Local firm at the airport, open around the clock, strong record for handing over the car that was actually booked.
A local firm rather than a franchise, so the person who takes the booking is usually the person who hands over the keys, which is why it gets the car that was booked rather than a substitute. Being open around the clock matters more here than it sounds: the late arrivals from Bucharest and the early departures both fall outside ordinary desk hours.
Every hire desk here blocks a deposit on a real credit card, not a debit card, and the block is often 300 to 500 euro on a small car; read that line before anything else. The rovinietă, Romania’s road-tax vignette, comes with the car and you do not buy one. Taking the car over a border needs written permission on the contract: Bulgaria and Hungary are usually a tick-box for a fee, Serbia and Moldova are non-EU and many firms refuse them outright.
Photograph every panel, both bumpers, the wheels and the windscreen before you drive off, and film the fuel gauge and the mileage. Winter tyres are a legal requirement in Romania whenever the road is snow-covered or icy, so from November to March ask which tyres are fitted and get it on the contract. Full-to-full is the fuel rule to insist on; anything else is priced against you.
Craiova International Airport · +40762135800