Renting a car at a Paris airport, from terminal desk to motorway

Paris airport car rental means picking up a vehicle at Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) or Orly, where Sixt, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Avis run rental desks near the terminals. The driver shows a licence and a credit card, then drives off: booking ahead saves time and money, and the return needs about an hour before the flight.

Which Paris airport should you rent from?

The Paris airport you rent from is usually decided by your flight, but the choice still matters when you can pick. Charles de Gaulle airport sits in Roissy, about 25 km north-east of central Paris, and it is the busiest airport in France, with most long-haul and Air France connections. Orly lies about 15 km south of the city and handles mainly domestic, European and North African routes. Le Bourget is a business aviation airport: rental there means private flights and a car delivered by arrangement rather than a walk-up counter.

Your road trip also decides the right airport. A car picked up at CDG reaches the A1 towards Lille and Belgium, the A4 towards Champagne and the east, and the Francilienne ring road in minutes. A car collected at Orly is already on the A6 and A10, which lead to Burgundy, Lyon, the Loire valley and the south of France. If you land at one airport and leave from the other, a one-way rental between the two is common, and the drop-off fee is often low or zero because both locations belong to the same Paris network.

Driving into the city centre is the case where an airport rental makes the least sense. Traffic on the A1 and the boulevard périphérique is heavy at rush hour, parking is scarce and expensive, and public transport covers the centre far better. Travellers who spend their first days in Paris often take the RER or a taxi into town and arrange car hire later, from a branch in the city, on the day they leave for the countryside.

Where are the rental desks at Charles de Gaulle?

At Charles de Gaulle, the car rental desks are spread across the terminals rather than gathered in one building. Terminal 1 has its rental counters on the arrivals level, and Terminal 2, which is split into halls 2A to 2G, has several rental areas, the largest one near the TGV and RER station between 2C/2E and 2D/2F. Terminal 3, used mostly by charter and low-cost flights, has no counter of its own: travellers take the free CDGVAL shuttle train to Terminal 1 or to the Terminal 2 station.

The cars themselves wait in the rental car parks linked to each area, so after the paperwork you walk or take a short lift to the vehicle. Signs marked "Location de voitures / Car rental" guide you from baggage reclaim. Hall 2G, used by regional flights, is a satellite reached by shuttle bus, so passengers landing there should allow extra time to get to the main Terminal 2 desks.

The car hire companies present at CDG, the most popular rental location in France, include the large international brands, such as Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt and Enterprise with its National and Alamo brands, as well as smaller or low-cost providers. Some low-cost companies, and some cars booked through brokers such as Keddy by Europcar, are handed over at an off-airport location reached by a shuttle bus: the voucher says so, and that ride can add half an hour to your pick-up. Customer reviews of each hire location are worth a look: they mention queues, car cleanliness and upgrade offers far more often than price, and the average rating of an off-airport station is often lower than that of a terminal desk. For a terminal-by-terminal walk-through, the Charles de Gaulle hire desks and shuttle routes are detailed separately.

Orly and Le Bourget: smaller airports, simpler pick-up

Orly is easier to navigate than CDG because its four halls, Orly 1 to Orly 4, form one continuous building since the 2019 renovation. The rental companies have their counters in the arrivals areas, and the cars are parked in the multi-storey car parks a short walk from the terminal. A rental at Orly also avoids the long queues of summer weekends at Charles de Gaulle, which is one reason drivers heading south often book their flight into Orly on purpose. The steps of an Orly pick-up, from the desk to the A6, are covered on their own.

Le Bourget works differently. As a business airport, it has no row of counters waiting for scheduled flights: premium and luxury rental companies deliver the car to the private aviation terminal, or an agency nearby brings it to the aircraft side. Booking is done in advance with the exact arrival time and tail number of the plane.

Beauvais, often sold as "Paris Beauvais", is a separate airport about 85 km north of Paris, served by low-cost airlines. It has its own rental desks, but a car collected there is a long drive from the capital: compare the distance before choosing that flight.

Comparing the three Paris airports for a rental

How to book a car rental at a Paris airport

Booking a car rental for a Paris airport works best online and well ahead of time, because the price of the same car rises as the fleet empties. The summer months, the Christmas holidays and the French school holidays in February and spring are the periods when compact and automatic cars sell out first at CDG and Orly. Booking two or three weeks in advance is a reasonable time to book outside those peaks; in July and August, a month or more is safer.

You can reserve directly with a rental company or through a comparison site or broker, which lets you search and filter car hire deals by category, supplier and customer reviews. A booking made with the company itself gives you one contact if the flight is delayed and one set of conditions. A broker may show a cheaper rate, but the car is still provided by a local company, and the insurance sold by the broker is often a reimbursement policy that does not replace the deposit taken at the desk. Read who the actual provider is, whether the desk is in the terminal or reached by shuttle, and what the customer reviews say about queues at that location.

The details worth checking before you pay are the same everywhere:

• the exact pick-up location: terminal, hall, or an off-airport station reached by shuttle;
• the opening hours of the desk, and the fee for an arrival after closing time;
• the mileage allowance, unlimited or capped per day;
• the fuel policy, ideally full-to-full;
• the excess on damage and theft, and the size of the deposit;
• the fees for an additional driver, a young driver or a child seat;
• the cancellation conditions if your trip changes.

A cheap car hire rate with poor customer service at the desk rarely stays cheap once the queue, the upsell and the return check are counted. Note the reservation number and the phone number of the local station, not only the central customer service line: if the flight lands late, that is the number that can hold the car.

Documents and payment card at the counter

At the counter, the agent checks the driver before the car. The main driver presents a valid driving licence held for at least one year (many companies ask for two or three years for larger categories), a passport or national identity card, and a credit card in their own name. Licences issued outside the European Union are accepted for a short stay, but an international driving permit is strongly recommended when the licence is not written in French or in the Latin alphabet, and some rental companies require it in any case. The full list, country by country, is set out in the guide to the licence, permit and ID papers French desks ask for.

The minimum age to rent a car in France is usually 21, and drivers under 25 pay a young driver surcharge; some premium and large vehicles are reserved for drivers over 25 or 30. Every extra driver who will take the wheel must come to the desk with their own licence and be added to the rental agreement, otherwise the insurance does not cover them.

The payment card is the point that blocks most pick-ups. Rental companies at Paris airports place a hold on a credit card for the security deposit, and many refuse debit cards, prepaid cards and cards in another person's name for that hold. The amount depends on the vehicle category and on the cover you choose, and it is released after the car is returned, which can take several days. Explaining how the hold works, and how to reduce it, is the subject of the guide to the security deposit on a French rental.

Picking up the car: the checks that save money

Once the rental agreement is signed, take a few minutes in the car park before driving off. Walk around the vehicle and compare every scratch, dent and chip in the windscreen with the damage report; take dated photos or a short video of each side, the wheels, the interior and the fuel gauge. If something is missing from the report, return to the desk or find an agent in the car park and have it added before you leave. This habit protects you on return, when another agent checks the car without knowing its history.

Check the equipment you paid for: child seats correctly fitted, snow chains or winter tyres if you are heading to the mountains, and a navigation system or a phone holder. French law requires a high-visibility vest within reach of the driver and a warning triangle in the car: both should already be in a rental vehicle, but it takes ten seconds to confirm. Note the fuel type, petrol or diesel, on a sticker or in the fuel flap, since filling an electric or hybrid car is not the same routine as a diesel.

Leaving Charles de Gaulle, follow the signs for "Paris" on the A1 or for the A3, or "Toutes directions" to join the Francilienne. From Orly, the A106 joins the A6 within a few kilometres. A GPS set before leaving the parking area avoids the loops many drivers make around the airport roads.

Flight delays, late arrivals and opening hours

A delayed flight is the most common problem at airport rental desks. When your booking includes the flight number, most rental companies follow the arrival and keep the car if the plane lands late during opening hours. When the flight lands after the desk has closed, the reservation can be cancelled as a no-show unless you have warned the station. Main desks at CDG often stay open late into the evening and some open early in the morning, but hours differ by company, by terminal and by season.

The safest approach is to give your flight number at booking, keep the local phone number with you, and call as soon as you know the new arrival time. Some hire firms provide an after-hours service with a key box for a fee; others will only hand the car over the next morning. On busy summer days, allow an hour between landing and driving off: passport control, baggage, the walk to the desk and the queue at the counter add up quickly at Charles de Gaulle.

Returning the car before your flight

Returning a hire car at a Paris airport is easier than the pick-up if you plan it, and the shuttle service between terminals makes a drop at another hall easy. At Charles de Gaulle, follow the signs "Retour véhicules de location / Car rental return", which lead to the rental car parks of each terminal; at Orly, the return areas are in the terminal car parks. Return the car to the same terminal as your departing flight when the company allows it, which saves a shuttle ride with luggage.

With a full-to-full fuel policy, refill the tank before you reach the airport: the stations closest to the terminals are few and expensive, and some close at night. Keep the fuel receipt, since the company may ask for proof if the gauge reads slightly under full. Allow at least half an hour for the return inspection on top of the time you need at the airport, ask for a signed return report, and photograph the car again in the return bay, including the dashboard with mileage and fuel level.

A car dropped outside opening hours goes into a key box, and its inspection then happens without you: in that case your photos are the only record of the condition in which you left it.

What drives the final cost of an airport rental

Prices vary too much by season and company to quote one figure, but the factors are always the same. The table sets each one against the way it moves the price.

An airport location fee is also built into many airport rates, which is why the same car can cost less at a city branch. For a long trip, that gap is often smaller than the taxi fare into Paris; for a short stay in the capital, it rarely is.

Which car to choose for a trip from Paris

The right hire car for a Paris airport rental depends on the roads ahead more than on the airport. A compact or economy car is easy to park in old towns and cheap to run, and it fits two people with suitcases. Families with luggage need a larger estate, an SUV or a van; a medium SUV is the popular choice for a road trip to Normandy or the Alps, and a nine-seat van suits groups who travel together; check the boot volume rather than the number of seats, because a seven-seat car with all seats up holds little luggage. Manual gearboxes remain the default in France: an automatic must be selected explicitly at booking, and the fleet of automatic cars runs out first in summer. At the counter, agents often offer an upgrade to a larger SUV or a premium model; accept it only if the daily charge and the deposit stay where you want them.

Electric cars are now common in rental fleets at CDG and Orly. They suit trips with planned charging stops, but check the charging cable, the access card or app provided by the company, and the battery level required on return. For a drive through the countryside, a car with good fuel range avoids worrying about charging points in rural areas.

Paris airport car rental: questions travellers ask

Can I rent a car at Charles de Gaulle without a credit card?

Renting a car at Charles de Gaulle without a credit card is difficult. Most companies require a credit card in the main driver's name for the deposit; a few accept debit cards with conditions, such as buying their full insurance or paying a larger deposit. Check the terms of the specific location before you book.

How long does pick-up take at a Paris airport?

Pick-up at a Paris airport usually takes between twenty minutes and an hour after you reach the desk, depending on the queue, the season and whether the car is in the terminal car park or at an off-airport station reached by shuttle.

Can I drop the car at a different Paris airport?

Dropping the car at a different Paris airport is possible with most large companies, between CDG and Orly or from an airport to a city branch. The return location must be chosen at booking, and the fee depends on the company.

Do I need a Crit'Air sticker for a rental car?

A rental car registered in France normally carries its Crit'Air sticker already. Ask at the desk if it is missing, since low-emission rules apply in Paris and some other French cities.