Where to Rent a Large Van for Vacation / How Much?

C.:
I always rent from Enterprise, they have a variety of vans ans SUV's. You could consider renting a 15 passenger. Not sure of the rates,for a van that size but I just rented a mini-van for 5 days. I paid 300.00 which included unlimited mileage (we drove to Missouri) and the insurance. I have found that the internet rate is better sometimes, or I would call the store itself versus calling the main 800#. I live in Frisco and I always use the Enterpise on Preston/Lebanon. They will also allow you to use a debit card. Pretty much they hold between 250-350 on the card, depending on the length of time you plan to keep the vehicle. Also they will come and pick you up which is a plus and drop you back off. Hope this helps.

My husband travels a lot via air therefore I am always renting a car for him at airports.

BE CAUTIOUS ABOUT GOING THROUGH DISCOUNTERS SUCH AS PRICELINE, ETC. You may "think" you are getting a deal but READ THE FINE PRINT.

I NEVER go through discounters. If you do, you are the first one bumped off an airline, first one to lose a hotel room and first one to lose a car. Frequent fliers who are Gold members or higher and hotel/car frequent renters who are Diamond members, Gold renters, etc are the FIRST to get service.

He uses Alamo mostly, then Hertz and sometimes Enterprise. I do everything online. Read the fine print and make SURE you get unlimited mileage AND there are no stipulations as far as driving out of state. He always picks up and drops off at the airports. You might get a deal there if you pick up at Love Field or DFW.

My experience as his travel agent (air, car, hotel) is pretty extensive since his rental car expenses alone are about $1000 a month.

Are you on any frequent flyer programs? He is on American and Southwest and Southwest is pretty good with promos.

Just a thought.

We have rented several large vans from Enterprise. We usually travel in groups and split the bill. I think last time it was $450, but we got some extras on it and kept it for several days, once the bill was split it didn't seem like that much.

I've been looking into van rentals for vacation myself, but for local use in Alaska. I usually look on Priceline and on Sidestep.com (this site compares a bunch of online discount sites for different travel need - I LOVE this site!). Prices on car rentals seem to be high now - I did a quick search for rentals in Dallas, and Priceline showed mini-van rentals from $500 - $1000 for a week (including taxes) though a full sized van will cost you more. Sidestep said Orbitz.com had a full sized van for $400 a week from Avis. I don't know if that includes out of state travel, unlimited miles etc. - you'd have to look into that. Good deal to me, though! In Anchorage a full sized van would cost us $1800 for a week!