a spectrum of car rental companies. all you need to do is enter a few basic details about your travel - like where you want to pick up your vehicle from, where you’re ultimately headed to and the dates of your journey. You can then scroll through a range of USA car hire options from a number of different suppliers and select the best car for you. Use our handy filters and you’ll find the perfect vehicle to take you away on another adventure.

Airport car rentals around the United States

Wherever you’re planning to start your USA road trip, it won’t be hard to find a US rental car that’s just right for you on AirportRentals.com. Below you can find just a handful of the most popular places to get a rental car in the USA.

• Los Angeles Airport (code: LAX) car rental - Landing in Los Angeles puts the southwestern United States at your disposal - not to mention that you get to explore this legendary city before you head on your way.

• Tampa Airport car rental - Sun seekers arriving in Tampa will find themselves in the midst of a leisure paradise, with many more exciting destinations within easy driving distance - the theme parks of Orlando, the sands of Miami Beach and the bayous and bars of the Keys are all within your grasp.

• Denver car rental - Nicknamed ‘Mile High City’ for its lofty elevation, Denver is a beautiful city that will see travelers hitting ski slopes, hiking in nearby forests or using the city’s central location as a launch point for adventures further afield.

• Las Vegas car rental - The entertainment capital of the world has quite the reputation, and it’s entirely well earned. Of course, with a Las Vegas car rental, you can head out of the city once you’ve had your fill of magnificent excess, and discover impressive sights like the Hoover Dam, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon.

• Phoenix car rental - Cold weather getting you down? Phoenix is the perfect place to escape the winter doldrums, with its perennially warm climate. It’s also favored by golfing aficionados with a number of Jack Nicklaus-designed courses in town.

• Seattle car rental - The capital of the Pacific Northwest, Seattle is a beacon of culture and cutting-edge technology. This is also an eco-friendly city, surrounded by miles of pristine evergreen forests and glorious mountains, so taking a road trip into Washington’s wilderness is highly recommended.

• San Francisco Airport car rental - Starting out from this effortlessly cool city puts you in the perfect position to explore the beautiful wineries and wilderness of Northern California, or head down the coast in a car rentals United States to marvel at the expansive scenery of Big Sur.

Here are some of the things that you should keep in mind when driving your rental car in the USA.

With lengthy highways, vast open spaces, and myriad interesting and scenic things to see, the United States of America is an ideal road trip destination. Long distances are no big deal to the inhabitants of the States, and most start driving at the age of sixteen. It’s easy to enter into the American mindset, pick up a rental car and begin an epic journey in this big nation.

Of course, each state in the USA has its own set of laws concerning drivers, and to cover them all would send any reader to sleep. Thankfully, however, many of them do coincide - 50 sets of entirely different road rules would make it difficult to drive across state borders.

You can find a state-by-state breakdown of more detailed road rules on the Advanced Drivers of America website - we recommend brushing up on the laws for any states you are planning to drive in.

Driving tips for your rental car USA adventure

Driving your vehicle in the United States isn’t a tricky proposition, although it’s still good to familiarize yourself with the road rules that apply to the states you’ll be traveling in with your rent car in USA. Each state has its own laws, rules, and regulations, but there are a number of broad principles which apply nationwide.

Finally, see below for a few quick pointers on driving in the United States:

• Everyone in the United States drives on the right-hand side of the road. A valid driver’s licence is needed - while foreign licences are generally okay, some states will require an International Driving Permit as well.

• Road conditions can vary drastically depending on where in the United States you’re visiting, so make sure you adjust your driving to the conditions, which can be extreme in some parts of the country.

• Watch for speed limit signs while in your US car hire, as speed limits will vary from state to state, as well as from highway to suburban road. Speed limits in the USA are set by each state or territory and are typically end in a 5 or 0. 80 miles per hour is the fastest limit, mostly found on the interstates in western states, and the limits in the eastern states tend to be a little slower at 70 miles per hour maximum. Some parts of Texas have limits of 85 miles per hour, while 60 is the fastest you can legally drive anywhere in Hawaii.

• Toll roads are known as turnpikes, and have various methods of charging for road usage depending on which state you’re in - check ahead to see if your route includes any toll roads

• Watch for speed limit signs while in your US car hire, as speed limits will vary from state to state, as well as from highway to suburban road. Speed limits in the USA are set by each state or territory and are typically end in a 5 or 0. 80 miles per hour is the fastest limit, mostly found on the interstates in western states, and the limits in the eastern states tend to be a little slower at 70 miles per hour maximum. Some parts of Texas have limits of 85 miles per hour, while 60 is the fastest you can legally drive anywhere in Hawaii.

• Winter in the United States can be quite harsh, so have some forethought if planning a road trip in December, January or February, especially in the more northerly reaches of the country. Think about renting a 4WD vehicle. Beware of freezing in the engine, and don’t let the fuel tank run low. The Weather Network has some good tips for winter driving.

• The emergency number for any kind of emergency in the United States is 911, and this should be called for any situation requiring urgent help including fire, crime, car crashes and medical emergencies. Be prepared to give your location and the nature of the emergency. Even if your phone is not set up to make calls in the US, it should be able to connect to 911. Visit 911.gov for more information.

• There are a lot of gas stations around the United States. But it is recommended to make sure you have a full tank before going on a USA car rent tour. Most vehicles run on gasoline, which costs around $0.85 per liter or $3.20 per gallon.

• The legal limit for driving with alcohol is usually around 0.8%, but the percentage limit varies a little from state to state.

Sharing the US road

In the USA, everyone drives on the right - that is of course the number one most important thing to remember when hitting the road! If you are coming from a left-driving country, take care when pulling out of junctions that you end up on the correct side of the road.

Yellow centre lines mark the separation of traffic going opposite directions, while broken white lines mark the separation of lanes for traffic heading in the same direction. If the white lines are solid, changing lanes is discouraged but allowed, and if they are solid and doubled, it is prohibited. The yellow centre lines have a similar system - if they are broken, overtaking is permitted, if they are a combination of broken and solid then overtaking is only permitted on the broken side, and if they are doubled and solid then overtaking is prohibited in both directions.

Intersections

Give way rules can be complicated wherever you go, and the USA is no exception. Most states enforce a priority-to-the-right system in uncontrolled intersections, whereby motorists yield to vehicles approaching from the right. However, this applies only where there are no other rules indicated. At T intersections, traffic on the terminating road yields to all other traffic at the termination point.

All-way stops or four-way stops are a notorious aspect of driving in the United States, also used in Canada and South Africa. They apply to intersections with multiple approaches, and the primary rule is that all approaching traffic must come to a stop before proceeding. After such a halt, motorists can make their way through the intersection in the order that they arrived, and if they arrived more or less simultaneously, they must yield to the right. Standard signage includes hexagonal STOP signs at all approaches, ALL WAY plaques, and often supplemental plaques stating the number of approaches in the intersection.

Roundabouts or traffic circles are not common in the USA, but where they exist they operate similarly to those found in the rest of the world, with circulating traffic having right of way over those entering. 

Note that turn signals/indicators in the US can be red or amber.

Licensing before you drive your rental car

Anyone driving in the United States must have a valid driver’s license. Foreign licenses can be used, but some states will require an International Driving Permit in addition, especially for those licenses in languages other than English. It is best to check the requirements of the state or states you will be driving in, and if unsure, get an IDP before you leave.

Having a license can also help you move around the country if you are studying in the US. The United States is home to many prestigious universities - you could find your place at one of them with a scholarship from Airport Rentals.

The United States is a big place, and the network of highways that cross it is unthinkably vast. Just the interstate system entails nearly fifty thousand miles (close to eighty thousand kilometres) of road. At an average of 60 miles per hour, it would take five weeks of non-stop driving 24/7 to cover the entire thing! We have put together a guide to how far you can go in the time that you have- and some ideas to fit your schedule. Take a look at our US driving guide for more tips.

The whole hog

To drive clear your hire car across the nation from New York to Los Angeles would take around 41 hours. Five hours of driving per day is more than enough when you are on holiday, so that would work out to more than a week to make the trip- a definite possibility if you are alright with that much time on the road! However, that’s assuming you take the shortest route possible. According to Google Maps, this will take you through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona without hitting any sizeable cities except Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Albuquerque. If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right!

We played with the route a little to include just a few of the things you would really want to see while you’re in the area- some more of the east coast, Chicago, Kansas City, Denver, Yellowstone, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and San Francisco. This amended itinerary has a driving time of 83 hours, bringing the estimated days needed to 16 or so.

Major US cities: Where can I go from here?

Flying between cities is generally a lot faster, thanks to jets cruising at more than 500 miles per hour- but you don’t get up close and personal with the countryside when you’re at 30,000 feet. Here are a few places within driving distance of the most-visited centres in the USA:

• New York has plenty of main centers within a day’s drive. You could get to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Niagara Falls, Charlottesville or Pittsburgh with a leisurely day on the road. If you are willing to devote the entire day to driving your car rental with just short breaks, you could make it as far as Detroit or Cincinnati.

• Los Angeles is all about the cars- and once you have driven around the city, you might as well hit the road to get to your next destination. Half a day is plenty of time to get to San Diego, and you could get to Las Vegas before lunchtime if you start early. Within a day you can easily reach Phoenix, San Francisco, Tucson and Yosemite. A very long day on the road will get you to Salt Lake City or even Denver.

• Chicago is central to a huge range of midwest centers. A few hours can see you in Detroit, Indianapolis or Milwaukee, and a morning or afternoon is enough to make the trek to St. Louis or Cincinnati if you really commit to it. Within a days’ drive lie Minneapolis, Kansas City, Nashville, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Niagara Falls, and Toronto. 

• Houston, in the Lone Star state, is a little isolated. Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes the distances between cities! The closest big centers are New Orleans, Austin and Dallas, all accessible in six hours or less. A day of car hire driving can get you to Memphis, into Florida’s most easterly reaches or across the border into Mexico.

• Orlando is a popular holiday destination, and is very central in Florida- you can reach any other city in the state in less than seven hours on your rental car, including Pensacola or Key West. That’s a lot of places to see and do nearby! If you want to leave the Sunshine State, Savannah, Charleston, Atlanta and Charlotte are less than a day away- and you could even get to Nashville if you really hustle.

• Las Vegas is a tourist mecca, and the glitz and glam of the city contrast with the natural wonders that are within driving distance. Los Angeles is four hours away via the I-15, and the Grand Canyon the same distance in the opposite direction. The many national parks of Utah are easily accessible, and Yosemite too. At eleven hours of driving, the journey from Las Vegas to Yellowstone is possible in a day.

Week-long wanderings

A week is a good length of time for a road trip- a nicely rounded unit of time, it is long enough to feel that you have escaped but not so long you get sick of the nomadic life. Here are a few great road trips you could fit into a week, with a car rental pickup from one of the USA’s major airports. There are many driving distance calculators you can use; we have chosen google maps to give a good approximation of total driving times:
 

• Make the trip between New York and Chicago in either direction and skirt Lake Erie, with stops at Toledo, Niagara Falls, Syracuse and more. This route takes in lovely lake scenery, beautiful upstate New York and is bookended with two of the States’ most exciting cities. Total driving time: 16 hours, which leaves plenty of time to explore as you go and also spend a day or two lakeside.

• A round-trip from San Diego with your hire car is a great way to experience Southern California. Head up the coast through Los Angeles and many coastal towns, through the scenic Big Sur to San Francisco. Head back past Lake Tahoe and through Yosemite for a beautiful drive and a lot of nature! Total driving time: 23 hours, which is totally reasonable for a week-long trip with plenty of scenery you can enjoy from the car.

• Do you prefer beaches to mountains? Head your car rental US to the coasts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Get off to a great start with a visit to Disney World in Orlando, then hit the seaside and follow the Atlantic north through Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, and the stately southern cities of Savannah, Charleston and Wilmington. Enjoy Virginia Beach and the interesting coastal landscapes before heading inland to finish up in Washington DC. Total driving time: 17 hours, which gives you plenty of time to relax on the sand.

Planning your itinerary is the most exciting part of a road trip - and booking a rental car makes it all real. No matter how far you plan to go, Airport Rentals can help you find the perfect car to take you there. The huge range of car rental companies and our simple search engine make it easy to get your plans underway!