One area we originally intended to save, that didn't pan out, was in the type of rental car. We agreed to go low key with a standard four door sedan - it was a good 200+ dollars cheaper....but the day we arrived in San Fran, the man at the counter QUICKLY up-sold my husband (he knew his audience!) Vacations are all about compromises, and I'd made my fair share of demands, so I was happy to oblige Ant's wish.....and it became one of the better decisions we made! Our rental was a beautiful new Jeep. The four wheel drive became handy when we found ourselves off roading in the redwood forests....and the extra space that I had sworn we wouldn't need, ending up making our two weeks of constant hotel hopping SO much easier to manage! We left our large suitcases in the trunk, and at each hotel would unpack the day or two's worth of clothes we needed into a duffel that we would actually bring into our hotel/airbnb with us! We never had to lug around excess luggage - major win! The backseat also became our extra closet, holding all the various layers we found ourselves taking on and off as we traveled up the west coast!
Vineyard bound!!
There was an iron at our first AirBNB, so we ironed a bunch of our clothes once and laid them out in our backseat "closet" for the rest of the trip!
Another thing to note: at the San Francisco airport, one of the things they pushed pretty hard was the pass for the bridges. I don't remember all of the costs involved, but we ultimately turned them down. This ended up being the right decision - in all the times we drove in and out of the city, we were only charged one toll. The online app is very user friendly, so it was not a big deal to just pay as we drove through!
Don't worry - the jeep could still fit through the chandelier tree!!!
Do you have any car rental tips? We're renting again when we head to Iceland in September!
