Car Rental / RV Rental in Ann Arbor: The best companies

Situated in the state of Michigan, an hour’s drive west of Detroit, the city of Ann Arbor enjoys a youthful energy thanks to the presence here of the distinguished University of Michigan. Its educational heritage, particularly in the realm of the arts, has also helped make the city itself a cultural hub of learning, with the Michigan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, and the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum all to be found here.

A street view in Ann Arbor (Photo: VasenkaPhotography via Flickr / CC BY 2.0)

While most of Ann Arbor’s main attractions are within walking distance of each other, many visitors still choose to hire their own car while they’re here. You can find several car rental agencies dotted around the city, each offering a range of cars at different price points. To help you find the best deal, we’ve done some research and picked out what we think are the best agencies located in the downtown district and at the airport, as well as our preferred RV rental company for those seeking in-car features such as bedding and cooking facilities. Here’s our selection.

Downtown Ann Arbor: Enterprise

Book at Rentalcars.com

For downtown rentals in Ann Arbor, our preferred option is Enterprise. Although their downtown office is only open for limited hours – with complete closure on weekends – when we looked for week-long rentals we were convinced by their diverse choice of cars, from no-frills models like a Mitsubishi Mirage priced at $174 per week, to more high-spec options such as a Nissan Maxima for $289 per week. For something big and sporty, we also found a Toyota RAV4 also costing $289 per week. For returns, there’s an after-hours service so you can drop the keys off in a drop box even if the office is shut.

Ann Arbor Airport: National

Book at Rentalcars.com

Located 4 miles south of Ann Arbor’s downtown district, Ann Arbor Municipal Airport has a small handful of car rental agencies dotted around it, all within easy reach of the terminal building. Our picl for the best agency based at the airport is National, owning to the variety of their fleet. Among the best deals we found were a compact Nissan Versa for just $324 per week and a mid-sized Hyundai Elantra for $339 per week. National’s rental desk is open from 8am to 5pm on midweek days, 9am to 12pm on Saturdays and is closed on Sundays. If you’re returning a car after hours, you can place the keys in a return drop box located in the vestibule of the airpor’s front door.

RV Rental: Outdoorsy

Book at outdoorsy.com

Recreational Vehicles (RVs) are popular with travellers in need of a vehicle in which they can also sleep and cook. Outdoorsy is a peer-to-peer marketplace that invites RV owners to advertise and hire out their vehicles for short term needs. Booking an RV through a company like Outdoorsy tends to be a fair bit cheaper than doing so through a traditional rental agencies. When we searched for RVs in Ann Arbor, we found numerous options. Among them were a Coachmen Clipper for $620 per week that sleeps 6 and can be picked up from the city centre. For something bigger, there was also a Forest River Sunseeker available for $1,087 per week that sleeps 8 and can be collected from the city’s southern suburbs, or be delivered within a 45 mile radius. While booking through Outdoorsy, you can also attach various insurance protections onto your deal.