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I'm planning to rent a car in Argentina by one of the big, well-known companies. I'm also planning to drive to Chile for a day or two. I know that quite a lot of rental companies explicitly do not allow to cross into other countries with a rental car. However, when trying to book a car on one of the big rental car websites, I've almost always have trouble to find information about that point. I don't want to first write them an email or call them. Are there other ways to get this information?

I'm talking about Europcar, Hertz, Budget, Avis, and Sixt.

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    Tripadvisor has an elaborate post on this, you need to involve the rental company since they need to engrave some data in the windows. See: tripadvisor.co.uk/…
    – user141
    Commented Oct 8, 2013 at 16:44

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Part of this may depend on where you are renting the car from. For example, if you're renting in El Calafate, it's pretty common for people to take cars over the border into Chile to go to Torres del Paine. While the permits and necessary steps might vary between different car rental companies, the offices for all the car rental companies should be able to help you take the necessary steps. From what I'm seeing, it sounds like there are always additional fees. For example, see this website: http://en.argentina-excepcion.com/car-rental/el-calafate.html

I don't think it's likely that you'll be able to get detailed information about this on any of the main rental car websites (Hertz, Budget) and you may need to send an email to the office in the city you're renting from so you can get all the up-to-date information.

In summary: Probably the reason why it's hard to find published info about this in English is because the rules often change and it's not something the companies necessarily want to encourage. But having said that, it's almost definitely possible, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask! :)

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Consider using a small, not-so-well-known rental company. Big companies often have rules laid down by the legal/controlling/compliance department that branches have to follow, no exceptions allowed. One way that smaller competitors that lack the brand recognition can compete is through flexibility.

In November, I did a 2 week trip starting in Chile and dropping the car off in Argentina. With the big rental companies, that was either impossible or prohibitively expensive, so I chose a small local rental company and was very satisfied.

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  • I'm thinking about doing the same thing this year. Do you remember which rental company you used?
    – user87317
    Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 16:08
  • @user87317: it was this one: adelrentacar.cl
    – Michael Borgwardt
    Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 17:23
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I have rented a car in the San Pedro de Atacama region. From there you can go to Bolivia and Argentina (though most people don't). As far as I remember I have consulted all major rental agencies in the area and almost all had an option in their booking process in order for you to be able to take the car out of the country at an additional cost of 100+ US$ or something like that. Although I think you would still have to return it to the same spot.

It may be more convenient to consult with smaller agencies as Michael Borgwardt suggested. They are generally a bit cheaper also.

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You need to tell the hire company so you can get the necessary paperwork for the border controls. The car must go on a shared database which can take 48 hours to set up once you've signed the paperwork! Europe this is not.

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