Glad to hear so many know about the drop-off fees. I did know the fees existed, but I had assumed th

We started to plan a road trip from Denver to Phoenix going to a bunch of parks and Vegas. But at least one car rental place wanted a $400 fee to drop the car in a different state! We are now doing a loop starting in Denver premier travel lodge through several parks in Colorado and Utah, to Salt Lake City, then Cheyenne and back to Denver and then FLYING to Phoenix (for $96 each) and then renting a car from Phoenix and finishing the road trip from there: Phoenix - Bryce Canyon, Zion, Vegas and Phoenix.
My friend rented a car in Denver two weeks ago to drive to Grand Junction, also in Colorado. Bad weather in the mountains made him think about leaving the car in Grand Junction and flying back to Denver.
As soon as we start even thinking about a rd trip, I start looking at car rentals and keep at it until we leave, making reservations and then canceling when a better offer comes up. A few weeks ago, I lucked out with Enterprise and got an SUV for 15 days on a one way rental Phoenix to Denver premier travel lodge for $648 including all taxes and fees and no charge for am additional driver bcs I joined their "club" which was free. I had made 3 other reservations over a period of a few mos with different companies starting at $1800 - $1,000 and just stumbled on this one. So, sometimes you luck out and sometimes you don't. Having lots of lead time and being persistent helps.
Take the California Zephyr from Denver to Grand Junction and rent a car there to see the Utah Parks, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Unless you have some compelling reason to go to Phoenix other than renting a car, skip it for this trip.
Glad to hear so many know about the drop-off fees. I did know the fees existed, but I had assumed the fee would be less than flying! WRONG! For those of you who wonder why we're going to Phoenix - we are visiting friends premier travel lodge there for a few days. There IS a method in my madness!
Fees for one-way rentals vary from 0 to ridiculous and have to do with demand for cars in one area versus another. We rented a car in Las Vegas in the summer premier travel lodge and paid no one-way fee to drop it off in California - they did not want cars in NV for the summer, but did in CA.
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