Car Rental

We rented a car about 3 months in advanced, for one week. We checked the prices online with several rental companies (Hertz, National, Discount, Enterprise, etc.). We ended up choosing Budget because it was the cheapest, and we had used it before. It was cheaper compared with others by only by a few dollars, so shop around. However, some other companies were twice as expensive.

For a one week trip with a  family of four we rented a mid size sedan. We did not want to spend one week cramped in a small car, and the differences was only $10 or $20 for the week. The car was described a a "Ford Fusion" or similar. We ended up getting a Chevrolet Impala. This may have been an upgrade as it is a fairly large car.

The price was $286 for the whole week, at the airport. You can get it cheaper, for a total of around $200, or about $80/$90 cheaper,  if you do not rent at the airport, but rather, at any other location in town as they do not charge airport concession fees. However, we decided against this because then we would have to pay for taxi or transportation to the airport. On top of the expense, you will end up having to waste time arranging and having to wait for this transportation. If your time is limited just get the car at the airport.

When it got closer to the travel date, about a month and again 2 weeks before, I checked the prices again, and they had nearly doubled. Book early! The prices were so much higher than I got scared that Budget would not honor the prices they had given us. But it was fine.

Travelling outside Alberta

Our travel plans included short visits to some locations in B.C. make sure you mention this when you pick up your car as Budget charges an extra $10 each day you cross outside the province and it is written (and was highlighted) in the contract. These days car are equipped with tracking GPS, so the companies may know where you have been.

The painful part of this process is that before crossing into B.C, you have to call the Budget Airport office, for each day you intend to do it. For some reason you cannot do it several days ahead of time. Depending on where you are in your trip, this can be a real pain as you will incur roaming cell-phone charges. In our case we crosses twice into B.C. The first time it was fine and it only took one phone call. The 2nd time, we were in Jasper and it took me about 25 calls to get through (I estimate this cost me $30 to $50 in cell phone charges). Shame on Budget. Tip: Call into the local number at the Calgary airport, do not call the general Budget number, the call ends up somewhere in the U.S. and they don't have a clue what you are talking about.

Insurance

The price above is based on declining insurances. We were covered by both our credit-card and by our own car insurance. I had written proof of this with me nobody asked for it).

GPS

Bring your own GPS! Rental companies will charge you $100 to $200 per week. Our Garmin Nuvi 255 cost $100 and worked wonders. This is a great thing to have.

Car

The Impala was a 2010 model with 35,000Km on it. It has great size, lots of trunk and interior space, very comfortable ride. The negatives: The engine has the usual American car lack of power; The 12V outlet for our GPS would work intermittently, coming on and ff at random times. Most bizarre and annoying. The brakes were weird too, pulsating in some cases (on dry pavement). Leaving Calgary there is a very long downhill stretch on the old trans Canada highway. It was quite scary to have the brakes pulsating.

Fuel economy was great, on average for the trip, about 8L per 100Km..