Car rental Toulouse
Have you chosen Toulouse as your next vacation destination? Do you need a car hire service for your stay? Don’t worry, you will find a wide range of car rental services to choose from in the city. What’s more many of these car rental agencies can easily be found at the airport or close by. Renting a car is straightforward and easy to the extent that you can even rent a car online before you arrive.
Toulouse Guide
Toulouse is regarded as the fourth-largest city in France, with 466,297 residents according to the census in January 2014. However, there are over a million residents in the metropolitan area of Toulouse. The city is located on the banks of the River Garonne and is known for its huge presence in the aerospace industry. It is bordered by Blagnac, Colomiers and Balma among others. Toulouse has one of the oldest universities in Europe – the University of Toulouse. The institution was founded in 1229 and it currently serves more than 103,000 students.
Toulouse has a large number of sights and monuments, consisting mainly of churches, museums and “hôtels particuliers”, which are large single-family homes usually enclosing an inner courtyard. These edifices date from the 11th to the 17th century. You can say Toulouse is a very historic city. The city also has a very robust economy, thanks to its massive participation in the aeronautics, space, electronics, information technology and biotechnology industries, among several others. Toulouse has an open culture that spans several genres. Some of the aspects of culture that are easily noticeable in Toulouse include:
- Opera
- Sports like Rugby and Basketball
- Art
- Food and wine
An unforgettable historic event in Toulouse is the construction of the Concorde supersonic aircraft in the city. This was a joint venture between the British and the French governments. Since then, the city has seen huge economic growth. This, coupled with the numerous historical sites and vibrant culture, makes Toulouse a centre of attraction for many visitors. However, there are also numerous historical and culturally interesting places to visit nearby, as well as areas of outstanding natural beauty. So, if you are visiting Toulouse for the first time, you should consider renting a car.
The process of renting a car is quite easy and you can locate car rental agencies inside the airport terminals as soon as you arrive. However, a word of advice to visitors, especially first-time visitors, is to make sure you thoroughly go through the terms of service provided by these agencies before going ahead with renting a car. However, the best deals can probably be found by running an online price comparison check. Booking in advance using one of the plentiful online booking sites to hire a car is easy, convenient and saves time.
Explore with your rental car
When planning your trip to Toulouse, you’ve probably already chosen some places to visit. However, we have some interesting suggestions that you should check out to make the most of your trip. Our first suggestion is the Place du Capitole. If you did not have this place in mind, you will thank us for suggesting it. This is the hub of Toulouse life and it is always bustling with activities. The town square showcases the classic architecture of Toulouse. The city centre is approximately 9 km from Toulouse Airport so will take you around 20 minutes to drive from there.
The centre of Toulouse has many one-way streets, which can make driving through the centre a little difficult. However there are many interesting places to visit. For example, the Musée des Augustins is a fine art museum just 1.9 km from the Place du Capitole. It houses several items including paintings, sculptures, and special collections. You will find several Gothic, Romanesque, and Renaissance pieces spanning multiple centuries right up to the 20th. Do make sure you’ve got a good camera when visit because you are going to get several amazing shots for your Instagram page!.
Whilst there are many places of interest in Toulouse itself, if you hire a car you’ll be able to visit some spectacular sites outside Toulouse including the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut Languedoc. You can also take a drive to Caraman, which is a commune or district located in the Haute-Garonne department. Caraman is just 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Toulouse. With a combination of religious and commercial edifices, there’s plenty to see. A popular attraction is the Covered Market, which consists of several stores selling mostly fashion items and food.
From Toulouse, you can also drive to Castelnaudary, which is just 50 kilometres (31 miles) southeast of Toulouse. This is another commune or district, this time in the Aude department of the Occitanie region. Castelnaudary features several attractions and the most commonly visited one is Le Grand Bassin, which is the largest body of open water, covering about 7 hectares (18 acres) and is found along the Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi itself served as an important means of transporting goods up until the 20th century but is now used mainly for tourism and recreation in Toulouse.
Airports
Toulouse has quite a few airports accessible to visitors, all with amazing car hire services. The most popular is the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) located 9 km northwest of Toulouse and partially in Blagnac. As of 2017, the airport features flights to over 74 destinations. The airport terminals have several restaurants and bars, internet access, currency exchange facilities and ATMs. Toulouse is also situated roughly 90 kms from Carcassonne Airport to the south east, and Airport Castres Mazamet to the east.
In Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, you have access to several car rental agencies offering affordable car hire services. Some of them even offer a free ride to their offices from the airport. The popular ones are Hertz, which is an American car rental company based in Estero, Florida. There is also Europcar, a rental company that operates in a total of 140 countries. Other rental agencies accessible from the airport are Enterprise Rent-A-Car-Toulouse Portet, Interrent, Goldcar and Sixt to name but a few.
Most of these rental agencies operate every day between the hours of 7:00 am and midnight. Many of them offer an online booking facility, allowing visitors to easily check out the types of cars these agencies have available, the insurance packages on offer and the various policies that guide their service before going to their office. You will find these rental agencies scattered throughout the airport terminal.
Traffic
Toulouse boasts a well-connected road network, although as mentioned there are several one-way systems in operation in the city centre. You can easily access the city centre from the airport along the main roads. During ordinary days, the traffic around the city is often light although may be mixed with a medium flow around crowded areas like the Jardin Pierre Goudouli. The national speed limit on main roads inside built-up areas is 50 km/h (roughly 30 mph).
However, the speed limit for main roads outside built-up areas is set at 80 km/h (50 mph), increasing to 130 km/h (around 80 mph) on motorways, although this limit drops to 110 km/r (around 70 mph) if it is raining. Do be aware though that there is no specific speed-restriction sign at the entrance to built-up areas, particularly at the entrance to small villages. However, a name-board on the gateway to a village or town with dark blue letters on an off-white background indicates a built-up area.
Toulouse offers several parking options, especially in the city centre. These include Parking Q-Park Toulouse Jeanne D’Arc, Vinci Park, Onepark and Parking Indigo Victor Hugo to name but a few. Remember that the French drive on the right side of the road. Also note that when driving in France, the French have a popular saying, “Priorité à droite”, which means priority to the right. This simply means that traffic must give way to cars coming in from the right, unless there are road signs indicating otherwise. So, next time you visit Toulouse, why not hire a car and go exploring.