Canada Travel Answers

There's always "hidden fees" with car rental companies. I'm not familiar with that agency but without reading their contracts very closely even the most savey renter can get taken. That said, Toronto has great public transportation. From the Airport to downtown the Bus and Metro are cheap and much faster than a car if you arrive during "rush hour traffic." When I traveled there for business I never rented a car unless I wanted to go touring when I had the time and then I just picked one up at my hotel for the day. Much less than paying for parking daily unless you plan on touring every day.

Car rental in Toronto is just expensive by US standards. Where are you going to pick the car up? If at Pearson Airport, that'll tack on a hefty fee ($25 or so). I also notice that their rates do not include any insurance (no surprise); do you have secondary coverage like on a credit card? Bill

Just returned from a trip to Toronto. If you are just visiting Toronto, I would just take the Airport Rocket (a bus for3 canadian) to the Kipling station (green line) then take that into downtown. Time wasn't a factor for me, it took 45 minutes total to get into town and I had booked a hotel that was close to a metro stop. You can get around easily in Toronto without a car by buying a day pass. The transportation was pretty efficient and rarely did I wait any more than 10-15 minutes for the next bus/metro/electric car. We also rented a car for our excursion to Niagara Falls from Pierson Airport (not sure if I spelled that right). If you go to the Costco Website, you can get travel codes for discounts on car rental. We used Alamo and our rental for a standard sized car (Mazda 6) for 2 days was only60. We were surprised it was so low since when we rented from Montreal from Alamo for the same period of time it was115. We waived insurance since our credit cards had the coverage. At Pierson, they allowed us to pick from 3 available cars (like we got to sit in each one of them!). I had a good experience with Alamo and the check in was quick and efficient. I have not had experience with Advantage, the only concern I would possibly check on is whether they are open 24 hours (if you intend to turn in your car late at night for some reason) and also if your car breaks down, will they be able to get you a substitute car or help tow your car? One time my car's check-engine light came on while I was on a road trio and I was concerned and Avis had me simply drive to another rental station and exchange it out without any additional fee. That was great service. My friend rented from Advantage in college and had no problems, but other than don't have enough experience with the company to comment on it as a whole. My general experience has been that Budget and Alamo generally come in with the lowest rates and Hertz and Enterprise are usually on the higher end. Avis is in the middle (sometimes high, sometimes low). Try using a search engine like Kayak to compare prices.