Car Hire at Nantes Airport : The best companies

Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE) is an international airport serving the city of Nantes in western France. It’s situated 8km south of the city, in an area called Bouguenais. It’s currently the third largest airport in the west of France, handling an estimated 5 million passengers per year.

Up close and personal with an aircraft on the tarmac at Nantes Atlantique Airport (Photo: Not4rthur via Flickr)

At Nantes airport, there are six international rental companies: Avis, Enterprise, Hertz, Europcar, Budget and National, all of which are located in front of the main terminal, close to the parking lots.

To select the best of the multiple options on offer, Travelmag.com has conducted thorough research across several dates to come up with the results you’ll see below. We’ve split our findings into three categories: Most Affordable, Best for Luxury and Best for Minivans – so all the major bases are covered.

Most affordable: RENTSCAPE & BUDGET

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Challenging competitors to match its prices, Rentscape is a local rental car company which promises rates between 10-15% cheaper than the rest of the competition. On our sample dates, this claim was correct. If you’d prefer to go for a more established cheap rental car company, Budget had a Fiat 500 (or similar) at $54 per day and a Peugeot 208 (or similar) for $61, both of which came with unlimited mileage. True to its name, Budget has some of the cheapest car rentals worldwide that can often be discounted even further if you pay when you make the reservation.

Best luxury: RENTSCAPE & SIXT

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With only six small agencies to choose from in NTE airport, the choice of luxury cars is slightly limited. As is the case with our category of ‘Most Affordable’ cars, Rentscape had the best rates, with a fleet that included a Nissan Qashqai at $65 per day and, at the higher end, a BMW 4 series and an Audi A5 at just over $150 per day. With all the other agencies struggling to match these prices, we’d recommend Sixt, whose reputation for customer service and car selection is generally second-to-none.

Best Minivans: ENTREPRISE & RENTSCAPE

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Being in Nantes, it’s not surprising to find so many French minivans for rent. The large and ubiquitous SUV Peugeot 5008 can be found with several rental companies, but it’s Rentscape that has the cheapest per day rental price, at $140 on our sample dates. While Hertz had a Citroen Space Tourer on its book, Enterprise had a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso and the 9-seater Ford Galaxy among its fleet, both of which were priced at around $150 per day.