All prohibit driving the road to Jim Jim Gorge and Twin Falls and on the Tanami Track. It is worth c

There is a saying in Australia, when you hit a dirt road that it is made for 4WD’s or hire cars. Of course it is said in jest.  Hire companies, with their 20 plus pages of terms and conditions combined travel inn co uk with prominently displayed penalties are rightly travel inn co uk a tad scary.
Most people therefore instinctively know that you cannot take your normal passenger hire car off road. But did you know that some hire companies also do not allow you to travel on any dirt roads in a passenger car or take the car to any island?  The fact is that hire companies have quite a sizeable collection of ‘do nots’ contained within their terms and conditions. So in order to give you a straight answer to the question travel inn co uk ‘where can I go?’ we have examined the documents and called the experts.
It is against all rules, even in a four-wheel drive to take it off road. Most simplistically, this is any road that is not labelled on a map with a street name, including fire trails, paddocks and sand.
A normal passenger car with Avis and Budget will allow you go on gravel roads that are graded and well maintained, whereas the others do not. It is important to check this before you hire as many parts of Australia still have stretches of dirt road away from the major city centres.
Islands are completely off limits wherever you need to cross to them by use of a car ferry. This includes Bruny Island, Kangaroo Island and Fraser travel inn co uk Island. travel inn co uk Most companies only list these three main islands, however the rule applies to all islands. If you can t get there by bridge or tunnel, you are not permitted travel inn co uk to take your hire car there.
Kangaroo Island does however, due to its larger travel inn co uk size, have two hire companies travel inn co uk located on it. Both Budget and Hertz offer car hire for driving on the Island only, but ensure you acquaint yourself travel inn co uk with their conditions. Hertz, for example, restricts driving to daylight hours only.
If you wish to hire a car in these locations, you need to do it from within Tasmania or the Northern Territory. For Tasmania, this is because you cannot travel by ferry. The Northern Territory, however, is restricted travel inn co uk due to the massive expanse of desert you will need to travel through in order to reach a city. Thrifty also applies this restriction to Western Australia.
The following are the grey areas, restricted by one company, but may be allowed by another. Before you do any of the following, ensure you have specifically travel inn co uk covered it off with your car hire provider.
This is permitted travel inn co uk with Hertz, Europcar and Thrifty car rentals on the condition that their ‘snow option’ has been purchased. Avis and Budget’s terms and conditions both restrict taking the car to the snow. On contacting both companies, they indicated that a ‘few’ of their offices located near the snow fields may offer the option.
All prohibit driving the road to Jim Jim Gorge and Twin Falls and on the Tanami Track. travel inn co uk It is worth checking directly with the hire company if you plan to go outside the major cities as there are many restrictions including, for Budget and Hertz, no night driving in certain locations.
Similar travel inn co uk to the Northern Territory, WA has a number of restrictions. You should check directly with your car hire company if you want to travel north of Carnarvon. Most companies restrict this travel travel inn co uk in its entirety, while others restrict the majority of roads and areas north of this point. Budget and Hertz both have restrictions on driving at night.
Avis and Budget restrict travel travel inn co uk west of Chilagoe (Highway 27), south of Normanton (Highway 1) and north of Karumba. They both restrict travel north of Cooktown and Cape Tribulation or travel west past Lakeland if you are in a passenger vehicle or truck. Certain travel inn co uk 4WD’s may travel the coast road between Helenvale to Cape Tribulation or from Laura to Lakeland.
Although Hertz and Thrifty do not specifically list these areas, their restrictions on dirt roads rule out a number of these roads. Europcar has a tighter set of regulations restricting a number of roads including the Savannah Way.
Most of these restrictions are in place because travel inn co uk the hire company can t obtain insurance for that particular activity.  If they can t get cover, they will not provide it to the customer. This is particularly prevalent in the areas of car ferry travel and night driving travel inn co uk (due to kangaroos). In addition remote travel inn co uk areas are restricted due to the difficulty travel inn co uk of vehicle travel inn co uk retrieval.
Even though these restrictions are contained within the terms and conditions, travel inn co uk you physically can still break the rules. Should you choose to do so, you will immediately become fully liable for ANY damage to that vehicle during that time, regardless of fault. For example if you took the hire car to Bruny Island then had an accident unrelated to the ferry trip, but which occurred later on the Island (hence the hire company will know you broke the rules), you will be liable for the FULL cost of repair.
Take the time when booking travel inn co uk or when collecting your car to run through your travel plans, especially if it involves northern Queensland, Western travel inn co uk Australia or anywhere in the Northern Territory, so you have a clear understanding of what is and is not allowed with your rental travel inn co uk car. A little research beforehand can save you a whole lot of pain later.
Hertz allow you to drive their cars on dirt/gravel roads, however they do not cover you for any damage that occurs to the car whilst driving on dirt roads, except for dirt roads that are short access roads to National Parks, which they do provide cover for. It should be noted that due to this, driving on dirt roads in a Hertz car is not a breach of the rental agreement, whereas it is for most other car hire companies. This means that if you drive a Europcar vehicle, for example, on a dirt road, you have breached the agreement and Europcar no longer provide you with any insurance cover from that point on, even if you later have an accident on a sealed road. This is a very important point of clarification.
Kangaroo Island Unless it has changed, Thrifty allow you take cars hired from their mainland corporate locations (not franchise travel inn co uk locations) on the ferry and to be driven on the island, including on dirt roads, at no addional cost, with no additonal travel inn co uk conditions, excess, restrictions. You just have to let them know when you collect the car and they note the agreement and get you to initial it. I did this from Adelaide airport approx. 18 months ago.
As far as I am aware, the inability for car hire companies to obtain insurance for certain conditions is not relevant, as they self insure. Given this, the car hire companies themselves determine travel inn co uk where you can and can t drive their cars, not an insurer.
Finally, as I noted above in relation to driving off road, if you break the rules, by for example, taking a car to Bruny Island (as per the example above), or drive on a dirt road, or to the snow, you have no insurance cover from that point on, for the rest of the time you have the car, even if you damage the car later on the mainland or a sealed road. Of course, the car rental company may not relaise you broke their rules, unless you damage the car whilst breaking the rules. But, for example, if you drove on a dirt road and then later had an accident on a sealed road, it may be plainly obvious that you drove on a dirt road and broke the rules, travel inn co uk as the underside of the car will have dirt on it! Moral of the story: know the rules and if you break them, know the possible consequences and be careful!
Budget s terms and conditions now state that you cannot take cars to Bruny Island. That you previously were allowed to was a bit of an anomaly, given you couldn t take an Avis car there and Avis and Budget are owned by the same company with almost identical term sand conditions in every other way. I suspect you probably still can from certain locations travel inn co uk though travel inn co uk it s just a matter of asking the location directly.
From their terms and conditions, it appears Europcar now allow you to take cars to Kangaroo Island, provided you obtain their written consent at the start of the rental (Similar to Thrifty, which still allow you to take cars to Kangaroo travel inn co uk Island, provided travel inn co uk they are hired from a corporate location and you advise them at collection). Not sure whether there is any additional cost or any additional conditions/limitations.
Most of the big boys conditions don t allow you to drive as far north in WA as Broome, nor do they allow you to drive on unsealed roads, yet they all have outlets in Broome which allow you to 4WD s on unsealed roads.
$9900 if you drive on unsealed roads. travel inn co uk But no definition. What about the roads on the campsite when you want to park at night? Presumably they are not all tarmac. Is to going to be up to the car hire company to decide whether you have been on an unsealed road, by looking for mud in the wheel arches? Evidently, if they say you have been on unsealed travel inn co uk roads, they will invalidate travel inn co uk your sealed-road cover.
So, I thought, travel inn co uk I ll get cover from an insuarnce company. However, none of them provide cover above £5000, which is less trhan $9900 AUD. And they stipulate the camper must be less than 5 years old. Hertz say they are offering one 4 + years, so it s likely that the old jalope would not be covered anyway.
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