Florida car hire

Hiring a car in Florida is not really a choice, and it is worth being clear about why. Orlando is a city built entirely around driving. The theme parks sit ten to thirty minutes apart, the villa communities are spread across Davenport, Kissimmee and Champions Gate with no useful public transport between them, and the supermarkets, restaurants and outlet malls all assume you arrived in a vehicle. A fortnight on taxis and shuttles costs more than a hire car and quietly removes every spontaneous decision you might have made.

Classes rather than models are what you book. A supplier holds its fleet by category, so the confirmation says intermediate or full size SUV rather than Toyota Corolla or Chevrolet Tahoe. We name typical models on each guide so you know the shape and size to expect, and the branch allocates whatever has come back that morning. Nobody, ourselves included, can promise a specific car or a specific colour.

Every class in the Florida fleet is automatic with air conditioning as standard. Manual gearboxes have effectively disappeared from American hire fleets, so there is nothing to request and nothing to pay extra for, and drivers used to a manual at home adapt within about ten minutes.

Rates come in two tiers, and that is the single biggest reason two quotes for the same fortnight look nothing alike. A basic rate covers the vehicle and the legal minimum. An inclusive rate wraps in collision damage protection, the liability cover American law requires, unlimited mileage and usually an additional driver allowance. Very often the two are the same car sold on different terms, and the cheaper one catches up with you at the counter in dollars.

Pickup is almost always at the airport. Orlando International runs a large car hire centre a short walk from the terminals, Sanford is smaller and quicker, and Tampa and Miami both work well for Gulf coast or southern itineraries. Off airport branches at hotels along International Drive suit anyone who wants a car for only part of the trip, since they save two weeks of hire on the days you spend inside a theme park anyway.

Driving itself is easier than most UK visitors expect. Lanes are wide, junctions are laid out on a grid, speed limits are posted in miles per hour so there is no conversion to do, and Florida is flat. Driving on the right takes two hours to stop feeling strange and two days to stop needing thought.

Count the large cases before you count the seats. Almost every family who ends up disappointed with a Florida hire car booked on the seat number and met the boot for the first time in an airport garage. A UK family of four typically checks one large case each and carries hand luggage for every seat on top of that, and it is the first figure which decides the class.

Two adults travelling light are well served by economy, which takes 1 large case and 1 smaller bag, or compact, which adds a second smaller bag for very little extra. Both are five seat, four door automatics that park easily and use almost no fuel. Neither is the right answer once children and pushchairs join the party.

Families of four should start at intermediate and expect to land on full size. Intermediate carries 2 large cases and full size carries 3, and since four people arrive with four cases the practical trick is to make one of them a soft holdall that squashes into whatever space is left. Full size also gives you a wider cabin, which you will be grateful for over the 230 miles to Miami or the longer run to the Keys.

SUVs are chosen for shape rather than capacity. An intermediate SUV carries the same 5 seats and 3 large cases as a full size saloon, so what you are paying for is the tailgate, the flat square load bay, the usable space above the luggage and the higher seating position. Families with a baby, a double pushchair and a weekly villa shop notice that difference every single day.

Seven seats come in two forms and they are not interchangeable. A full size SUV carries 7 seats with 4 large cases, which is unusually generous and suits a party of seven arriving with real luggage. A seven seater minivan carries 7 seats with 3 large cases, and buys you sliding rear doors that transform a packed theme park car park when you have small children. Luggage or doors is the honest trade.

Larger groups move into vans. Twelve seats with 6 large cases keeps two families together in one vehicle, and fifteen seats with 8 large cases is the biggest thing in the fleet and the best passenger to luggage ratio in it. Both want a driver who is content with the size and a moment of planning at every car park, and both remove the misery of trying to keep two cars together on I-4.

Convertibles sit outside the logic entirely. Four seats, two doors, 1 large case and a boot shortened by the folded roof. Book one because you want a Mustang on the coast road, not because you need transport, and think about taking it for a few days rather than for the whole fortnight.

Your UK photocard licence is accepted in Florida on its own. A visiting driver must carry a valid licence issued in their own country, and because a UK licence is already printed in English there is no legal need for an international driving permit. Carry the physical plastic card rather than a photograph of it, and bring your passport, because the rental desk checks both before releasing a vehicle.

Minimum hire age in Florida is 21, and drivers under 25 pay a young driver surcharge on top of the rate. That charge is set by the supplier rather than by the state and it applies for every day of the hire, not once. Suppliers frequently set a higher minimum age for their largest vans and their specialty vehicles, so tell us who is driving and we will confirm the position in writing against your booking.

Child restraint law in Florida is written around age rather than the height and weight bands UK parents know. Every child aged 5 or under must travel in a crash tested, federally approved restraint. Birth through age 3 requires a separate carrier or an integrated child seat built into the vehicle. Ages 4 and 5 may use a separate carrier, an integrated seat or a booster. A seat belt satisfies the law from age 6, which is earlier than most British families would choose, and nothing stops you keeping a child in a high back booster for longer.

Hiring child seats is charged per seat per day and must be reserved on the booking rather than requested on arrival. Branches genuinely run out on busy Saturdays, and a family without a legal restraint for a child under six cannot drive away. Bringing your own is equally valid, since transatlantic airlines carry child seats free of charge and UK seats fit American belt systems in most cases.

Road rules differ from home in a handful of ways worth memorising. A right turn on red is legal after a complete stop unless a sign forbids it. Four way stop junctions are resolved in order of arrival, and two cars stopping together gives priority to the one on the right. Traffic overtakes on both sides on multi lane roads, so check your right hand mirror as carefully as your left. A stopped school bus showing red flashing lights with its stop arm extended requires traffic in both directions to halt unless a raised central median separates the carriageways, and the penalties for ignoring that start in the hundreds of dollars.

Distances are the last thing to plan properly, and the easiest to underestimate from a kitchen table in Britain. Florida runs around 450 miles top to bottom, Orlando to Miami is roughly 230 miles, and Orlando to Key West is closer to 390 miles each way. A map that looks like an afternoon is often a full day, so build the driving into the itinerary rather than treating it as the gap between two places.